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Dont worry Japan...
November 15, 2003 | 10:00 PM PSTby: Sean O'Neill
Cheesy movies with guys in suits. That's what I think about when Godzilla is mentioned. Movie after movie made based on these dino like monsters smashing the crap out of everything. That's why I was all but excited when I first heard about Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee. That all changed after the Nintendo Gamers Summit where I got my first real hands on with this diamond in the ruff! And boy was I surprised. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the final copy for review.
Game Features
Over 10 officially licensed and faithfully recreated Toho monsters, including fan favorites like Godzilla® 2000, Mechagodzilla™, King Ghidorah™ and Mothra™ and more!
More then10 massive real-world and fantasy locations of city-wide scale, including San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo and the notorious Monster Island
Highly detailed arenas that include working traffic lights, blinking neon signs and moving cars, buses and tanker trucks
Up to four-person multiplayer for grand scale, melee-style showdowns
Basic fighting maneuvers like kicks, punches, jumps, and blocks are augmented with specialized projectile weapons
Grabs and throws, including special throws and combos as well as the ability to pick up and throw items within the areas, such as small buildings, gas tanker trucks and cargo ships
Fully destructible environments - buildings crumble under the power of the giant beasts - once destroyed, pieces of he ruined architecture can be picked up and thrown at opponents
Easy-to-learn, hard-to-master hand-to-hand combat gameplay
A robust combo system and special attacks that are unique to each creature's abilities from the original movies
Power-ups dropped into the arena by alien ships and hidden within city buildings, providing health and other enhanced abilities
Hidden unlockable characters, areas and art studio
Gameplay
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is a 3d fighter with a monster feel. With a bulky larger than life feel you really get the feeling your controlling building sized monsters. With everything from stop lights, cars, tanks even UFO's. The story goes as followed; UFO's have taken control of the monsters of earth, only one remains in your power. You must defeat the rest and get rid of the alien scum! With a cheesy feel much like a cheap monster film you might have seen on late night TV it really sets the mood. Dukeing it out in crowded cities with major landmarks present is a lot of fun. You can destroy, pick up, even light on fire the surrounding buildings. Anything and everything you see is fully destructible. In fact one of the 5 gameplay modes, Destruction, requires you to destroy as many buildings while gathering points for them as possible. Along with the Adventure mode we also have Survival mode which sets gamers up against many other monsters with only 1 set of health. You must destroy as many as you can before you die. Team Battle lets you and a friend team up against 2 opponents. And last but certainly not least is my favorite Melee mode. A two to four player fight-fest where you duke it out till times up. The monster with the most points after the match wins. These 5 will provide gamers with a lot of playtime!
The title's 11 playable monsters, from Godzilla 90s and 2000 to Megalon, Anguirus, King Ghidorah, Gigan, Rodan, Mecha-King Ghidorah, Destroyah and Mechagodzilla are a rowdy group of fighters all with their own strengths and weaknesses. Only problem is that you only get 3 to start. So you will have to earn the rest. As for stages we are given some of the most well know cities on earth. Tokyo, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and England are all on display and look just like their real life counterparts. While this game may be played as a button masher, you will soon realize that there is a fine art of fighting and combos hidden within. You will need to utilize these if you want to make your way through the game. Environments are fully destructible and can be also used as weapons. Everything from throwing buildings to gas filled containers that will burst into flames on impact. If you do things correctly you can even get the military help so that they shoot your opponent. One thing that surprised me is how difficult the game can be.. almost cheap. You will start up and beat the first few monsters no problem but it soon turns into a cheap lazer fight where your opponent seems to always have the upper hand. And the final boss can be a bit too much for some gamers even on easy setting. But with any game the more you play the easier it will get. Pipeworks the development team has given lots of extras for gamers to work for including an art gallery, extra areas to play in, and more monsters to fight as. Each fighter you beat the game with unlocks more extras. It gives a longer replay value to a fun but sometimes frustrating single player mode.
