Monaco cuts competitive multiplayer modes

It took Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine three years after winning big at IGF 2010 to see a release date and, in that time, certain features were inevitably going to hit the cutting room floor. Among them were a couple of competitive multiplayer modes -- Cops and Robbers and Thief vs. Thief.

Monaco creator Andy Schatz said in a Reddit AMA (via Polygon) that the two game modes had reached a playable state, but were ultimately cut due to balance issues and an incompatibility with the game's existing maps. Thief vs. Thief was meant to pit players against each other in a race for coins, while Cops vs. Robbers would have introduced playable constables into the equation.

Schatz says that the coin-collecting objective of Thief vs. Thief didn't provide enough interaction between players, but notes that Cops vs. Robbers did show potential. "When it worked, though, it was incredibly fun," said Schatz about the game mode. Because of this, Schatz hasn't ruled out releasing Cops vs. Robbers as future downloadable content.

Monaco released on Friday on XBLA after passing Microsoft's certification process. For more, check out our review.