It seems like only yesterday that the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network services were launched, but already both consoles have a large amount of great downloadable experiences. The PSN has shown just how fully fledged downloadable games can be, with titles like WarHawk and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue becoming must haves on the system. Take a look at a screenshot of Monster Madness: Grave Danger and you would be forgiven for thinking that it fell into this category of games - but unfortunately it's a full retail release.

Taking cues from classic retro games such as Zombies Ate My Neighbours, Grave Danger puts a group of stereotypical teenagers up against the rest of their zombified town. You choose between the four youths at the start of the story mode, the options comprising of the amazingly original nerdy schoolboy, goth chick, skater dude and blonde cheerleader. At first the clichéd characters seem to be intentional, but their one-liners begin to grate after only a few minutes. The whole scenario is obviously trying to appeal to the younger market but fails at achieving even this, thanks to the badly conceived character designs and the lack of a memorable plot. You definitely won't play Grave Danger for the story - but what might you play it for?

The game is divided into five locations, each being marginally different to the last; from your hometown to the local High School, each environment is split into around five levels, which are supposed to take place in different parts of the area you are currently exploring. It feel more like a never ending trawl around the same patch of land over and over again though, made even worse by the lack of any area-specific monsters. I became very confused at one point while playing, thinking that I'd gone past the same building three times, when I had actually progressed through the overly linear route correctly. The levels generally consist of defeating a given number of enemies in a closed off area, moving on, then rinsing and repeating, which gets old very fast. Level design clearly isn't the developer's forte, as this aspect of Grave Danger fails to sustain much interest.

On one hand, Monster Madness: Grave Danger is a Gauntlet clone, with top down co-op play where you have to defeat enemies for the key to move on. However, the game also plays in a similar fashion to the many twin stick shooters on the market, using the left and right analog sticks to move and shoot respectively. This combination works better than expected, as the game is full of zombies to mow down with your nail gun. The weapons in Grave Danger feel more like whatever was around than anything too over the top, with guns like the CD Launcher being your primary way of attacking. The weaponry works effectively, something that can't be said about the god-awful melee attack, which isn't worth the effort it takes to land a hit. By making the obvious choice to stick with the guns, you can upgrade them by using monster tokens that enemies drop. These make your guns even more effective, while you can also develop your defence and resistance to oncoming attacks.

By the time you've completed a level or two this upgrade system becomes a double-edged sword, as it makes the random battles you have with zombies much easier - and much more boring. The game seems to know this too, with some fights requiring you to defeat an obscene number of enemies, which will be a breeze thanks to your upgraded bee mine launcher. The same thing happens in the boss battles, although in addition to the large amount of cannon fodder, the Boss itself has a stupidly high amount of health. When the first boss, a granny zombie, absorbs over 999 shots from your nail gun, you know something's not right. The whole game feels this way, and it becomes very boring, very quickly. You probably won't last until the end of the game, thanks to the repetitive nature of the gameplay, which is a shame after the glimmer of hope when you first begin playing.

The one aspect of Monster Madness: Grave Danger that makes it feel just like a downloadable game is the graphics. The art style attempts to be like the comic-style cut scenes that are sandwiched between each level, but instead it just looks like a smoothed out PS2 title. The level of detail in the visuals would have disappointed on PSN, never mind in a retail release; they leave a lot to be desired and they don't even run smoothly, with texture popping and screen tearing proving to be big problems throughout, making the graphics even less stellar. Don't even bring up the voice acting for the stereotypical teenagers either; they are worse than most people will be able to handle, especially when your chosen character mutters a line from their list of around five default phrases over and over and over again.

Monster Madness: Grave Danger would have been one of the weaker PSN games, even at a price of £10 or less, but as a retail game that costs more than three times that amount, it simply can't be recommended. After five minutes you will have gotten used to the controls and begun to enjoy the interesting mix of Gauntlet style dungeon exploring and Geometry Wars style shooting. Give it five more minutes and you'll have grown tired of nearly every aspect of the game, which is a real shame. Not even a four player online co-op mode can make this a worthy purchase, especially when I couldn't find a single other player online just a week or two after release. As a retail game, Monster Madness: Grave Danger isn't worth a dime, making for a disappointment after early promise.

Reviewed by Sam Atkins for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).