Dawn of the Monsters

Dawn of the Monsters is an energetic side-scrolling beat 'em up that successfully translates the spectacle of classic giant-monster battles into an arcade-style action game. Developed by 13AM Games and WayForward and published by WayForward, the game places its emphasis on destructive combat, enormous playable creatures, and a colorful manga-inspired presentation. Rather than simply borrowing kaiju imagery, it builds its mechanics around the fantasy of controlling something powerful enough to demolish buildings while battling creatures of comparable size. The premise begins with Earth facing an invasion by colossal creatures known as the Nephilim. Humanity responds through DAWN, or the Defense Alliance Worldwide Network, which deploys its own gigantic fighters as the planet's last major defensive force. The narrative provides an appropriate framework for a campaign primarily concerned with monster-versus-monster action. It does not attempt to become an overly complicated drama, but its science-fiction setting and larger-than-life conflict complement the exaggerated nature of the gameplay. The campaign contains more than 35 missions and takes players through destructible environmen…

It's a decent homage to King of the Monsters. It doesn't hold a candle to it but it's decent. There's a bit of jankness to the controls, it can be very unforgiving and insufferable at times, the roster is a complete trainwreck of unbalance. Certain characters are played with ease, output insane damage and have maximum defense to boot like Megadon (flagship Godzilla character) and Ganira (The Kraken looking guy who is basically the easiest / best character to use). Then there's all the whacky humanoid dingle bop 5th century named characters like Aegis Prime, Tempest Galahad and Meteor Temujin which is basically a paid DLC power ranger mega/dragon zord looking thing... (P.S. it sucks) I enjoyed the story mode playthrough with Megadon, then as I was mopping up stuff I tried Ganira and realized I made a huge mistake using Megadon. Ganira was way more my play style, he's like a necromancer, tank, ranged class which sounds kind of weird but he's actually insanely broken if you use the minion you summon as a meat shield and spam his heavy Y attack while keeping his shield rage up. The other characters are all zoning / fighting game type characters, they all use martial arts and …

Dawn of the Monsters is a pretty awesome beat 'em up that deserves more recognition. The story revolves around Giant Mechas and Kaijus fighting more Kaijus (called Nephilim) that come out of "nowhere" in big cities, so the premise is already good. There is some plot going on regarding big corpos, where the Nephilim come from, and even some character development. Everything feels pretty much like anime/manga as detailed in the game's description. It's enough to keep you entertained. The cutscenes are manga-based, and all the dialogues are dubbed competently. I recommend playing it with Japanese voiceover for a more authentic Kaiju experience. As almost all bmups, the mechanics are straightforward and simple, but with a few shenanigans to spice things up. The game has a "card" system of sorts (called DNA Augments) that lets you select upgrades, and you get these upgrades by getting good scores in the levels. Most levels are very easy to S+. There is also an "execution" mechanic that allows dramatic kills for health. Sadly, it's pretty underwhelming, and only the Megadon executions are cool. The combat is impactful and intense, cities are destructible, and you can also pick up build…

Really fun Kalju side scroller beat em up. Surpassingly deep combat and not just a button masher. The rank system keeps you replaying missions to get better and farm for cash to grab up better upgrade. Has a sort of rouge like system where random stat boosters drop after every stage. Love the manga art style. Definitely a hidden gem

Very fun, Hard to find good kaiju games.

No wonder earth is in trouble if we are transporting four behemoths in and out of orbit in between missions. There's a lot of talking but not a lot to say. Soundtrack is practically missing. Combat is quite repetitive and it's the same few pallet swapped enemies throughout. Attacks aren't weighty enough either, so it feels more like normal sized guys in costume fighting inside a model city.