Rainbow Chara X
Impossible to gauge!
- 129
- Posts
- 9
- Years
- Shiny Hunting in Sinnoh
- Seen Feb 24, 2025
The spirit of Halloween is strong with this game.
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter 2 (Finale) - Batting Down Heaven's Door[/FONT][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/FONT]
Level 5 is going to be a strange one... not because it's particularly crazy. In fact, it's because it's not crazy. Check this out.
[Current OST: Round 5]
It's just... a lake. A calm, peaceful lake with long-necked dragons, but aside from that nothing mind-blowing. The contrast is so stark that it's actually taking me back a bit.
The dragons bob up and down in this amusing way that makes platforming a bit of a hassle. They are also stone walls, as it takes at least 20 hits from the bat just to kill one. It'd be better to ignore them. They look like they're having fun anyway.
Oh no, it's a shark!
That is beautiful. I love it.
The third and final new enemy you can encounter here are these fishbones. All in all, this place is relatively low key. I'm incredibly suspicious - the last time the game did something like this, things went all Yog-Sothoth eldritch horror on me.
Aha, yes! Bert gets more powerful the more you go through the game. Now he shoots in this fancy swerving double-bullet motion that does twice as much damage as before. I'd like to imagine green is the weakest color we could have since we were just starting.
Oooh, what's all this about? A talking drum with Japanese lanterns and what seems to be an underwater background?
[Current OST: Dancing Zombies]
Wah! Zombies!
[Bert shoots a laser at them, turning them into dust]
Well, that should take care of that th-
[The zombies reform]
Oh shit, violence didn't work. We're hosed, guys.
Good thing that's not what we're supposed to do then, right? Yeah, the deal of this "fight" is exactly what the drum said: "Watch my dance."
You are not supposed to attack after all - you just... watch the zombies dance to this cool Japanese beat, they crumble to dust in due time and you're on your merry way. Incredibly clever and unique concept for a boss fight, if I can say so myself.
See? That wasn't so bad.
This guy, though. This guy can suck a million "javelins."
He is practically the most difficult projectile-base boss in the game due to the fact he can shoot out a ton of javelins at the same time. There's no use countering his attacks because he'll chuck another in the blink of an eye. He also resembles a fusion between a haniwa and Optimus Prime from Transformers.
I guess I couldn't "catch his javelin" after all. Nice background, though. (It's even animated in the game)
The thing he's a reference to is particularly interesting due to it not being a horror movie reference or even mythology in general:
This was his original face in the prototype. Apparently it was cut due to having a resemblance to Daimajin, the titular kaiju golem of the Daimajin trilogy whose name literally means "great demon god". Here's what the man himself looks like:
That said, Haniwa Prime kicked my ass as Mark so I resorted to Bert. It almost makes you wonder why he asked Mark for help. Well, here's the thing - Bert can't deflect projectiles. He has no defense against them that isn't just flying, and every time Mark reflects a projectile at a non-boss monster it kills them instantly whereas it would take a ton of Bert lasers even when he has double strength.
I like to imagine they're on equal strength... so imagine if they fought. Now that would be cool.
Anyway, that's it for Level 5... No, really. You'd think something terrifying would happen in the same vein as the first level, due to the peaceful scenery, the nice music and the generally low-key enemies... but nope! This place is just a pretty lake in the middle of a scary monster world.
I find it interesting because the border screen color is red but this place is no more dangerous than pre-horror Level 1. I guess since it's not lying about the monster world's true nature, it gets to show that it's not all bad? I dunno, man.
Anyway... Level 6. Fuck this place. Do you want to know why?
[Current OST: Round 6]
It's a haunted house maze. It is about as pleasant as it looks.
Normally, a haunted house level would be the high point of a game like Monster Party, but here it's easily the worst level in the game. Not only is the maze exceedingly confusing complete with one-way exits that lead you back to the start, but there's these stupid blue fireballs that fall from the ceiling.
Then... there's the music.
