Eat Them! is a new title exclusively for the PlayStation Network. It was developed by FluffyLogic, the creators of Savage Moon, a popluar tower defense game. In Eat Them!, you take control of a giant monster and terrorize the city. Your monster is fueled by eating cows, but people will do in a pinch, especially if you exhaust your supply of bovines, hence the title. Fake spoiler alert: You run out of cows immediately. Don't worry, there are plenty of people around. There isn't much of a story, but who cares? You get to pilot your own personal Godzilla!
The story is told through cut scenes using the in-game engine, which offers some beautiful cel-shaded visuals. The plot goes a little something like this: Evil corporation makes monsters. Mad scientist takes control of monsters. Puny humans try to stop monsters. Monsters do what monsters do best. The End.
But wait! There's more!
The story levels are broken up by area missions. So once you complete the first story mission, you have to complete the missions in that area to move on to the next plot level. Area missions come in different varieties, including Race, Survival, Destruction, Maximum Destruction, or Bonus. These missions have a time limit of three to four minutes. At the end of each you are given either a bronze, silver, or gold medal. Winning a bronze medal is okay, (that advances you through to the next mission) but winning a silver or gold medal nets you a new part for your Monster Lab.
The Monster Lab is the where the magic happens. You can make over 5 million monster combinations. I'm guessing most of those are color swaps, but the actual amount of variety is impressive. You can change your monster's head, left arm, right arm, torso, backpack, and legs. Then you can change the colors of each part's skin, armor, and bones. I named my first monster "Disasterator 5." I named my next one "Racer," then "AW SOM," then I just started naming them random letters. I don't know what the created monster limit is. I built around 22 or 23, and they all looked decently different. There is plenty of customization available.The parts themselves affect different monster attributes: Max Power (health), Power Use (how quickly your health drops), Fear (how much you're appearance petrifies your potential food), Speed, Jump, and Damage.
All of this is great, but how is the gameplay? Fast and loose, my friends, fast a loose. It's just a button masher at heart. Walk up to buildings and pound whichever attack suits you best. You can kick, stomp, punch, or chop your way through buildings and enemies. Once you start swapping out limbs for automatic weapons, button mashing becomes button holding. Certain backpacks really help with different combinations. Some heads breath fire. Some shoot lasers. It's giant monster bliss.
The whole game can be played through co-operatively with up to four different people. Local play only, no online. The screen just zooms out to accommodate all four players. Race missions actually split the screen into quarters, but the rest of the modes use a shared screen. Other players have access to your stable of monsters, so your dual-machine gun-wielding, Beholder-headed creation can be used by your newbie friend. There is no versus mode, but you can damage each other.
Eat Them! has some flaws, but these are easily forgivable for a ten dollar PSN game. The controls are a little loose. The missions are repetitive and short. If you have the time you can probably finish it in a evening, but collectors will be coming back for more. The next unlocked part might be the ultimate addition to your creation. Eat Them! is available now for $9.99, exclusively on the PlayStation Network.