Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee

"As the biggest Godzilla fan in North America..."

It pains me greatly to report that this game fell short in almost ALL of my explanations. Now before you become swayed by all the fanboys singing the praises of this game, let me explain a few times to you. I'm 20 years old, and I've been a Godzilla fan since I was 5. My first school project, and many thereafter, were done on Godzilla. I've seen all of his movies except the 2 most recently released ones. And I've played several Godzilla video games, Godzilla Monster of Monsters (NES), Godzilla (Game Boy), Godzilla's Adventure (Japanese Game Boy game), Godzilla 2 (NES), Super Godzilla (SNES), Godzilla's Greatest Battles/Destroy All Monsters (SNES), and Godzilla Generations (DC). And I found something to like in every one of those games. I've beaten all of them several times over. And so naturally when a high tech Godzilla fighting game was announced, I was OVERJOYED!

I couldn't wait to play it. I followed this game's development and progress closer than that of any other game in history, and I've been a gaming fan since I was about 5 years old, as well. Then as the game drew closer...as usual, the bad news came rolling in. Firstly, the rumors of a super secret monster...squashed. There is none. Then, the Super X is removed from the game because the developers ''couldn't make it work right''. Doesn't that sound pretty lazy to you? Me too. But wait...there's more. One of the things people were most excited about, the ability to have 2 on 2 team matches...removed from the game, unless you have 3 other people and 4 controllers who want to play! The CPU bots were removed because ''they couldn't make them work right'' The laziness continues. And why couldn't they work right...because, IMAGINE THIS.....THEY TRIED TO KILL THEIR OPPONENTS, instead of doing ''combos'' TO GET POINTS! WHO CARES?! It was simply MORONIC of them to do this. After all, in ''Godzilla vs Gigan'' did Godzilla, Angilas, Gigan and Ghidora all sit around rolling dice for points, for instance? Yeah, I don't think so, THEY BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF EACH OTHER!!!

But anyway, lets get this review underway.

Graphics - 7/10

The monsters are represented decently enough, although a few look....well, not too much like their movie counterparts (Such as Angilas/''Angurius''). Gigan sports the color scheme of his Trendmasters figure, and a few other minor issues like these. The levels are a mixed bag, as some, like the bigger cities packed with buildings, look really cool, but others are pretty barren. Monster Island is terribly dissapointing. Most of the attacks are decently animated, but the beams just dont always look right. As usual, for some reason, there are collision detection issues...monsters tails, legs, and necks will go through buildings and bridges, etc. And it would be nice if the cities were more ''alive''...like maybe people running away from the monsters, and more military vehicles, instead of a random helicopter here and there, and a few cars on the roads.

Sound - 6/10

The monsters' roars are replicated perfectly, using Toho's own sounds, which earns points. But the music is pretty bland and just a generic attempt at replicating the feel of Akira Ifukube and Masa Sato's, among others, scores from the Godzilla movies. Why not just use the music itself? This is very strange, the only authentic track is Godzilla's theme, played during the ENDING CREDITS of all things.

Control - 7/10

First let me stress that I absolutely hate the Game Cube controller. It wasn't designed for anything except two button adventure games like Mario Sunshine and Luigi's Mansion. The layout of buttons is moronic, but, things run fairly smoothly for this game, except it can be hard to find the block button at times. Meh. I don't block anyway.

Story - 1/10

No. Just...no. There's a crappy opening and closing cinema, that features, AS USUAL, people trying to make a Godzilla storyline HUMOROUS in what will be written off as a ''campy tribute'' that just comes off as insulting and uninspired. Aliens are taking over the world, and, for an unknown reason, one monster fights their controlled monsters to stop them. Why? Don't ask me. The storyline is the same for each monster, and there are no updates to the story during the VERY unadventurous ''adventure mode''.

Gameplay - 5/10

Okay, here's the real problems with this game. This game is just not intended for single player mode. Once you get the hang of it, fights last 2 minutes, which is NOT AUTHENTIC AT ALL to the Godzilla genre. Oh, and lets get one thing out here real quick...this game ranks the highest on my patented GOD DAMN THIS CHEATING GAME scale, that I've ever seen. For instance...CPU opponents will frequently run off screen to grab power ups that the human player could never see! CPU opponents will sometimes fire their beam weapons when they shouldn't have energy left. When near death, the CPU will frequently ''hulk up'' and just refuse to be hit...and the computer controlled MechaGodzilla is a NIGHTMARE, as you'll be shot at by alien forces during the entire battle, and MG seems to do twice the damage he does when YOU control him. Then you have your multiplayer options, but here's the thing. Only THREE monsters are available to play as when the game begins, meaning you must trudge through adventure mode to unlock the other monsters. Then, by the time you finally have a complete roster to play against a friend...you'll be so good you'll crush them in 10 seconds. Real fun, huh? I'm sorry but the removal of CPU controlled bots in multiplayer mode just DESTROYS the replay value. But the developers promised that having ''over 40 cheat codes'' would increase the replay value...oh, yeah, because changing the colors and making certain players invinceable is just super. And making it so you cant pick up buildings....tremendous.

Summing things up....this game just REEKS of what COULD HAVE BEEN, had those making it NOT BEEN SO FREAKING LAZY!!! I'm BEGGING for a sequel, where maybe whoever thought up this MORONIC idea of ''points'' will just swallow their ignorance along with their pride and put the bots back in and make it the way it SHOULD be, a fight to the death. And hopefully we'll get a better roster, as many fan favorites such as Space Godzilla, MechaGodzilla 1974 and Biollante, as well as some other major characters that may not get as much fan support such as Minya were left out. An 11 monster roster just isn't very inviting for a fighting game. In short, this is ONLY worth a purchase if you're the hardest of the hardcore Godzilla fan or the most casual of the casual gamers. Otherwise, rent it. I wouldn't be giving this a 6 if I wasn't such a huge Godzilla fan...the lack of replay value would have given it a 5 despite the fact its fun in very small doses. A shame, it really is.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/20/02, Updated 10/20/02