You know how I've complimented the game so far on its soundtrack? The music for this level is nothing more than an annoying 4 second loop of spooky wind noises and an NES xylophone. Cool idea in concept but absolutely ear-bleeding in practice, especially if you have to listen to it for a while.
Since this house is all kinds of haunted, there's poltergeist-controlled tables and chairs that serve as the enemies of this level. Mark is also orange now, which is technically the most powerful color but I don't want to know how he got it.
Walking p-
This calls for another Jontron.
I'm just like... Is this the sophisticated cousin of the disembodied legs guy from the first level? Like he's the CEO of the Dark World's manufacturer of white jeans and a multi-millionare while his cousin is in the eldritch horror slums? Rich or not, Mark busts his kneecaps with ease.
I don't even know how to describe this place to you. It's a long, complicated mess that requires a map and patience, seeing as you need to go through separate paths to get to the boss and the exit door.
In an incredibly generous move, there's only one boss in this level. Let's see what they are.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!
To think, I thought Level 1 was the height of the scary stuff but then I remembered that you exist! This boss is called the Chameleon Man - he hides in the mass of absolutely terrifying faces and has three clones to fool you. You can only interact with the real one, so don't lose sight of him because he takes a wallop before going down.
I swear, it's shit like this that actually scares me. It's so alien and freaky that I'm legitimately amazed Mark is able to fight this thing and not just curl up and cry in the corner.
After a hard time trying to find the boss, I kill him and leave. Thank god.
Level 7 is a different affair than we've had so far.
[Current OST: Round 7]
It's a tower with multiple floors, so we go vertically instead of horizontally. The three enemies you see here have all been changed in one way or another, with only the ghost and umpire being significant:
The umpire charges after you and originally had a hockey mask much like Jason from Friday the 13th. (
)
The happy ghost thing was instead a Jiang-Shi (
), a Chinese vampire that hops around. The reasoning is that people wouldn't understand what the monster was, so they changed it to a transparent ghost with a big smile on his face instead.
I like to imagine the shift from Jason to umpire was more to emphasize Mark's baseball theme, but that's just me.
Hitting the scientist fellow with a rag over his head reveals that he has an elephant head. A reference to the Elephant Man, I presume?
There's also this cute little purple imp that bounces across the room.
Royce is adorable for a giant bug.
He's also wicked fast and only stops for a few seconds, so you better hope you're Bert for this fight.
Entering empty rooms in Level 7 nets you this unique message. Nothing really happens when you enter multiple times, so that's a shame.
One of the bosses for Level 7 is THE GRIM REAPER HIMSELF.
Complete with a blood-soaked scythe and a badass opening speech: "WELCOME TO HELL!"
Vinesauce Joel would adore this boss.
He shoots out tiny tortured souls that home in on you, so that'll be a pain to deal with. The best thing about this boss is that it was another edited reference:
It was originally a Xenomorph, complete with facehuggers.
That's cool and all, but I feel the Grim Reaper is a way better replacement - especially given the tone this game has set so far and the overall B-horror feel. The "Welcome to Hell" speech will win me over every time for the cool factor alone.
You may have noticed that we've already gotten the key despite only beating two bosses out of three. Yes, there was another boss in the tower but beating him will create a massive game-breaking glitch.
Remember the spider boss from Level 3? He would have returned with a roman numeral 2 tacked onto him - it's as lazy as it sounds. However, actually killing him will take away your key as Level 7 was accidentally coded to have the deaths of two bosses give you the key. Any more and it undoes that, dead-gaming you until you die and redo the level.
It is as frustrating as it sounds but thankfully easy to avoid.
There was also a removed totem pole boss that looks like it could have been really neat but was scrapped for unknown reasons. It's saying "I'm a totem pole! Well then, which one of us do you think is talking?"
Level 7 wasn't that bad - in fact, it helped me get more health than any other stage!
Watch it all disappear, though.
