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Monster Challenge 8 & 31, 14


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I wonder if Beenox tested this game with any ten year old gamers before they labeled it Everyone 10+, and if Beenox did, I wonder what the ten year olds feedback was.

 

These were the last three challenges I needed to complete the platinum, and they are atrocious. I realize this game is four years old, but man! This is awful! After slogging through this title, I am extremely hesitant to play anything else with Beenox's name on it. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Spider-Man: The Edge of Time, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Ultimate Alliance - all were developed by Beenox, and I do not anyone who really, truly loves even one of those titles.

 

Monster Challenge 8 and Monster Challenge 31

 

Monster Challenge 8 and 31 are laser dodging challenges. The difficulty is two-fold: the Missing Link is slow, and the blast patterns vary everytime you play. Because the patterns are random, you never know when the two-lane blasts are going to alternate. Also, the blast speed increases to the point where you have to dodge three times per second. The blasts move so quickly that when one hits you, the shock effect hasn’t even dissipated before a second or even third blast passes through your shocked character. The game penalizes you for making the "wrong" lane choice before you've even had a chance to determine what the "right" lane choice is. By the time you see the free path, it is too late to respond. Why did Beenox’s think this was a good idea? It is definitely not fun, nor a fair challenge to children.

 

EDIT: I finally earned gold on both 8 and 31. Hugging that center lane was the key; it gives you the option to dodge right or left in a split-second. Still, these two challenges are way too hard for kids, and not enjoyable for adults.

 

Monster Challenge 14

 

Monster Challenge 14 is that problem-ridden feed-the-conveyor belt challenge. This one is not about skill; it's mostly based on random chance, and I am quite angry with the designers at Beenox for that. Winning a gold medal is dependent on far too many variables over which the gamer has zero control.

 

NOTE: For starters, the central conveyor belt is extremely glitchy. Droids you throw at it will not land on the conveyor belt 30% of the time. They will freeze on the side of the belt, overshoot into the abyss, or land on the conveyor belt and spaz out.

 

Probably my biggest gripe with this challenge is the unpredictable (and often counter productive) spawning of droids. There is nothing you can do to make them spawn, you cannot control where they spawn, and you cannot know how many will spawn.

 

Another frustrating variable is the mouth portion of the conveyor belt. For you to win, the mouth must spawn on the middle or left side (if it spawns on the right side, immediately restart). But after that, it is all dependent on maybes:

 

 

Maybe the droids will spawn where you need them near the conveyor belt mouth.

 

Maybe you’ll get a red droid that hits the target you are aiming for (but you’ll probably get a blue that doesn’t).

 

Maybe a droid won’t spawn right in front of you as you toss another droid on the conveyor belt and ruin your shot.

 

Maybe the extending hands won’t smash the droid you need.

 

Maybe you will get a droid you can actually pick up, instead of one that is glitched and locked in place, but can still damage you.

 

Maybe the randomly placed flying red droids won't interfere with your jumping or your conveyor belt tosses. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

 

Putting this much in the hands of random chance is garbage. It is part of the reason I tried and dropped World of Warcraft (another Activision product). Skill and persistence should be the test of trophies, not random chance. Basing trophies on random computer generated events has no place in any game, and especially not in a children’s game.

Edited by poetic_justice_
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  • 1 year later...

Monster Challenge 8 and Monster Challenge 31

 

Monster Challenge 8 and 31 are laser dodging challenges.

 

Monster Challenge 14

 

Monster Challenge 14 is that problem-ridden feed-the-conveyor belt challenge.

 

You're absolutely right in stating that Challenge 14 is nothing but luck. The time I got it, the hand spun from left to middle to left to middle to right (at which point a red bot spawned IN the right conveyor belt pathway, saving me the trouble of chasing down the right path) to middle. I never had to move more than half a wedge, and got the challenge in 41 seconds. Even so, this was after at least 20-30 failed attempts. The most frustrating fails were when a bot spawned right in front of my final throw...

 

Challenge 8 & 31 are all about your reaction time. Like you say, you have to stay in the middle whenever possible, and you have to look ahead to see when the two-lane lasers are going to occupy middle/right or middle/left. If you make the wrong call even once, you are dead (Link cannot handle switching lanes fast enough to recover from this mistake). So, this one wasn't luck, but required extremely good reaction time. Far better than that of the average child gamer.

 

Simply, this plat is not one that will be earned by many children (despite the game being marketed for children). As difficulty goes, I still wouldn't raise this above a 4 for an adult with gaming background. The only parts of the game that made me rage were the parts when BOB had to rush around a wire-mesh maze with no railing. Especially when it was 5 minutes into the level, so if you accidently strayed an inch too far, you had to reset the game (if going for Remember the Heroes).

Edited by MrMinderbinder
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  • 2 months later...

In challenge 14, I found when it's in the middle about to move left or right, wait to see which direction it goes before moving saves time. Also, when in the middle you can throw a baddie to either left or right and it'll go in. I didn't have a problem with it glitching, spazzing or missing. I just had the time issue the first few times until I used my method in the first two sentences.

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