I Was an Atomic Mutant! (PC)

On the outside, I Was an Atomic Mutant seems wildly successful at staying true to its subject matter. It has funny, great-looking menus, clever cinematics, an incredible original score, and lots of little details perfectly suited to its subject matter: 1950s giant monster movies. It's easy to become so charmed by the game's presentation (and the game's $20 price tag) that you start to forget that somewhere in this otherwise entertaining set of features there needs to be a good game. And, unfortunately, actual gameplay is I Was an Atomic Mutant's worst part.

Reptomicus attacks in glorious black and white!

The game features only four playable creatures, but they're a nice sampling of classic B-movie monsters. There's the requisite giant lizard, Reptomicus (possibly named after the Danish film industry's first and only Godzilla knockoff, Reptilicus); the She-Beast, an extremely angry woman who is at least 50 feet tall; the Invader from Dimension-X, an alien in a huge, bubble-domed robot suit who bears a striking resemblance to the aliens from The Simpsons; and The Brain From Beyond Infinity, an enormous flying brain with its three-story-tall eyeballs still intact. A full-length movie trailer introduces each monster. These are really well done combinations of stock footage and gameplay scenes, with some great dialogue and narration ("No bonds can contain this savage beauty with a primal lust for vengeance!") dubbed over the original soundtrack.

These trailers are indicative of the attention lavished on virtually every peripheral part of the game. For instance, you can choose to play entirely in realistic black and white. Once you're actually playing, the right mouse button switches to a cinematic camera mode, complete with the theater curtains at the top of the screen and a movie audience at the bottom. Even the loading screens feature cool fake poster art advertising the monsters' respective movies. The original soundtrack is a perfect complement to the atomic mutant theme. It's a rousing example of overheated 1950s bombast, featuring the musical instrument most emblematic of science gone mad, the mysterious theremin.

The Brain From Beyond Infinity can turn enemies into ducks and bunnies.