''Super Monday Night Combat'' (or ''SMNC'') was a

free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

multiplayer online battle arena Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that im ...

(MOBA)

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed and published by Uber Entertainment for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. The game is the sequel to ''

Monday Night Combat ''Monday Night Combat'' is a downloadable third-person shooter video game developed by Uber Entertainment. It was published by Microsoft Studios on the Xbox 360 and by Uber Entertainment and Valve for Microsoft Windows. It was released on Augus ...

.'' It was released on April 18, 2012. The game was inspired by ''

Defense of the Ancients ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA'') is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) mod for the video game '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' (2002) and its expansion, '' The Frozen Throne''. The objective of the game is for each team to destroy ...

'', a custom map and modification for '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos''. In May 2018, Uber Entertainment shut down Super Monday Night Combat's servers due to the game's low player count and lack of compliance with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

General Data Protection Regulation The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union regulation on data protection and privacy in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law and of human rights law, in partic ...

(GDPR) mandate.

Gameplay

''Super Monday Night Combat'' puts players in a familiar position, but from a third-person perspective. Players begin playing by entering a

matchmaking Matchmaking is the process of matching two or more people together, usually for the purpose of marriage, in which case the matchmaker is also known as a marriage broker. The word is also used in the context of sporting events such as boxing, in ...

system that picks the number of required players in order to form a match. Online game modes include Super Crossfire, Turbocross, and Super Blitz. Super Crossfire is a 5 versus 5 competitive online mode that consists of matches between the Hot Shots (red team) and the IceMen (the blue team). The main goal of the Super Crossfire mode is to destroy the opposing team's Money Ball through Bot hits, damage infliction and other in-game assaults. To win the game, players must venture beyond turrets that can only be destroyed by pushing Bots (

non-player character A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster o ...

s) through their lane. Once the bots reach the enemy turrets, the turrets' shield deactivates and players can destroy them to reach the Moneyball. As players destroy enemy bots and kill enemy players with guns, they gain money; awarding

experience points An experience point (often abbreviated as exp or XP) is a unit of measurement used in some tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's life experience and progression through the game. Experien ...

that increase the character's level and allows for the upgrading of skills. The money looted can be spent to spawn more waves of bots, purchase products at vending machines to refill health and speed up the character, and activate multiple functioning buttons that vary depending on the map.

Turbocross

Since the gameplay was greatly changed from the predecessor ''

'',

Uber Entertainment Star Theory Games (formerly Uber Entertainment Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Bellevue, Washington. Founded in March 2008 by Bob Berry and Jonathan Mavor, it released its first title, ''Monday Night Combat'', in 2010 to posi ...

released a game mode with re-imagined gameplay, called Turbocross. Turbocross is a game mode that specializes in high speed and intense gameplay. ''

'' modified the conventional format to appeal to a more "hardcore", or demanding fanbase. The game mode includes an increase of damage done by players, the ability to rebuild turrets once they are destroyed, slower health regeneration and permanent damage.

Super Blitz

Super Blitz is a

survival mode Survival mode, or horde mode, is a game mode in a video game in which the player must continue playing for as long as possible without dying in an uninterrupted session while the game presents them with increasingly difficult waves of challenges. ...

that sets 5 players against the announcer of the game, GG Stack (voiced by Greg Stackhouse). Players face waves of bots aiming to take down the players' Moneyball while the announcer taunts them. As the match goes on, the announcer takes a break every 10 rounds to allow the player's time to build, rebuild or heal turrets and play various mini-games to prepare for the upcoming wave of bots. Although this mode does not have an end, every 10 rounds before the break, a final wave begins that spawns the strongest type of bots, Jackbots.

Development

''Super Monday Night Combat'' was announced on August 24, 2011, during Pax Prime 2011. As the sequel to ''

'', the game was largely expanded in terms of content and functions and greatly increased in accessibility because the game was

. The game began

closed beta A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

testing around October 2011 under an

NDA NDA may stand for: Military * National Defence Academy (India), a military academy in India * National Defence Act, legislation for organizing and funding Canada's military * National Defense Academy of Japan, a military academy in Japan * Nig ...

, allowing the developer to communicate and receive feedback from testers. The game's official release happened prematurely in April 2012 after Uber Entertainment accidentally released an unlimited-use product key on Steam that was meant to be used to invite a small number of playtesters. The incident resulted in a flood of new players and a quick decision to officially release the game rather than revoke the key. After release, an update was released every week to every other week as the rules to the game changed. These included new content, such as new Pros, maps, game modes and equipment alongside multiple features, gameplay tweaks and bug fixes. The original in-game

sports commentator In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

, Mickey Cantor (voiced by Rodney Sherwood), was later replaced by two new commentators, Chip Valvano and GG Stack. The game retained a reference to the original commentator through its

miniboss In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...

"Chickey Cantor", a giant chicken who could be killed to receive a temporary power boost.

Reception

''Super Monday Night Combat'' received generally favorable reviews according to

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, with an average rating of 76/100.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://uberent.com/ 2012 video games Free-to-play video games Hero shooters Multiplayer online battle arena games Multiplayer online games Multiplayer video games Third-person shooters Uber Entertainment games Unreal Engine 3 games Video games about death games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Windows-only games