A video game Prequel to the Pixar classic Monsters, Inc. 1, the game allows the player to play as Mike and Sulley to go through Monsters Incorporated training. Their objective is to explore and platform across urban, desert, and arctic environments as they track down and scare the Nerves, robot training dummies modeled after human children.
Tropes featured:
- 1-Up: The extra try token, which has Sulley and Mike's faces on it, grants an extra life when collected.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The Marketplace features an underground sewer beneath the surface where Mike and Sully have to jump across boxes to avoid falling into the contaminated water. In the other side, they find a ladder where they find a statue where they have to adjust the placement of certain platforms to get the collectibles found above.
- Action Bomb: The alarm clock enemies in the Artic levels will detonate themselves after noticing and rushing towards you for few seconds.
- Art Evolution: The PS2 port of the game has completely redone character models with more detail, and upscaled level graphics.
- Backtracking: If you want to get the silver and gold medals for each level, you must return to them after unlocking the three monster enhancements, which all open up new areas that can't be reached without them. One of the mailboxes in the Scare Island hub even advises that you return after unlocking them first to save some time.
- Belly Flop Crushing: This is how Sulley does his pounce attack.
- Build Like an Egyptian: The desert levels prominently feature Egyptian-style sphinxes, pyramids, and tombs. In one such level, Mike and Sulley have to push a button next to a gate entrance that takes them to a different side of a pyramid, each one presenting a different type of hazard (like snakes or steam vents).
- Canon Discontinuity: The game was conceived as a prequel to the original Monsters. Inc movie. However, canon marched on in 2013 with Monsters University, which narrates the canonical origin story of the starring duo (and its ending explicitly makes this game's telling of how they became employees of the Monsters, Inc. company impossible to happen).
- Collect-a-Thon Platformer: Following in the wake of games like Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, this 3D platformer is mainly focused around collecting. To get the bronze medals, players must scare a certain number of Nerves in each level, which in turn require collecting a certain amount of Ooze to be scary enough. Silver medals require the player to find all ten tokens in each level. Gold medals require the player to scare all the Nerves in each level. Even Randall's races require the player to collect enough tokens in order to count as a win.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The Nerves are colour-coded by how hard they are to scare (and, by extension, how much Ooze is needed). In order from easiest to hardest: blue, green, yellow, orange, red.
- Company Cross-References: Buzz Lightyear appears as a statue in one of the city levels.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In Arctic Pursuit, Randall pulls the same stunt as Nitrous Oxide from Crash Team Racing by starting before you. He can use the flingshots much faster while you have the delay of the cutscene every time you use one.
- Covers Always Lie: Boo appears on the cover for the Japanese version despite not appearing anywhere in-game, save for the movie clips.
- Double Jump: Sulley and Mike can both jump in the air, and Mike can also flutter briefly similar to Yoshi.
- Dramatic Irony: Mike and Sulley are working to become top scarers for the titular Monsters, Inc., unaware of the corruption within the system (which the game itself points out via the unlockable movie clips). Special note goes to the ending where Waternoose graduates Mike and Sulley from the academy, which is immediately followed by the movie clip of Waternoose pointing out "scaring isn't enough anymore", attacking Sulley and getting arrested by the CDA for kidnapping a human child and threatening to kidnap more.
- Flexing Those Non-Biceps: Two of Mike's final scares have him flexing to a Nerve, yet his arms are still just as thin as normal.
- Forced Tutorial: The first level is a mandatory tutorial, narrated by Roz.
- Fragile Speedster: Mike, compared to Sulley. Mike is faster and more mobile, with a Rolling Attack and a flutter jump that lets him stay in the air, but his attacks have much less range than Sulley's and his speed ironically makes precision platforming trickier than with Sulley.
- Fright Deathtrap: Your goal in the game is to scare all Nerves that they broke down from sheer fright.
- Green Hill Zone: The City Park, one of the urban levels, takes place inside a grassy public park with slides and swings. There's also a farmhouse that can be eventually climbed (once the trampoline platforms are unlocked) to reach a spiral path around a big tree and access its top.
- Ground Pound: Sulley performs a body slam, while Mike curls into a ball and can bounce repeatedly.
- Hub Level: Scare Island is the main location of the game. From there, Mike and Sulley can access any of the game's levels, redo the tutorial, watch movie clips and challenge Randall.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Some of the enemy toys requires specific way to destroy.
- The steam train in the Central Park will hurt you if you attempt to stomp or pounce on it.
- Remote cars in Downtown/City Centre must have their controller destroyed with a pounce.
- Scorpions and spiny lizards in the Desert stages must be baited into attacking until they flip over and become vulnerable to stomping and pouncing. This also applies to penguins in the Artic stages.
- UFOs are normally invulnerable until you step on a button to disable their flight.
- Market-Based Title: The game is known as Monsters, Inc. Scare Island in European languages and Monsters, Inc. Monsters Academy in Japanese.
- Mecha-Mooks: All enemies in the game are robots, presumably because it would be too unsafe to train with real human kids and toys.
- Metropolis Level: All of the levels in the Urban training field take place in different sections of a city. The most explicit instance is the Downtown level, which takes place within an avenue during night; among the areas that can be explored within there's a small sewer, a small grocery stone and the buildings' roofs.
- Mighty Glacier: Sulley, compared to Mike. Sully is slower and less agile, but his attacks have more range and he is easier to control, making it easier for him to defeat enemies.
- Mood Whiplash: The game ends with Mike and Sulley graduating and then cuts to the movie clip of Waternoose revealing his true colors and getting arrested.