[Current OST: Round 8]
The final level of the game is... Heaven? The Dark World has a Heaven? It has cute little dynamites in togas, so I can't really argue.
Level 8 also defies normal NES platformer conventions by making you... go to the left!
Whoa okay, that's not the interior I was expecting from the pristine church-like building.
Anyway, this boss is easily the most difficult in the entire game, bar none. If you can't tell what it is, it's a dragon curled up in what seems to be the eye socket of an elder god.
A better look at both the dragon and the freaky ass eye that's just starting at both of us in the middle of this blood room. Heaven wasn't really Heaven after all... if anything, it's amazing that the Dark World is this twisted despite this being a parody game of sorts. Like no joke, I feel this is the most alien and unsettling monster world I've ever seen in a video game.
The dragon themselves will chase you until your ass is on a platter. They want you dead. Like take note of my health right now and compare it to the next screenshot.
All of that beautiful health we gained in Level 7 is now gone thanks to that dragon asshole. Ho-hum. Personally, trying to deal with him was the video game equivalent of:
Among the enemies in Not-Heaven are these cute anime witches that drop sparkles on you. They move so fast it'd be a miracle to land a hit, let alone kill them.
There's also living constellations. How do you get yourself into that situation?
This fine fellow is quite the Handyman.
He shoots bloody fingers/bandages at you and generally resembles an Asura thanks to his multiple arms. Not that hard to beat though.
I like that they have different castle designs for the area here, even if the insides are the bowels of some hideous demon of the deep.
Here we have the last normal boss in the game (along with being the only other Egyptian boss) - a genuinely scary-looking Pharoah guy that somehow knows Mark's name (horrifying in its own right) and wants to turn us into soup.
He chases you around the room at a ridiculous speed and even tries to fake you out on the rebound. I'm convinced he'd be the best possible monster to kill Mark because even with Bert's flight and laser attacks I still got chomped to death.
With that said, those are all of the bosses in the game. Time to take on the final challenge...
I was practically sweating when I got to this part.
"Come and die!"
[Current OST: Final Boss]
Oh... dear god. That's the face we've been seeing in the boss rooms in the previous level and it is hideous. It's some demented Satan clown with an eye fetish and the music does not help.
Sheer butt ugliness aside, the boss isn't too bad despite being the final challenge. You have to wait for his nose to open to reveal a smaller eye (ewwwww) to which you can whale on with either Mark's bat or Bert's lasers.
Either way, it's a cakewalk. That's the final boss of Monster Party!
"And he went home."
[Current OST: Ending 1]
Aw, you shouldn't have! You're a pal, Bert.
... Holy shit Bert, you shouldn't have.
Look at Mark's face - he knows he's in for a good time.
"But then the princess became a monster. And, more monsters followed her."
[Current OST: Bad Ending]
... What?
Oh my god, I've been japed. Damn you, Bert!!
I'm sorry, I can't. That's hysterical.
O-oh. Mark, are you okay?
Yowza, that's fucked up!
[Current OST: Ending Part 2]
Oh thank god. I'm so glad Mark was never melting after all. It was all a dream.
If everything that happened was a nightmare, I can imagine his sheets would need cleaning. Yikes.
[Current OST: Ending Part 3]
"Let's go again!"
Son of a bitch, it was real all along.
Bert looks so intimidating with Mark's bat, like he came to collect the rent.
Now that, my friends, is an incredible way to end a game - especially with one like this. What a ride. The credits music is another favorite of mine due to being even catchier than the password and game over theme. (In my opinion)
That's the end of Monster Party! One hell of an experience if I can say so myself - it's weird, creepy, tough and full of nods to B-horror. On top of everything else, it's the perfect game to play for Halloween. Not only is it surprisingly fun and lighthearted, it has a cool soundtrack and is generally one of the more interesting obscure titles of the NES.
I'll never forget about it, that's for sure. I'll admit, the game isn't perfect and there's quite a lot of frustration involved (I'm looking at you, dragon boss and level 6), but despite that I really like this game. It deserves a 75/100 (Good) and I'm glad I could play it again. I'm not sure if I have more Halloween stuff to pull out, but this is more than enough.
