Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee

"A worthy fighting title."

I remember seeing Godzilla fight Rodan, Mothra and a horrible 1998 remake. Now, it's 2002 and we have the most underrated fighter of this year. Some may not care, but this game topples Super Smash Bros. Melee.

The story is rather campy, where aliens from another galaxy comes to take over Earth and they release all and control all the monsters from Monster Island to reek havoc. What kills me is there no real story line from each of the monsters. It's just fight a few monsters and bang, you're done. Nothing to over-the-top or anything like that.

As far as the graphics go, the monsters look better then the originals. Godzilla, Rodan, Godzilla 2000, Gigan, etc. Brings a tear to the eye to see your favorite monsters back in action. The only downside to the graphics are the backgrounds and the cityscapes. They look fairly uninspired. Plus you can't free roam the area.

Sound quality here, well, what can I say? It's awesome. The screams from Godzilla, the sounds of those cheesy laser blasts. It's all too good to be true. A real treat is hearing the score from the original Godzilla movie score from oh so many years ago. As for the voice acting. It's fairly campy, and yes, it does have that badly dubbed man screaming ''Godzilla!'' God, that'll never get old.

For the gameplay, well, it offers a bit of a steep learning curve and to top it all off the enemy AI can be a real cheat if you're a beginner. But once you master everything, the game is a blast. From launching buildings at Megalon, to burrowing under the cities with Megalon, it's all good. And for a real treat you can just go around competing with someone on who can destroy the city in a certain amount of time. Classic.

Replay value is high. Unlocking all the monsters, cities, and art gallery will keep you busy for quite some time. But what has me perplexed is that they left out a few characters that you could use (Jet Jaguar, Hodora the smog monster, the Godzilla from the '98 remake and Mothra? Where were they?).

Graphics: 8

Those monsters never looked so good. Too bad the cities could have looked a little better. Hey, where's the zipper?

Sound: 10

From the roars, to the laser blasts, to the highly campy voice acting. It's one of those things that make the game oh-so very special.

Gameplay: 8

The game offers a stiff challenge to beginners. The AI can be a little cheap at certain times. But all-in-all it's just plain fun to beat the snot out of Megalon.

Replay Value: 9

Unlocking all the monsters, unlocking all the cities and viewing all the gallery art. But again, where's Jet Jaguar and Hadora the smog monster?

Final Thoughts:

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is a definite buy for anyone who loves fighting games or just plain likes Godzilla. This game is a real blast. I'll take this over Super Smash Bros. Melee any day of the week.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/22/02, Updated 10/22/02