Now on to my favorite part of the game multi player! I feel this is the highlight of this great fighter. You can destroy the city and get the most points, duke it out on your own or with a team member all of this in 4-player mode! There is nothing like gathering with a group of friends and duking it out with your favorite monster. And it's a wonderful game to pick up and play. Whether you prefer combos or button mashing it's a whole lot of fun! This is the best multiplayer game on the cube this side of Smash Brothers! Its perfect for dorm room duke outs or a battle of the brothers. I promise you Godzilla is one thing… FUN!
Graphics
Character models reaching 10,000 polygons will wow any gamer. Godzilla and friends look absolutely amazing. Every detail on the character is recreated (I swear I could see the zipper on some of the monsters ;op). City's are recreated with an amazing amount of detail. Everything from cars, billboards, stoplights, tanks, buses, trains and more help to give the city's a feeling of life. Buildings stand tall ranging from corner stores to skyscrapers to world famous landmarks. Each building displays impact marks when you hit it; hit them enough and you can destroy the building in a beautiful display of crumbling concrete and smoke. You can also see the city's in 2 different settings, night and day. At nighttime the lighting effects begin to excuse the pun, shine. Everything from street lights to fire effects. All are spot on. Since I go to school for animation one thing I always pay close attention to is character animation. Godzilla has some of the best for a fighter. Everything from weight distribution to comical jumping up and down after burning ones feet. The characters move slowly and give you the sense that you are controlling a large monster. While I did notice minor slowdown here and there it was not a common occurrence. Some clipping also can be seen but these are hardly noticeable and do not take away from the game at all. With progressive scan mode the game looks amazing for all those who can support it. It's nice to see 3rd parties using this element! Overall the game looks amazing and captures the spirit of Godzilla!
Sound
Rumble, crumble, zap and boom. These sounds and more will be heard while gamers play Godzilla:DAMM. What makes this even better is you will hear it in Dolby Pro Logic II. Each monster has their own roar and impact sounds differ from building to building. You will hear crashes as buildings fall and hit the ground. With cheesy voice acting and a great announcer it all ads to the hoaky feel of the game. It recaptures the movie to a tee. I only wish this much attention as paid to the music but other then that it's a great example of the Cube's sound display.
Closing comments
With a fun single player and one of thebest multiplaye fighting games on any system I feel Godzilla is a must buy! It covers the Godzilla license extremely well, yet for someone like me who isn't a big fan of Godzilla it provides a solid game. It is a game you can play for hours or pick up and play a round before class. I feel it is the surprise game of 2002!
Game Features
Over 10 officially licensed and faithfully recreated Toho monsters, including fan favorites like Godzilla® 2000, Mechagodzilla™, King Ghidorah™ and Mothra™ and more!
More then10 massive real-world and fantasy locations of city-wide scale, including San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo and the notorious Monster Island
Highly detailed arenas that include working traffic lights, blinking neon signs and moving cars, buses and tanker trucks
Up to four-person multiplayer for grand scale, melee-style showdowns
Basic fighting maneuvers like kicks, punches, jumps, and blocks are augmented with specialized projectile weapons
Grabs and throws, including special throws and combos as well as the ability to pick up and throw items within the areas, such as small buildings, gas tanker trucks and cargo ships
Fully destructible environments - buildings crumble under the power of the giant beasts - once destroyed, pieces of he ruined architecture can be picked up and thrown at opponents
Easy-to-learn, hard-to-master hand-to-hand combat gameplay
A robust combo system and special attacks that are unique to each creature's abilities from the original movies
Power-ups dropped into the arena by alien ships and hidden within city buildings, providing health and other enhanced abilities
Hidden unlockable characters, areas and art studio
Gameplay
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is a 3d fighter with a monster feel. With a bulky larger than life feel you really get the feeling your controlling building sized monsters. With everything from stop lights, cars, tanks even UFO's. The story goes as followed; UFO's have taken control of the monsters of earth, only one remains in your power. You must defeat the rest and get rid of the alien scum! With a cheesy feel much like a cheap monster film you might have seen on late night TV it really sets the mood. Dukeing it out in crowded cities with major landmarks present is a lot of fun. You can destroy, pick up, even light on fire the surrounding buildings. Anything and everything you see is fully destructible. In fact one of the 5 gameplay modes, Destruction, requires you to destroy as many buildings while gathering points for them as possible. Along with the Adventure mode we also have Survival mode which sets gamers up against many other monsters with only 1 set of health. You must destroy as many as you can before you die. Team Battle lets you and a friend team up against 2 opponents. And last but certainly not least is my favorite Melee mode. A two to four player fight-fest where you duke it out till times up. The monster with the most points after the match wins. These 5 will provide gamers with a lot of playtime!