See you guys then.
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter 2 (Finale) - Batting Down Heaven's Door[/FONT][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/FONT]
Spoiler:
Level 5 is going to be a strange one... not because it's particularly crazy. In fact, it's because it's not crazy. Check this out.
[Current OST: Round 5]
It's just... a lake. A calm, peaceful lake with long-necked dragons, but aside from that nothing mind-blowing. The contrast is so stark that it's actually taking me back a bit.
The dragons bob up and down in this amusing way that makes platforming a bit of a hassle. They are also stone walls, as it takes at least 20 hits from the bat just to kill one. It'd be better to ignore them. They look like they're having fun anyway.
Oh no, it's a shark!
That is beautiful. I love it.
The third and final new enemy you can encounter here are these fishbones. All in all, this place is relatively low key. I'm incredibly suspicious - the last time the game did something like this, things went all Yog-Sothoth eldritch horror on me.
Aha, yes! Bert gets more powerful the more you go through the game. Now he shoots in this fancy swerving double-bullet motion that does twice as much damage as before. I'd like to imagine green is the weakest color we could have since we were just starting.
Oooh, what's all this about? A talking drum with Japanese lanterns and what seems to be an underwater background?
[Current OST: Dancing Zombies]
Wah! Zombies!
[Bert shoots a laser at them, turning them into dust]
Well, that should take care of that th-
[The zombies reform]
Oh shit, violence didn't work. We're hosed, guys.
Good thing that's not what we're supposed to do then, right? Yeah, the deal of this "fight" is exactly what the drum said: "Watch my dance."
You are not supposed to attack after all - you just... watch the zombies dance to this cool Japanese beat, they crumble to dust in due time and you're on your merry way. Incredibly clever and unique concept for a boss fight, if I can say so myself.
See? That wasn't so bad.
This guy, though. This guy can suck a million "javelins."
He is practically the most difficult projectile-base boss in the game due to the fact he can shoot out a ton of javelins at the same time. There's no use countering his attacks because he'll chuck another in the blink of an eye. He also resembles a fusion between a haniwa and Optimus Prime from Transformers.
I guess I couldn't "catch his javelin" after all. Nice background, though. (It's even animated in the game)
The thing he's a reference to is particularly interesting due to it not being a horror movie reference or even mythology in general:
This was his original face in the prototype. Apparently it was cut due to having a resemblance to Daimajin, the titular kaiju golem of the Daimajin trilogy whose name literally means "great demon god". Here's what the man himself looks like:
That said, Haniwa Prime kicked my ass as Mark so I resorted to Bert. It almost makes you wonder why he asked Mark for help. Well, here's the thing - Bert can't deflect projectiles. He has no defense against them that isn't just flying, and every time Mark reflects a projectile at a non-boss monster it kills them instantly whereas it would take a ton of Bert lasers even when he has double strength.
I like to imagine they're on equal strength... so imagine if they fought. Now that would be cool.
Anyway, that's it for Level 5... No, really. You'd think something terrifying would happen in the same vein as the first level, due to the peaceful scenery, the nice music and the generally low-key enemies... but nope! This place is just a pretty lake in the middle of a scary monster world.
I find it interesting because the border screen color is red but this place is no more dangerous than pre-horror Level 1. I guess since it's not lying about the monster world's true nature, it gets to show that it's not all bad? I dunno, man.
Anyway... Level 6. Fuck this place. Do you want to know why?
[Current OST: Round 6]
It's a haunted house maze. It is about as pleasant as it looks.
Normally, a haunted house level would be the high point of a game like Monster Party, but here it's easily the worst level in the game. Not only is the maze exceedingly confusing complete with one-way exits that lead you back to the start, but there's these stupid blue fireballs that fall from the ceiling.
Then... there's the music.
