I’m often a sucker for a janky fighting game, but I gotta say, Battle Monsters impressed me! It’s jank, for sure, but there’s a lot more going on under the hood than at first glance. Once you realize it’s not actually much like Mortal Kombat at all, you can begin to appreciate everything it does differently from the norm. I wish every game was bold enough to have a roster this weird! While the platform fighter stuff doesn’t feel particularly additive, it does make Battle Monsters distinct compared to pretty much every other fighting game around the time it was released in, which is no small feat. Even beyond all the unusual design choices, Battle Monsters just feels good in the hands in a way I admittedly didn’t expect going in.