Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee

"Godzilla's GCN Debut has Ups and Downs..."

INTRO

Oh no! It’s Godzilla! We must flee! ::mouth continues to move though he says nothing:: Uh, that’s right, Godzilla has made his way into a video game on the Gamecube, and I was curious, and quite frankly, amused enough to give ‘Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee’ a try. The basic first impression surrounding this game might be that it’s ‘for kids,’ and perhaps in ways it is. But the gargantuan battles, which often involve throwing buildings at your opponent to defeat them, hint otherwise. The game is serious about its battles, as the title may tend to indicate. But is this game for you? Well, here are my thoughts.

The game revolves around fighting, obviously, and there is little you can do besides just that. You may choose from the beginning of the game between three monsters, Godzilla ‘90s, Anguirus or Megalon. It is in full 3D, unlike the popular Super Smash Brothers: Melee, which tackled the genre with a 2D perspective. Being a 3D fighter, you have to be careful about how you attack, as missing with your monster’s generally sluggish maneuvers is quite easy. But besides that, your environments are completely interactive meaning you can destroy buildings and the like. You may even pick up smaller buildings, which you can proceed to hurl at your opponent.

Overall, there are a few things to keep in mind before trying this game out. One. Don’t expect Super Smash Brothers: Melee. Two. It is as weird as you might think it could be. Three. This game is deceptively difficult. And lastly, if you do not like the Godzilla movies, I wouldn’t even consider renting it. Destroy all Monsters is almost completely aimed at the diehard Godzilla fan. The fighting is intense, and you probably won’t get the hang of it for a while. Let’s face it, learning to control an 80-ton dino may take some getting used to.

Now that I have given you the basics, time we moved onto the real bulk of the review, then… Enjoy.

THE STORY — 7/10

What… story? Well, let’s see. Alien invaders with a bad sense of humor are threatening to take over the world. More specifically, they are aiming to suck up all our natural resources “because that’s what they do” and when they are finished with that, they will proceed to destroy the planet. The alien leader broadcasts all this to Earth through a slightly bizarre telecast. And yes, true to Godzilla fashion, he makes bad jokes. Ugh. Luckily enough for us, the broadcast does not last long.

Monsters to the rescue, right? But wait! These aliens, having such great intelligence, have decided to use our own Monsters against us. They have used their powerful mind control technology to well, take control of the Monsters, and they are now wreaking havoc all over the planet. You will assume the position of what seems to be the only creature not affected by the alien’s mind control, and will set out to, you guessed it, destroy all of the other monsters in an attempt to save the world.

This story is very close to the plot of the most recent Godzilla movie, “Godzilla 2000.” As Godzilla movie plots are almost entirely a bad excuse to get Godzilla to beat the living daylights out of some enemy, the story of this game is not much better. The story is, at best, an attempt to give some meaning to why you have to fight all your opponents in adventure mode. The idea is that there are several cities being attacked by these monsters, and one by one you must eliminate them to save the planet. Well, it does better than most fighting games.

GAMEPLAY — 7/10

Now, this is what will make or break the game. It’s all about this category. And since there’s a lot going on here, it will be pretty lengthy.

Destroy All Monsters, or just DAM for short (and for novelty), is an interesting game that excels in some areas and falls flat on its face in others. First, there is the fighting itself. Usually, it is slow-paced. Every character is slow and the slower ones can barely move at all. Every character has the ability to use a variety of punching and kicking attacks using the A, B and X buttons, a stunted jump with the R shoulder button, a grab with A+B and a special attack by either tapping or holding the Z button. Now, there are possibilities of executing a special maneuver, sometimes a combo depending on the character, but the actual results are somewhat lacking. In other words, what you get is not worth what you put into it. Fighting a computer opponent, who is constantly using the absolute most annoying tactics to defeat you, there is never enough time to execute any above average combos.

That brings us into the realm of the AI in this game. Even on the easiest levels, it quickly becomes irritating how quickly and efficiently it uses the absolute, dare I say cheapest techniques possible to win. If it has a special maneuver that has even the slightest potential to be abused, it will abuse it. There is no question in the matter. Instead of difficulty levels of Easy, Medium and Hard, they should have named them “Annoying,” “Maddening” and “Sanity Parasite.” But seriously, the suspiciously powerful AI makes for some fundamental problems in the game, which I will explain.