You know how I've complimented the game so far on its soundtrack? The music for this level is nothing more than an annoying 4 second loop of spooky wind noises and an NES xylophone. Cool idea in concept but absolutely ear-bleeding in practice, especially if you have to listen to it for a while.
Since this house is all kinds of haunted, there's poltergeist-controlled tables and chairs that serve as the enemies of this level. Mark is also orange now, which is technically the most powerful color but I don't want to know how he got it.
Walking p-
This calls for another Jontron.
I'm just like... Is this the sophisticated cousin of the disembodied legs guy from the first level? Like he's the CEO of the Dark World's manufacturer of white jeans and a multi-millionare while his cousin is in the eldritch horror slums? Rich or not, Mark busts his kneecaps with ease.
I don't even know how to describe this place to you. It's a long, complicated mess that requires a map and patience, seeing as you need to go through separate paths to get to the boss and the exit door.
In an incredibly generous move, there's only one boss in this level. Let's see what they are.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!
To think, I thought Level 1 was the height of the scary stuff but then I remembered that you exist! This boss is called the Chameleon Man - he hides in the mass of absolutely terrifying faces and has three clones to fool you. You can only interact with the real one, so don't lose sight of him because he takes a wallop before going down.
I swear, it's shit like this that actually scares me. It's so alien and freaky that I'm legitimately amazed Mark is able to fight this thing and not just curl up and cry in the corner.
After a hard time trying to find the boss, I kill him and leave. Thank god.
Level 7 is a different affair than we've had so far.
[Current OST: Round 7]
It's a tower with multiple floors, so we go vertically instead of horizontally. The three enemies you see here have all been changed in one way or another, with only the ghost and umpire being significant:
The umpire charges after you and originally had a hockey mask much like Jason from Friday the 13th. (
The happy ghost thing was instead a Jiang-Shi (
I like to imagine the shift from Jason to umpire was more to emphasize Mark's baseball theme, but that's just me.
Hitting the scientist fellow with a rag over his head reveals that he has an elephant head. A reference to the Elephant Man, I presume?
There's also this cute little purple imp that bounces across the room.
Royce is adorable for a giant bug.
He's also wicked fast and only stops for a few seconds, so you better hope you're Bert for this fight.
Entering empty rooms in Level 7 nets you this unique message. Nothing really happens when you enter multiple times, so that's a shame.
One of the bosses for Level 7 is THE GRIM REAPER HIMSELF.
Complete with a blood-soaked scythe and a badass opening speech: "WELCOME TO HELL!"
Vinesauce Joel would adore this boss.
He shoots out tiny tortured souls that home in on you, so that'll be a pain to deal with. The best thing about this boss is that it was another edited reference:
It was originally a Xenomorph, complete with facehuggers.
That's cool and all, but I feel the Grim Reaper is a way better replacement - especially given the tone this game has set so far and the overall B-horror feel. The "Welcome to Hell" speech will win me over every time for the cool factor alone.
You may have noticed that we've already gotten the key despite only beating two bosses out of three. Yes, there was another boss in the tower but beating him will create a massive game-breaking glitch.
Remember the spider boss from Level 3? He would have returned with a roman numeral 2 tacked onto him - it's as lazy as it sounds. However, actually killing him will take away your key as Level 7 was accidentally coded to have the deaths of two bosses give you the key. Any more and it undoes that, dead-gaming you until you die and redo the level.
It is as frustrating as it sounds but thankfully easy to avoid.
There was also a removed totem pole boss that looks like it could have been really neat but was scrapped for unknown reasons. It's saying "I'm a totem pole! Well then, which one of us do you think is talking?"
Level 7 wasn't that bad - in fact, it helped me get more health than any other stage!
Watch it all disappear, though.
[Current OST: Round 8]
The final level of the game is... Heaven? The Dark World has a Heaven? It has cute little dynamites in togas, so I can't really argue.
Level 8 also defies normal NES platformer conventions by making you... go to the left!
