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> Results: Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee
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If you're a rubber-suit monster movie fan, the concept is nigh irresistable. A combat game to pit your favorite city-stomping creatures against each other. I am SO on that!The game offers a Story mode, Versus, Melee, Team Battle and Destruction. There are multi-player as well as single modes. It's all pretty self-explanatory. Melee and Versus modes are fighting a succession of your foes increasing in power until you face the Mecha version of one of them. Team Battle is basically "cooperative mode". My absolute favorite was Destruction mode - you pick a city and smash it to smithereens within a certain time limit. Story mode isn't anything to write home about - it's just as thin and silly as the plot of the movies this is based on. Some alien guy has taken over the minds of all the Kaiju (Japanese for "large monster"), and whichever one you choose is the only one who can stand against the alien's mind control. You have to defeat all the rest in battle to save the Earth. This isn't a drawback in my opinion. You don't watch these things for their stellar character development and deep sentiment. You watch these things to kick butt and thrash stuff! The graphics aren't solid but not stellar, but I think it's mostly stylistic choices based on the source materials and the limitations of scale. You have a 200-foot high monster, and you aren't going to see the grass blades he's stomping through, that's for sure. You do kick up a lot of debris, which is handled well. The character models are excellent. They all really do look like the movies, and they brought along their personal quirks like Megalon clanging his claws together and their actual battle cries out of the movies. One of the nicest touches in the game is the realism of the maps. I live in Seattle, and it really added a lot to the game. I got to kick Megalon over the Columbia Tower, and I could recognize it when I did it. The only thing that was disappointing is I couldn't use the Space Needle as a baseball bat to do it. So I just dropped it on him, which also works.  The combat is a solid mix of thrashing that takes into account each creatureﾒs special abilities. They integrated each creature's extra features quite well. Godzilla's tail deals out discipline, and you don't want to punch Anguirus in the back, either. They aren't ninjas; these are guys in rubber suits. You don't string together huge combos. There's no real "deathbringer" type of moves, either. It takes a series of attacks and some strategy to take them down. The faster monsters do have a deadly advantage, and it's a challenge to figure out ways to box them up in the city's layout to keep them from hurting you while you get there to hit them. It's not overly simplistic, either. There is a nice range of melee attacks and each character has a couple of "ray" attacks as well, which keep the flyers/diggers from being a little too powerful. They also help with balance by making it a challenge to get to the power-ups. You're a lumbering giant monster, not the Flash. The character list is basically a picture of the Civil Defense Office wanted-poster wall in Tokyo. Godzilla 90, and classic Godzilla are there, along with a whole crew. Megalon, Anguirus, Rodan, Gigan, King Ghidora, Mecha King Ghidora, MechaGodzilla, Destroyah, and Orga are there to fight. If you catch the little glowing power-up icon you can call in an airstrike by Mothra, which was fun just on general principles. The cities are basically large assemblages of destructible objects, even in the combat modes. Some of the buildings aren't just destructible - they can be thrown. They're all of a certain size, and they flash pink when you are close enough to pick them up. Then you can wreak huge-scale havoc and peel large hunks of health bar off your opponents with a well-aimed office tower. In Destruction Mode, it's even nicer. I got to play Bowling for Buildings in Tokyo, and Edo's long rows of warehouses down at the port are great to just roll through. There are plenty more monsters where these came from, so don't think we've exhausted the possibilities of the genre. It's not a great fighting game, and it's not the biggest graphical powerhouse. Rent it for a rainy weekend or a sleepover - it's a thrashing good time that is loads of fun for up to four. Kid Factor: This one's got no blood, and no sex. We have got more than plenty of cartoon violence, though. Mostly, it reminded me of watching an episode of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. It triggered an interest in watching the movies it's based on at my house, which was cool. Several classics such as Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla were recently re-released on DVD. Unfortunately, it also meant they wanted to watch that heinous Matthew Broderick flick again, too. At $20 bucks, it won't wreak havoc on your budget. One quick fun thing: if you get a chance, drop something on your opponent's foot. It's hilarious. Reviewer Recommended Ages: 8+ Genre: Fighting ESRB Rating: T for Teens Publisher: Atari Developer: Pipeworks Software Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee |
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