The Wii’s control scheme and the real time strategy genre sound like a match made in heaven if the classic issues of over complicated commands could be avoided. Pikmin showed it could be done with a conventional controller and the New Play Control! Editions demonstrated the benefits of the pointer-based input. So why is there so few on system? Step forth Monsteca Corral: Monsters Vs Robots, made within the UK no less, to try and fill that gap.

The premise is simple yet absurd all the same – The Monster home world has been overtaken by Robots. Knowing a useless fight when they see one the Monsters will be attempting to make good their escape before things get worse. To do so they will make use of the almighty Astromaggot (yes, I did just type that). By feeding it gas the aim is to inflate it to such a size that it eventually floats off but hopefully not before you’ve managed to hitch a ride on the thing. Simple, no?

Unfortunately not (wouldn’t be much of a game if the answer was yes now would it?), because gas, whilst naturally occurring, isn’t as plentiful as it could be. In order to speed up the process you will need to take out the Robot’s buildings that store larger quantities. Naturally the Robot’s guard these structures and this is where the strategy comes in.

You start of with just one Monster but can add others to your group by simply bumping into them. Having a larger group allows you to carry more gas but it also means you can demolish buildings and push the Robots about – providing you have the minimum amount required for that particular one. Ideally it’s best to avoid the Robots as much as possible by making use of the terrain as they don’t like water and struggle with mountains. Most Robots have a circle surrounding them, giving an indication of their vision but unfortunately it extends beyond the limit suggested so give them as wide a berth as possible since you’ll never know when you’re actually in range.

The biggest threat to your chances of success is the “Impostor Bot”. This mechanical menace, which turns up about 1/3 of the way into the game, looks almost exactly like your Monsters. Its sole aim is to run up and detonate itself whilst taking out as many of your herd as possible. It is faster than all the other Robots and you don’t have to be particularly close before it charges at you. You can either try to take it on or choose to run off. Attempting to fight it is borderline useless as the way combat has been incorporated means you’ll likely not have enough units around it in time before it attacks, let alone actually have them attack – it’s not an instant action. Those defeated Monsters can be reclaimed but the gas they were carrying can’t be. And that’s the other problem; carrying gas slows you down so if one comes nearby and you are holding a lot of it the chances of you outrunning the thing are incredibly slim at very best. No doubt its place in the game is to keep the player wary at all times but I couldn’t help feel that sometimes there was nothing I could have done to avoid it once spotted.

Each level contains a number of achievements to be earned depending upon how well you perform in the level. Not only do these serve as extra challenges for the player but also completing them is required to unlock levels – simply saving one Monster is not enough. They range from completing a level in a certain time to saving all the creatures and even avoid taking any damage.

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It’s nice to give the player something to aim for but by making them a necessary part of unlocking levels it means you will probably find yourself replaying levels over and over until you’ve mastered them enough to obtain sufficient achievements to move on. Unfortunately, time limits imposed on half of them mean you’ll need to be doing near perfect runs to succeed. One successful attack by the Impostor Bot and you may as well give up. This unfortunately leads to a sense of frustration that the game doesn’t want you to see all it has to offer. Patience will of course see you through eventually but success did feel more down to luck than skill on several occasions.It also means that post-game re-playability is crushed in favour of drawing out the initial play through.

The Wii Remote handles order giving whilst the Nunchuk serves to deal with all camera duties. Controls start off very simply with you being restricted to just setting waypoints for the Monster to walk toward. By the time you reach half way through the game you will be able to split your group up to issue separate commands as well as draw paths so they follow a particular route around the map – and all of these moves are introduced by the way of a short tutorial first. By shaking the Wii remote in the desired direction you can also make the Monsters jump. Good in theory but in practice it can be a bit fiddly and they don’t always jump in the direction you’d expected or hoped – getting Monsters to safety on the Astromaggot will see you flailing the thing around during the precious little time you have to get them on board.

In terms of camera you can zoom in/out of your herd and rotate around it but there is no option to pan across the playfield. Not only does this mean you can’t view what’s happening on the other side of the map, it makes drawing paths for Monsters to follow tricky – how can you draw an accurate path if you can’t see where you want them to go?

Production values wise it’s clear that this wasn’t the main focus. Graphically it’s very basic, with most buildings being a combination of simple geometric shapes. Animation is incredibly limited on the titular Monsters and Robots and the maps are pretty sparse in terms of additional detail. Outside of potential resolution issues it’s difficult to imagine that any of this would have been a push on even the first home consoles capable of 3D graphics. Music is similarly limited with only a couple of tracks throughout the entire game – the developers even give you the option to turn it off. Its serene and ambient nature will probably result in you failing to even notice it’s existence after a little while though.

Despite this, for me at least, it all works. The graphics, as basic as they are, have an undeniable charm to them and everything has enough of an identity that you will never mistake something in the heat of the moment. And the chilled out, relaxing music suits the tone of the game perfectly as well.

As a package, for a mere 500 points, it’s a tempting buy for someone interested in the genre wondering where all the alternatives are. A couple of basic design choices prevent it from being quite as accessible as it could be but a bit of perseverance will see you through eventually if you are prepared to put the effort in.