Teratopia

Here's a fun fact: The name "Teratopia" quite literally translates to "Monster Paradise." That may sound like a fun place to visit, but I would hold off on making reservations, because it's currently being invaded by these annoying red creatures that are kidnapping everybody. Well, almost everybody. This is the colorful adventure of one monster and his journey to save his friends and teach those three-eyed creatures a lesson. That's a solid setup for a 3D platformer, but the real question remains: Is Teratoia good ... or is it Tera-ble?

As the lone survivor, it's up to a blue monster named Tucho to save his green and orange friends from an entire family of red giants. The odds may be stacked against him, but Tucho has two things on his side -- he's really pissed off and knows how to punch. He's the melee monster, which is perfect, because there's a whole army's worth of spiky red enemies to beat up as he travels through a dozen long and interconnected stages.

As it turns out, all three types of creatures are great at fighting. The inhabitants of Teratopia really pride themselves on their good-natured fisticuffs. Tucho, as we already know, is great at melee, while green monster Benito shoots long-range projectiles and the orange blob creature Horacio poisons his foes with this really disgusting spit. All three of these heroes have different special abilities, which can include both passive and aggressive powers. And as we continue to beat up the bad guys, Tucho, Benito and Horacio will level up, increasing their strength, luck and more. Best of all, the levels carry over between the three characters, so you won't need to level each hero up individually.

On top of punching and shooting and vomiting out poison, the monsters also have one more trick up their furry sleeve: Tiny monsters. In a move that is reminiscent of the Pikmin franchise, Teratopia allows you to toss out tiny AI-controlled monsters that will help take on the hordes of enemies. These little guys are incredibly useful, and you'll even be able to affect them using the monster's different abilities. That said, the easy difficulty meant that I didn't need to rely on them much, only using them in the later stages and on some of the tougher bosses.

Speaking of which, the 13 boss characters are a real highlight. We go up against an entire family of giants, including the baby, stoner son, metalhead brother, wigged-out sister and one very bad smelling grandfather. While these battles aren't always much fun to take on, I like the boss designs and how much personality they bring to the game. It's as if, for a brief moment, we're transported away from the fairly generic 3D brawler action and able to see the creativity and potential Teratopia once had. It all leads up to a late-game twist so surprising that I had to stop for a second because I was laughing so hard.

Unfortunately, these brief glimpses of originality are few and far between. As both a brawler and platformer, this game falls short in some crucial ways. The characters lumber around getting into repetitive fights in large, boring levels that aren't much fun to explore. I like that the entire world is connected, but there's really no reason for them to be. Very few of the stages stand out in any meaningful way, something that is only highlighted when the game forces you to revisit past levels to go on a lame scavenger hunt. You can get away with this kind of filler if the levels are stylish or interesting, but they aren't in Teratopia. They just run together as you take on the same batch of enemies in the same button-mashy ways.

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And that reminds me: There's no reason to play as the orange blob Horacio. I can make the case for both Benito and Tucho, depending on whether you way to play the game more as a shooter or beat 'em up. But Horacio? His disgusting poison vomit is completely useless. That's not to say you can't beat the levels and bosses with the orange blob, but it's substantially harder without any upside. The balance is all off, which will likely result in most people sticking with their favorite character for most of the game.

And did I mention that Horacio is not only terrible in combat, but he's also the worst at platforming? Teratopia breaks down the moment the game introduces floating platforms or anything the heroes can fall off of. These monsters may look durable, but it doesn't take much to die from fall damage. This is especially true for Horacio, who has a bad tendency of rolling right off the edge. And no, the loose controls certainly don't help. I lost count of the number of times I fell into a bottomless pit simply because we're always fighting on tiny platforms. All this is made even worse by the overlong stages and dozens upon dozens of bad guys you have to fight every time you die. The monotony deflates any sense of momentum this game once had.

It also needs to be said that Teratopia is a buggy game with terrible frame rate. There were times when I thought my PlayStation 4 was going to explode because too many enemies were on screen. That's especially surprising given that this isn't exactly a great looking game. The baren levels and simplistic character designs don't look like they would be that taxing, yet there are points in this game where it's almost unplayable. In its current state, Teratopia isn't worth visiting.

Part beat 'em up, platformer and Pikmin, Teratopia is a messy mix of genres that doesn't quite come together in the end. While the boss characters are full of personality, that doesn't make up for the boring stage designs, frustrating gameplay and horrendous frame rate. This is a monotonous adventure filled with plodding action and way too much filler. It's bright and colorful, but Teratopia loses its way long before the journey is over.