Monster Lab is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

for the

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and

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that was developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by Eidos. Debuting at the 2006

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convention in comic book form as ''Mad Science Alliance'', the game was described as "''

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

'' meets

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...

".IGN review
/ref> The player controls a scientist and is helped by three professors to build his own

humanoid A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and ''-oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. The earliest recorded use of the term, in 1870, referred to indigenous peoples in areas colonized by Europeans. By the 20t ...

monster A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...

. There are 150 parts to build a monster (which affect the monster's strengths and weaknesses), and 300 items. The Wii version featured

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...

online modes until the service was discontinued. In addition to turn-based combat, extensive use is made of the DS stylus and Wii Remote and

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in monster-building minigames.

Mad Sciences

A main point of the game focuses on the three types of Mad Sciences. They are mechanical, biological and alchemical. Three portions of the Castle (your HQ) are the three areas of these sciences. They are the Workshop (owned by Professor Fuseless), bio chamber (owned by Dr. Heleena Sonderbar), and arcanium (owned by Brazo De La Sombra). *The mechanical science makes mechanical parts for your monster, they may be gear and steam-powered or shiny and futuristic. *The biological science makes living parts, a lot of plants, and things made of human and animal flesh. *The alchemical science makes (summons) magic parts for your monsters, including undead, elemental, or mythical creature components. Mechanical attacks are strong against biological parts, biological attacks are strong against alchemical parts, and alchemical attacks are strong against mechanical parts. In order to create parts, you have to collect ingredients from defeated enemies and mini-games. Those ingredients are brought to the labs of one of the three mad scientists where you play mini-games to combine the pieces into either legs, heads, torsos, or arms. You may then create your own controllable monster by combining the parts into a single creature.

Plot

The world of Uncanny Valley has been plunged into darkness by the iron-fist rule of Baron Mharti. It is up to you and the decorated mad scientists to defeat him and restore peace to their world.

Reception

The Wii version was nominated for Best RPG for the Wii by ''IGN'' in its 2008 video game awards.{{cite web , title=IGN Wii: Best RPG 2008 , url=http://bestof.ign.com/2008/wii/7.html , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222040949/http://bestof.ign.com/2008/wii/7.html , url-status=dead , archive-date=December 22, 2008 , publisher=

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

.com , accessdate=2008-12-19 , date=2008-12-18

References

2008 video games Action role-playing video games Backbone Entertainment games Eidos Interactive games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo DS games Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection games PlayStation 2 games Role-playing video games Video games developed in Canada Wii Wi-Fi games