- Mook Maker: An orange Nerve in the Hot Springs can create up to three snowmen if you ignore him.
- Mooks, but No Bosses: There are Mecha-Mooks in all levels, and the objective in each level is to scare the mechanical dummies (Nerves) to earn medals. However, there are no bosses of any sort; not even Randall, who is challenged via races and you simply have to reach the goal first (collecting a specific amount of coins is also necessary). It's also justified, because this game is a prequel to the Monsters, Inc. 1 movie, and the actual confrontation between Randall and the starring duo doesn't happen until the climax of said movie.
- Nitro Boost: Speedboost arrows, once unlocked, give your character a burst of speed to the direction they're pointing at. It also let them jump much farther than normal.
- Noodle Incident: The opening cutscenes have Sulley mention his and Mike's first day of college; "it took them a whole semester to rebuild the dorm!" Mike asks Sulley not to bring it up.
- One-Hit Kill: There is a ravine in the Hot Springs that immediately makes you lose a life if you fall into it.
- Paper-Bag Popping: While scaring Nerves, Sulley can finish up by inflating a shopping bag by blowing into it before popping it.
- Platform-Activated Ability: Earning all bronze medals in the Urban Training Field levels will grant the usage of certain trampolines (that were previously visible but phased out and transparent) for Spring Jump. Earning all bronze medals in the Desert Training Field levels will enable the usage of dash panels in the floor (previously turned off) to run faster.note
- Plot Coupon: The bronze medals are required to proceed in the game, since all four bronze medals must be collected in each world before the next world is unlocked.
- That Poor Cat: In the scene where you unlock speedbost arrows, you can hear a cat yowling after Sulley and Mike crash off-screen.
- Port Town: One of the urban levels, The Docks, takes place within a harbor that features locations like a climbable lighthouse, a docked ship whose interior has crushers that must be avoided, and some rooftops.
- Prequel: It takes place before the original 2001 film, showing Mike and Sulley training for their job at Monsters, Inc.
- Pre-Rendered Graphics: Clips from the film are used in-between levels.
- Press X to Not Die: Upon interacting with a Nerve, the player must quickly press whichever button is displayed on-screen in order to scare the Nerve.
- Racing Minigame: After receiving all bronze medals in a world, the player can challenge Randall in a footrace where they must reach the finish line first while collecting a certain amount of tokens.
- Recurring Boss: Randall appears as a recurring threat. After obtaining all four bronze medals for a world, you must beat him in a Pursuit challenge themed after the world in question, which entails beating him to the finish line in a race while collecting a certain number of tokens. He challenges you three times over the course of the game, with the third encounter concluding the story.
- Riddling Sphinx: One of the desert levels features a giant sphinx statue. The player must input the right sequence of symbols in order for the sphinx to reveal a Nerve.
- Rolling Attack: Mike attacks this way if you press the attack button whilst holding any directional button.
- Scary Flashlight Face: In the PlayStation 2 version, one possible animation on a finishing scare is Sulley/Mike taking a flashlight from Hammerspace and doing this.
- Sequence Breaking: In the Market stage, with some luck and good timing, it's possible to jump over the crate blocks near the portal door to reach the two red Nerves. You're supposed to wait until you unlock the trampoline.
- Shifting Sand Land: All of the levels in the Desert training field take place in different sections of a desert. The most explicit instance is in the levels The Sphynx and The Oasis. The former features ancient arches and pillars that have to be traversed to reach items and the dummies in need of a scare; there are also platforms that have to be pounded in a certain order indicated by a central spot. In the latter, as its name implies, there's a large oasis whose deep water has to be avoided, as well as palm trees and sandcastles.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: All of the levels in the Arctic training field take place in different sections of the arctic, and thus each one employs a different twist or flavor to the setting: Sugar Shack is the most traditional, having a snowy landscape with a very cold lake and some precarious crags. Ski Lift has a frozen pond from which some piranhas jump between the holes, as well as a ski lift that is needed to move between places and a slope where one can slide. The Iceburg takes place in a series of icebergs in the midst of a cold ocean during night, and care is required to time the jumps to avoid falling into the cold water; it's also possible to enter the igloos through a limited-time entrance, where some collectibles and Nerves can be found. Finally, Hot Springs is a snowy cavern where some stalactites fall down (and are harmful) and water geysers are used to reach high areas.
- Snowlems: Some mechanical enemies disguised as evil snowmen appear in Sugar Shack as enemies. They're most common in the area surrounding the cabin.
- Spin Attack: Sulley and Mike can both do a spin attack. Sulley swipes with his tail if he attacks while moving, while Mike spins with his arms if standing still.
- Squashed Flat: Happens if you fail to avoid the pistons in the Dock level.
- Super Drowning Skills: Neither Sulley nor Mike can swim in water. Falling in will result in them losing health and respawning away from it.
- Temple of Doom: The Tomb level, whose interior can only be unlocked after Mike or Sulley places the three moon-marked blocks into their corresponding luminous sports near the entrance. Once inside, they have to climb tall walls, jump across ancient seesaws and pass through periodically-lit torches.
- Unique Enemy: There is only one instance of the steam train enemy in the entire game and it's in the Central Park stage, though it does respawn after leaving the stage.
- The Voice: Roz personally doesn't appear in the game, but she narrates the instructions in the Orientation stage.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: In the hub world, the player is free to hit Randall to their heart's content. Although Randall will flinch and scurry away quickly, standing in Randall's way will prevent him from escaping.