King of the Monsters 2 is Significantly Better than the First

King of the Monsters 2 is a significant improvement over the first one. It took a fun formula of giant monsters fighting, and made it a little more fun by giving the player more to do. This game makes you work a little before you fight a boss character.

In the first game, you picked one of four monsters (six if you were playing the arcade) and had the player fight eight times. There weren’t levels, additional enemies, and only one power up. The second improves on all of this.

It is always nice to be surprised by a game’s sequel. I was expecting more of what I got in the first game, with more monsters. The first game was a mismatch of characters inspired by Ultraman, Godzilla, and King Kong. The second game has that, but adds more creative monsters.

TLDR: King of the Monsters 2 is much better than I was expecting

Narrative

The second game picks up three years after the first game. Only three monsters survived the King of the Monsters Massacre. One of them wasn’t in the first console game, but that’s okay since it is a mech version of the King Kong inspired Woo.

So, the game takes place in 1999, which means the first game took place in 1996. Sure, why not? In this game, aliens are attacking Earth, and you have to stop them.

This feels like the plot from most of the giant monster movies I watched as a kid, as well as the Ultraman shows. I love this idea, and it makes the game much better.

The story is more thought out and much more fun than the first game. The monsters you fight aren’t necessarily good, but they’re seen as being the lesser of two evils. It is a great story for a game like this.

Gameplay

There is more variety to the gameplay in King of the Monsters 2. Instead of a one-on-one fight with another monster, you have a short level to walk through before fighting a boss. It feels like the developers were trying to create a beat’em up, but didn’t really do that.

There are only three playable monsters in this game. One of them was only in the arcade game, while the other two are holdovers from the first console game:

• Atomic Guy
• Super Geon
• Cyber Woo

Atomic Guy and Super Geon had their names changed from the first game. I’m not sure why this was done, and the story in the manual doesn’t solve this mystery. Granted, Woo is now Cyber Woo, so let’s say they were all given new powers after the first game.

There are only seven stages in this game, but there are two bonus stages. This makes the second game a little smaller than the first, but that isn’t all that bad, since the levels are bigger.

Where the second game differs from the first is that each stage acts like a beat’em up. You move from left to right, and the screen locks for a period while you fight a few enemies. At the end of the stage, you fight a boss character.

It is a welcome change from the first game. While the controls aren’t great, they do get the job done. A few of the enemies in the game can be hard to hit, but as you get better at the game, things will get easier.

The grapple attacks are still here, and the game will give the player button commands for just about everything. I don’t like the controls for the grapple moves. It devolves into button mashing, where you have to rock the D-pad to the left and right to win, and then you can execute a special attack.

Each character has a list of special attacks. These can be done by using the L Button along with punches and kicks. This can all be found in the manual, which you can find online (Link).

The boss fights are noticeably easier. The pinning mechanic is gone, and all you have to do is beat the crap out of the enemy boss. They have a big life bar, but it isn’t impossible to beat them.

Because this game is closer to a beat’em up than a tournament fighter, there are a bunch of power ups in the game. Here is the list:

• Small Life
• Big Life
• Power Up
• Power Down
• Roulette
• Bonus Points
• 1UP
• Bomb

This brings me to one of the things I don’t like about the game. There are a few items that hurt you, and I can’t understand why they would have them in the game. Just avoid the Bombs and Power Down items.

Overall, the gameplay is much better in this game. I love that the developers included short levels for you to wander through, and that they encouraged the player to destroy the city to find power ups. While it is a little hard at first, once you learn the boss and enemy patterns, it gets much easier.

Visuals

I really like the look of this game. It looks better than the first game, which is to be expected. The monsters look great, and the enemy bosses are very creative looking.

The stages are awesome! You fight through a few cities just like the first game, but instead of being in an arena, you move through the levels like a beat’em up. The cities get destroyed as you walk on them, and there are a lot of things to destroy aside from the enemies.

Speaking of the enemies, they look fine. You have the standard tanks, jets, and helicopters, which are supplemented by some random alien enemies. It gives you the impression that the remaining humans don’t want the aliens or the monsters here.

The player’s monsters and the stage bosses look great! Each is well detailed and creative. I really like the bosses, as several of them look very imaginative.

King of the Monsters 2 is a bright and colorful game. It looks very good, and I love the different boss monsters. It looks better than the first game, which was a little hard to accomplish.

8/10. It still has issues, but it is much better than the first game. The additions to the gameplay made this much better. It is also a beautiful looking game on the SNES.

Pros

• Great Graphics
• Fun Story
• Good Controls

Cons

• Short
• A Little Repetitive
• A Bit of a Learning Curve

Conclusion

This was much better than I was expecting it to be. I thought that King of Monsters 2 would be another fighting game, but the changes made to it were awesome! It is closer to a beat’em up with giant monsters.

It still has a few problems, but it’s a great game. King of Monsters 2 is a bright and colorful game with a cool concept. The controls are also better than the previous game.

After finishing this, I wish there were a third game in the series. It would’ve been great if it went full beat’em up in a hypothetical third game, but sadly, that isn’t what happened. This is still something that SNK releases in collections, but the series stops here.

If you liked this post, please check out my other posts on SNK games like King of the Monsters and the Best NES Games.