In the late 70's and early 80's, game publisher Simulations Publications Inc (SPI) published a magazine called Ares. This magazine talked about strategy games and topics of interested to gamers. And it had a new mini-game with every issue.

One of these games published in Ares, in 1979, was "The Creature That Ate Sheboygan". It was a quick movie monster game for two players that lasted about an hour. The game became very popular very quickly, and was re-released as a bookshelf game.

Each of the players in TCTAS plays either the human forces (police, civilians, military) or the monster. Of course, the reason you play this game is to be the monster, so trade off between games, please. The player playing the monster can create a monster from a set of attributes and powers, purchasing them with creation points. Then, the two sides duke it out, with the monster trying to destroy buildings and eat civilians to win.

This game is something of a cult classic. Part of this is because of the mechanics for creating a monster, which is very entertaining to experiment with. The genre is also part of the appeal. In fact, this game has spawned many imitators from "Crush, Crumble, and Chomp" on the Commodore 64, to the recent board game "Super Giant Monster Showdown". Despite the age of this game, it's a pretty fun game. The mechanics are a little rough around the edges, but it's entertaining nonetheless.

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