The title's 11 playable monsters, from Godzilla 90s and 2000 to Megalon, Anguirus, King Ghidorah, Gigan, Rodan, Mecha-King Ghidorah, Destroyah and Mechagodzilla are a rowdy group of fighters all with their own strengths and weaknesses. Only problem is that you only get 3 to start. So you will have to earn the rest. As for stages we are given some of the most well know cities on earth. Tokyo, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and England are all on display and look just like their real life counterparts. While this game may be played as a button masher, you will soon realize that there is a fine art of fighting and combos hidden within. You will need to utilize these if you want to make your way through the game. Environments are fully destructible and can be also used as weapons. Everything from throwing buildings to gas filled containers that will burst into flames on impact. If you do things correctly you can even get the military help so that they shoot your opponent. One thing that surprised me is how difficult the game can be.. almost cheap. You will start up and beat the first few monsters no problem but it soon turns into a cheap lazer fight where your opponent seems to always have the upper hand. And the final boss can be a bit too much for some gamers even on easy setting. But with any game the more you play the easier it will get. Pipeworks the development team has given lots of extras for gamers to work for including an art gallery, extra areas to play in, and more monsters to fight as. Each fighter you beat the game with unlocks more extras. It gives a longer replay value to a fun but sometimes frustrating single player mode.
Now on to my favorite part of the game multi player! I feel this is the highlight of this great fighter. You can destroy the city and get the most points, duke it out on your own or with a team member all of this in 4-player mode! There is nothing like gathering with a group of friends and duking it out with your favorite monster. And it's a wonderful game to pick up and play. Whether you prefer combos or button mashing it's a whole lot of fun! This is the best multiplayer game on the cube this side of Smash Brothers! Its perfect for dorm room duke outs or a battle of the brothers. I promise you Godzilla is one thing… FUN!
Graphics
Character models reaching 10,000 polygons will wow any gamer. Godzilla and friends look absolutely amazing. Every detail on the character is recreated (I swear I could see the zipper on some of the monsters ;op). City's are recreated with an amazing amount of detail. Everything from cars, billboards, stoplights, tanks, buses, trains and more help to give the city's a feeling of life. Buildings stand tall ranging from corner stores to skyscrapers to world famous landmarks. Each building displays impact marks when you hit it; hit them enough and you can destroy the building in a beautiful display of crumbling concrete and smoke. You can also see the city's in 2 different settings, night and day. At nighttime the lighting effects begin to excuse the pun, shine. Everything from street lights to fire effects. All are spot on. Since I go to school for animation one thing I always pay close attention to is character animation. Godzilla has some of the best for a fighter. Everything from weight distribution to comical jumping up and down after burning ones feet. The characters move slowly and give you the sense that you are controlling a large monster. While I did notice minor slowdown here and there it was not a common occurrence. Some clipping also can be seen but these are hardly noticeable and do not take away from the game at all. With progressive scan mode the game looks amazing for all those who can support it. It's nice to see 3rd parties using this element! Overall the game looks amazing and captures the spirit of Godzilla!
Sound
Rumble, crumble, zap and boom. These sounds and more will be heard while gamers play Godzilla:DAMM. What makes this even better is you will hear it in Dolby Pro Logic II. Each monster has their own roar and impact sounds differ from building to building. You will hear crashes as buildings fall and hit the ground. With cheesy voice acting and a great announcer it all ads to the hoaky feel of the game. It recaptures the movie to a tee. I only wish this much attention as paid to the music but other then that it's a great example of the Cube's sound display.
Closing comments
With a fun single player and one of thebest multiplaye fighting games on any system I feel Godzilla is a must buy! It covers the Godzilla license extremely well, yet for someone like me who isn't a big fan of Godzilla it provides a solid game. It is a game you can play for hours or pick up and play a round before class. I feel it is the surprise game of 2002!
November 20, 2009
