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Genre: Arcade action

Format: Shareware

Developer: Freeverse Software

Publisher: Freeverse Software

Minimum System Requirements: 500MHz G3, Mac OS X v10.2.8, 256MB RAM, 16MB 3D video card, 20MB free hard disk space

Review Computer: 1GHz Powerbook G4 12", 768MB RAM, 32MB GeForce FX Go 5200

Network Feature: No

3D Support: Required

Price: $12.95

ESRB Rating: N/A

Availability: Now

Official Website: www.freeverse.com/killmonty/

If there was ever any doubt that Freeverse understood the needs of Mac gamers, Kill Monty ought to put it to rest. As the gaming scene everywhere else grows uncontrollably, and the budgets required to produce A-list games follow suit, Kill Monty manages to do what smaller Mac developers have done best for years—take a classic arcade gaming concept, dress it up in something a little more presentable, and add their own unique elements to the game to mix things up a little bit.

Kill Monty draws heavily from Midway's early '90s arcade hit Smash T.V. Both games center around lots of moving, lots of shooting and lots of bloody gibs. For those of you unfamiliar with Smash T.V., (or, sigh, born after the early '90s...) Kill Monty gives you a top-down perspective of your character and lets you control the moving directions with one hand (WASD by default) and the shooting directions with the other (typically via mouse or touchpad, if necessary). Various versions of Monty, the Freeverse mascot, will pour out of one of eight gates that form your hexagonal Arena of Death, and your job is to erase them in a glorious explosion of red food coloring, body parts, and the odd random Chinese character. Kill Monty doesn't demand anything else of you, and for that you will love it. Agent Smith Montys, crazy zombie-ish Montys, whatever. Just shoot it.

There's no question that the tools you're given to do your dirty work are probably the most interesting part of the game. Besides the default pea-shooter, you've got your standard three-way multishot that hasn't changed since Contra, a rapid-fire machine gun with just enough spray to cover one of the eight enemy spawns quite nicely, a laser gun that can penetrate columns of Monty to hit anything lying in its path, and a mine-laying gun that works in tandem with your secondary grenades. Registered users get the additional bonus of a rail gun that handles like a rail gun straight out of Quake III (namely, one that demolishes anything lying in it's rather narrow path) and an old-fashioned flamethrower for some up-close-and-personal-action. Each weapon requires a significant amount of practice; the laser, rail gun, and mine-layer in particular have a rather steep learning curve, and if you aren't familiar with the particular nuances of the more difficult ones, you'll find yourself surrounded and out of luck. The mine-layer, for example, is the least effective at controlling large amounts of enemies at first, because it takes them a long time to walk around to the areas where it was safe for you to lay mines, but if you set off the mines with a well placed grenade, you can very likely clear the screen.

Perhaps the most refreshing thing about Kill Monty is the pace; you're meant to take bite-sized chunks of the game just like any other arcade game. It's easy to pick up and play for a few minutes between doing whatever it is you have to do. Personally, I've found Survival mode—which determines success by how long you last rather than how far you make it—is perfect for this, but this could just be because I'm hard-pressed to last longer than a minute. Unlockables are available, too—new arenas by progressing in the Standard game mode and characters by hitting better Survival times—to satisfy the "gotta-catch-'em-all" kid in all of us. All in all, Kill Monty manages to provide a complete single-player arcade experience that you can fit pretty much anywhere into your busy schedule.

The only complaint I have of Kill Monty is that it forgot about what was potentially the most important facet of Smash T.V.: namely, the second player. As fun as Kill Monty is, the claustrophobia and the gibs would only make things even more fun if you could play with a buddy. O, how I yearn for the days of stealing power-ups and bailing each other out of tight spots. The adrenaline rush is so much greater when there is someone to share it with. And if they could have added Internet play, well...

Kill Monty is not the next Halo or the next Resident Evil. There will most likely not be a movie made after it (though the Kill Bill motif could have fooled me). It is not an epic saga of love and betrayal and blood and brotherhood. But it is a damn fine shoot 'em up game that, while tragically lacking a two-player mode, is thoroughly enjoyable in a plane, in a train, and just about anywhere else.