Frankenstein meets Pokemon in new Eidos game Monster Lab

Eidos has announced it has a brand new game for DS (and Wii), called Monster Lab, in development. The game is described as an action RPG and puts players in the role of an apprentice scientist trying to craft monsters to go exploring and hunting with.

The game takes place in a world known as Uncanny Valley that's being run by the evil Baron Mharti. As a scientist in training, your goal is to vanquish the baron and liberate the villagers by mastering experiments, creating an army of monsters and rising the ranks to become a powerful uber scientist.

Essentially, it sounds like a cross between a Pokémon game and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Except there are far more types of monsters on offer here than there are Pokémon. In fact, over 100 million variations can be created from the assorted monstrous parts you can stick together.

Once you've brought a suitably misshapen creation to life, you then take control of it to explore the surrounding land and search for ingredients to make new monster parts, hunt other monsters to defeat in combat and uncover quests to complete. There are also numerous mini-games to play.

"Monster Lab will offer a wealth of fresh ideas to both Wii and DS players," cackled Fabien Rossini, Global Brand Controller for Eidos, from his office filled with bald, two-headed rabbits and sheep that all look suspiciously alike. "These include gesture based combat, a compelling online fighting and trading system and total customization of the player's monster."

Monster Lab is being developed by Vancouver-based studio Backbone Entertainment, which also created the Death Jr games on both PSP and DS and Sonic Rivals 2, amongst other handheld and mobile titles. The game is planned for release sometime during 2008.