Son of Godzilla!
Godzilla Unleashed from Atari is a mediocre game in what is sadly a mediocre series. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun, especially with a 5-year old! It brings me back. My Aunt Bev, bless her for it, took me to see, in the theater, Godzilla vs. Megalon. I must have been 4 or 5 years old myself and I was awed. It began a real love of Godzilla movies that lasted long into my childhood. Despite that mediocrity the love is back, because my son thinks Godzilla is super cool!
Godzilla Unleashed is a Wii game that lets you use the nunchuk to kick, jump, and tail swipe (if applicable) and the remote lets you claw and bite. It offers all the favorites: Godzilla, Megalon, Gigan, that robot guy, that robo-Godzilla, and more can be unlocked. It features all their signature roars and cries.
I launched the game the other day and Henry’s eyes bugged out. “That’s a scary dinosaur dad!” Ah, the innocence of youth. He’s an atomically mutated dinosaur of course, but we can’t expect a 5-year old to know that.
He chose Godzilla, I chose Megalon, and pretty soon we were punching and kicking our way through downtown San Francisco. We’ve played a few times since but that first battle with Henry was the memorable one. It’s a pity the game isn’t better, but when you’re flailing around as giant monsters with a small boy, quality takes on a new meaning. The game might be mediocre, but that experience was not. It took me all the way back in time and suddenly…
I was a 5-year old too.
It’s awesome when a video game makes you connect with your child on a gut level. When it erases 31 years of age and when it makes you forget about your health problems. I won the battle that day, but Henry’s energetic clawing, biting, kicking, and roaring made me realize that Godzilla would be back. You can’t keep a good monster down.
Time to rent a movie or two I think. Maybe I’ll start with Godzilla vs. Megalon. Henry should like that one. Then? Time for a rematch!
January 25th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
I’ve loved playing War of the Monsters (PS2) with my son for -years-! Fun stuff!
We’ve just adopted two more kids, who are hooked on it already 🙂
The Godzilla games (which we have on XBox) pale in comparison.
Wish there’d be a new WotM game out, for the 360. That.would.be.Awesome!
January 25th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Wow yeah!
War of the Monsters was great. I can’t believe I forgot about it. Maybe I’ll pick it up –
I think I must have lender it out at some point.
Did it sell poorly? Wonder why no sequel
January 25th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
It is great introducing this stuff to kids and getting to share it – good luck with the movies … those things are so bad I think it takes something special to truly appreciate them … (I LOVE them … I spent many a Saturday during winter watching ‘Creature Double Feature’ with my mom back in the 70’s)
January 25th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I love it when you do stories about what you and your kids are up to! I used to watch Godzilla movies after Saturday morning cartoons and Sooooouuullll Train was over. Maybe you could watch a Gozilla movie with your son that’s been given the MST3K treatment? –Cary
January 25th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Ha! Yep, I checked Netflix Cary and found Godzilla vs. Megalon the MST3K version right away. And as far as the movie goes, Henry is almost 5. I was planning on skipping to the fight scenes anyway. Gotta love modern tech eh? Like Mike above, I had to sit through a lot of garbage to get to the good stuff.
(And Cary, expect a lot more of this kind of stuff! Glad you like it! I hope it encourages the rest of youse guys to talk about, y’know, Gaming with Children too!)
January 25th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Oh, it’s not Godzilla but…
“Gamera is really neat. Gamera is full of meat.”
January 25th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Besides watching all those movies on Saturday afternoon, I loved playing Crush, Crumble and Chomp on the Commodore 64.
January 26th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Wow Steve, that one takes me back. I never played it but I sure remember the ads in Dragon Magazine circa 1983.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Crush, Crumble and Chomp! is also one of the games that GameTap had to retire late last year.