Software:Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia

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Short description: 2007 video game
Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia
Developer(s)Artificial Studios
Immersion Games
Publisher(s)SouthPeak Games
EngineUnreal Engine 3
Platform(s)Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Release
  • NA: June 12, 2007
  • EU: June 22, 2007
  • AU: June 28, 2007
Genre(s)Shoot 'em up
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia is a video game for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows, developed by Artificial Studios and Immersion Games. Players are able to combine objects found around the town to create bigger and better weapons with which to destroy the monster menace. The game includes five environments and hundreds of enemies. Four-player cooperative play is available as well.

Gameplay

Players control one of four playable characters and attempt to escape the monster-infested locale, defeating various forms of zombies and other monsters and boss creatures in order to progress through the game. There are five chapters in Monster Madness: Suburban Nightmare, Shopping Maul, High School Hell, Cemetery Scary, and Evil Castle. Each chapter contains 3 to 5 stages.

Each character is armed with unique weapons and special moves. Each stage contains one secret character-specific melee weapon for all four characters.

While there are a large number of melee weapons in the world, the main focus is on the character's signature melee weapon and the various constructible and upgradable guns. Each character has a class of melee weapons that they feel most comfortable with. By using their favored weapon, they gain access to a powerful special attack once their power bar is charged to the max by killing enemies. In addition to the melee weapons, there are also 15 different guns that will be built using 25 different types of weapon parts scattered and hidden in each level. Each gun also has 3 different levels of upgrades which not only makes the gun more powerful, but can change the way it operates as well. For example, nailgun level 1 has players wielding two semi-automatic nailguns, while nailgun 3 has an extended clip and is fully automatic.

There are also features such as online play with up to 16 players on Xbox Live, and costumes for all players that can be unlocked during or after the game is complete.

Another iteration of this game entitled Software:Monster Madness: Grave Danger for the PlayStation 3 includes major improvements on the game such as reworked cameras, a new tight control scheme, and full online Co-op accessibility for the Adventure mode, as well as 25 all-new Challenge modes.[1]

Plot

During a quiet night in Suburbia, the house of a teenage boy named Zack is invaded by zombies. He, and three other teens, named Carrie, Andy, and Jennifer fight them off and soon realize that monsters of all kinds are taking over the town. They meet a guy named Larry Tools who offers to build weapons for scrap and mysterious objects known as Monster Tokens. After fighting their way through the local mall and high school, they're told by Larry that the monsters are coming from a world of pure evil, ruled by an entity called the Lord of Demons, and the only way to stop them is to defeat the Lord himself and take his Monster Token. Once they go through an old cemetery, the four teenagers make their way to a deadly castle full of traps, and team up with a chainsaw welding guy named Billy, before making their way to a secret lab with a Rubik's cube that acts as the key to the Lord of Demons' realm. Upon defeating him, the teens only ally reveals that he's really Lawrence Thompson, the castle's original owner, and that he's the one who sent all the monsters as part of a plan to bring himself eternal fame by stealing the Devil's soul, and using the power within it to turn himself into a rock and roll star demon. After a long battle, Larry explodes, releasing all the Monster Tokens, who were actually the missing citizens of Suburbia. The ghost of a janitor then tells the teens it's time to get to school, and it's revealed that everything they went through was a dream, until real UFO's show up above the high school, and the teens prepare for battle yet again.

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
PCXbox 360
Edge5/10[2]5/10[2]
EGMN/A4.17/10[3]
EurogamerN/A5/10[4]
Game InformerN/A7.5/10[5]
GameSpot5.1/10[6]5/10[7]
GameZone5/10[8]5/10[9]
IGNN/A4.8/10[10]
OXM (US)N/A4/10[11]
PC Gamer (US)42%[12]N/A
X-PlayN/AStarStarStar[13]
Aggregate score
Metacritic59/100[14]55/100[15]

The game received "mixed" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[14][15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Callaham, John (February 5, 2008). "Monster Madness Ex Now Called Monster Madness: Grave Danger". Firing Squad. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110606063527/http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=19427. Retrieved September 25, 2017. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Edge staff (September 2007). "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia". Edge (179): 93. 
  3. ↑ EGM staff (June 2007). "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia (X360)". Electronic Gaming Monthly (216): 89. 
  4. ↑ Parkin, Simon (June 25, 2007). "Monster Madness [Battle for Suburbia (Xbox 360)"]. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/monster-madness-review. Retrieved September 25, 2017. 
  5. ↑ Reiner, Andrew (June 2007). "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia (X360)". Game Informer (170): 114. http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/31E5D0A6-39DC-495F-ADB8-FA1E4C311F99.htm. Retrieved September 25, 2017. 
  6. ↑ Navarro, Alex (June 13, 2007). "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia Review (PC)". https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/monster-madness-battle-for-suburbia-review/1900-6172470/. Retrieved September 25, 2017. 
  7. ↑ Navarro, Alex (June 13, 2007). "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia Review (X360)". https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/monster-madness-battle-for-suburbia-review/1900-6172471/. Retrieved September 25, 2017. 
  8. ↑ Code Cowboy (August 12, 2007). "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia - PC - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 3, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081003003755/http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r27106.htm. Retrieved September 25, 2017. 
  9. ↑ Sandoval, Angelina (July 8, 2007). "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia - 360 - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on June 19, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080619041335/http://xbox360.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r27106.htm. Retrieved September 25, 2017. 
  10. ↑ Clayman, David (June 19, 2007). "Monster Madness [Battle for Suburbia Review (X360)"]. http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/06/19/monster-madness-review. Retrieved September 25, 2017. 
  11. ↑ "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia". Official Xbox Magazine: 74. June 2007. 
  12. ↑ "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia". PC Gamer: 57. October 2007. 
  13. ↑ D'Aprile, Jason (May 20, 2007). "Monster Madness [Battle for Suburbia (X360)"]. X-Play. Archived from the original on November 22, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081122002632/http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/reviews/1500/Monster_Madness.html. Retrieved September 25, 2017. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia for PC Reviews". https://www.metacritic.com/game/monster-madness/critic-reviews/?platform=pc. Retrieved September 25, 2017. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia for Xbox 360 Reviews". https://www.metacritic.com/game/monster-madness/critic-reviews/?platform=xbox-360. Retrieved September 25, 2017. 
  • Official website (archived)
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

On February 13, 2025, Freyholtz stepped down as the site lead to move onto new projects, leaving operations to Tracy Poff, a veteran coder on the site, and Atari staff.[18]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
  18. ↑ "An update on MobyGames leadership". 2025-02-13. https://www.mobygames.com/forum/3/thread/269628/an-update-on-mobygames-leadership/#post-269628. 
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