Whoa okay, that's not the interior I was expecting from the pristine church-like building.
Anyway, this boss is easily the most difficult in the entire game, bar none. If you can't tell what it is, it's a dragon curled up in what seems to be the eye socket of an elder god.
A better look at both the dragon and the freaky ass eye that's just starting at both of us in the middle of this blood room. Heaven wasn't really Heaven after all... if anything, it's amazing that the Dark World is this twisted despite this being a parody game of sorts. Like no joke, I feel this is the most alien and unsettling monster world I've ever seen in a video game.
The dragon themselves will chase you until your ass is on a platter. They want you dead. Like take note of my health right now and compare it to the next screenshot.
All of that beautiful health we gained in Level 7 is now gone thanks to that dragon asshole. Ho-hum. Personally, trying to deal with him was the video game equivalent of:
Among the enemies in Not-Heaven are these cute anime witches that drop sparkles on you. They move so fast it'd be a miracle to land a hit, let alone kill them.
There's also living constellations. How do you get yourself into that situation?
This fine fellow is quite the Handyman.
He shoots bloody fingers/bandages at you and generally resembles an Asura thanks to his multiple arms. Not that hard to beat though.
I like that they have different castle designs for the area here, even if the insides are the bowels of some hideous demon of the deep.
Here we have the last normal boss in the game (along with being the only other Egyptian boss) - a genuinely scary-looking Pharoah guy that somehow knows Mark's name (horrifying in its own right) and wants to turn us into soup.
He chases you around the room at a ridiculous speed and even tries to fake you out on the rebound. I'm convinced he'd be the best possible monster to kill Mark because even with Bert's flight and laser attacks I still got chomped to death.
With that said, those are all of the bosses in the game. Time to take on the final challenge...
I was practically sweating when I got to this part.
"Come and die!"
[Current OST: Final Boss]
Oh... dear god. That's the face we've been seeing in the boss rooms in the previous level and it is hideous. It's some demented Satan clown with an eye fetish and the music does not help.
Sheer butt ugliness aside, the boss isn't too bad despite being the final challenge. You have to wait for his nose to open to reveal a smaller eye (ewwwww) to which you can whale on with either Mark's bat or Bert's lasers.
Either way, it's a cakewalk. That's the final boss of Monster Party!
"And he went home."
[Current OST: Ending 1]
Aw, you shouldn't have! You're a pal, Bert.
... Holy shit Bert, you shouldn't have.
Look at Mark's face - he knows he's in for a good time.
"But then the princess became a monster. And, more monsters followed her."
[Current OST: Bad Ending]
... What?
Oh my god, I've been japed. Damn you, Bert!!
I'm sorry, I can't. That's hysterical.
O-oh. Mark, are you okay?
Yowza, that's fucked up!
[Current OST: Ending Part 2]
Oh thank god. I'm so glad Mark was never melting after all. It was all a dream.
If everything that happened was a nightmare, I can imagine his sheets would need cleaning. Yikes.
[Current OST: Ending Part 3]
"Let's go again!"
Son of a bitch, it was real all along.
Bert looks so intimidating with Mark's bat, like he came to collect the rent.
Now that, my friends, is an incredible way to end a game - especially with one like this. What a ride. The credits music is another favorite of mine due to being even catchier than the password and game over theme. (In my opinion)
That's the end of Monster Party! One hell of an experience if I can say so myself - it's weird, creepy, tough and full of nods to B-horror. On top of everything else, it's the perfect game to play for Halloween. Not only is it surprisingly fun and lighthearted, it has a cool soundtrack and is generally one of the more interesting obscure titles of the NES.
I'll never forget about it, that's for sure. I'll admit, the game isn't perfect and there's quite a lot of frustration involved (I'm looking at you, dragon boss and level 6), but despite that I really like this game. It deserves a 75/100 (Good) and I'm glad I could play it again. I'm not sure if I have more Halloween stuff to pull out, but this is more than enough.
See you guys then.