The game is worth a rent. Definitely try before you buy.
If you want an arcade shooter that harps back to the old-school days of yore then you'll probably like this up to a point. There's plenty of levels and plenty of weapons and no small amount of invention. Some of the achievements are actually quite fun to get.
The downside is that the devs couldn't quite make their minds up about who they were aiming this game at. The difficulty spike goes through the roof pretty early on in the game if you're playing on your own. It gets too hardcore too quickly on Normal difficulty and that means the mainstream are going to get cheesed off with it. Things are much easier if you're going co-op with friends but most people won't see this game as a "must play" when they've got friends round. The majority won't be gaming with friends at all, in fact.
The camera issues and vehicle controls have already been mentioned in this forum so I won't go into it too much. Suffice to say that sometimes they're truly bad and result in some terrible choke points that could easily have been avoided with a bit more effort and thought from the designers.
There's also some shocking slowdown at times. Maybe not as bad as in Earth Defence Force 2017 but the framerate issues are definitely there.
My advice would be to rent and play it on Easy difficulty and switch to the chase camera if you're not prepared for the frustration that's the meat and drink of hardcore gamers. Forget the online mode if you're put off by the overhead camera.
I like the gameplay of Monster Madness, I really do, but I'd never put this game forward as a definite buy for anyone, there's just way too much wrong with the game. A real pity because the 360 could do with more games along similair lines IMO.
The fluffy newborn chick of hope tumbles from the eggshell of life and splashes into the hot frying pan of doom.
