There was a time when it was hard to track down a good co-op console game. Luckily, this is no longer so. Not only does this mean that you have plenty of choices when you sit down with a friend online or offline and fight bad guys together, it also means that you have no reason to play Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia for the Xbox 360.
The basic plot is that four teen movie stereotypes – the nerd, the stoner, the cheerleader, and the goth – are suddenly attacked by eerie creatures that have overrun their town. They decide to take monsters into their own hands and go on the offensive with whatever weapons or weapon-like objects come to hand. What follows is an exercise in violence, collecting items, and listening to the same "funny" phrases over and over again.
While the controls are awkward and the enemies uninspired, the real smack in the nose is the pathetic save scheme. It's bad enough that dying sends you back to the last checkpoint – which is often right before a particularly annoying battle – but if you turn the game off you have to start over at the start of the level, which could easily mean ten or fifteen minutes of re-playing a portion of the game you beat fair and square.
Finally, the game offers a few online competitive scenarios in which players fight monsters and/or each other. These are less annoying than the main game, but they aren't enough to justify laying down sixty bucks. Meanwhile, you can't play the main storyline cooperatively online.
Nietzche said that if you fight monsters, you should take care not to become a monster yourself. In this case, it's more likely you'll become bored and annoyed.
–Lore Sjöberg
Wired: You get to beat up monsters. The graphics are pretty okay.
Tired: Lame controls, bad voice acting, bothersome save scheme, ininspired upgrades, the list goes on.
$60, Southpeak
Rating: 