For one, each arena’s limit is a green electrical fence. My thoughts are that, in the game sense, they were put there to contain the rampaging monster’s destruction to as small an area as possible. And that is a nice touch, were it not for the fact that these fences are exploited much too easily. In fact, most of your battling against harder level computer, or even easy computers in later levels will take place right up against the fences, where the computer will constantly throw you and pin you against. There being no dodging maneuver to speak of and certainly no means to make your gargantuan beast actually move somewhat quickly in an attempt to escape, you’ll often find yourself helplessly being juggling into an electrical fence that causes high amounts of damage. All you have in defense is a worthless blocking maneuver, used by holding Y, which almost never works. Worse still, the fences are not easy to see, so if the camera, which I will talk about in an upcoming section, decides to betray you and swivels in a way you were not expecting, you may find yourself running into one of these things unexpectedly. This is very frustrating, as many of the bosses are so difficult that you have no choice but to run when things look grim.
Now, where am I going with this? When you first start a game in DAM, you have only three available creatures to choose from. This is not good at all. DAM is primarily a game made for multi-player, much as Super Smash Brothers: Melee was. But unfortunately, to gain any new characters, or new levels for that matter, you must go through the Adventure mode and deal with the wrath of the AI. It is by no means impossible, but at the same time, it isn’t exactly fun. Big problem. The challenge the computers present is not one that invigorates you to try harder and possibly practice to learn the finer points of the game in an attempt to become better. It is more of a difficulty that makes you want to break your controller in half and let those aliens destroy everything. You will need much patience, not to mention sanity, to defeat Adventure mode enough to unlock all the characters. And then, after you never want to deal with another battle with Godzilla ever again, you will finally have a decent amount of characters and stages to support some multi-player games.

However, multi-player, with enough Monsters to choose from, is very entertaining. In fact, I’ll go as far to say that it is a blast. Yes, even after going through the tortuous Adventure Mode. The “Destruction Mode,” where you have to destroy more buildings than your opponent, is a very original and is a perfect outlet for AI-induced impulses to smash things. However, as I stated earlier, you will have to fight hard to be able to fully enjoy the game’s real purpose: to be able to watch and be a part of Godzilla-style slugfests whenever you want to. Is it worth it? That’s hard to say. I swear I would never play the game again after some of the battles I went through in Adventure Mode, but now that I’m past that, I’m glad I did put forth the effort. Is it too little too late? Yeah, in most ways it is. Is there some satisfaction? I think so. But I do know one thing: once I finally finish getting all the extra characters, I’m never playing Adventure again. And that is basically the core of the argument. A very fun game is raveled in a very bad one. Adventure mode is a chore to go through, but if you truly want to experience the game it all it’s city-flattening goodness, you have no choice.

CONTROL and CAMERA — 8/10

The controls in DAM are somewhat shaky, but what is always present is the fact that nothing is very fast. If you’ve ever played Super Smash Brothers Melee (I know I’m alluding to it too much), nearly every character plays like Bowser. The fastest characters in this game move quickly only if you hold the L shoulder button down to run, and the slowest ones might as well be glued to the wreckage beneath their massive and scaly feet. Attacks are also slowed down a bit from, say, a Street Fighter game. Whatever control you may have is always affected by this and at first you’ll be smashing buttons while your Monster still works on finishing the first move you used. It takes time, but eventually it will become easier to control your Monster, and then you can focus on actually fighting.

Battling itself is interesting in itself. The novelty of controlling a huge lizard or robot sticks with the game for quite some time, or at least until you battle through Adventure mode a couple times. Beyond that, the controls are quite simple, even the special attacks and Z button attacks. Each Monster has a small yellow meter located beneath its Health bar called its Energy Meter. This Meter’s energy is used up every time you use a Z button attack, which are always signature attacks of the character. By tapping Z, you get a quick maneuver. For example, Godzilla will spit an Atomic Fireball. If you hold Z down, your Monster will charge up for as long as your hold or until the Energy Meter is drained, and will then release a supercharged attack. This will either be a more powerful version of the Tap Z attack or sometimes an entirely different one. After the Energy Meter’s power is used, it will recharge at a steady rate.

There are three items in the game. The Health Power-Up is clearly identified as a green cross in a green circle, and it restores health. The Energy Power-Up, a thunderbolt in a Yellow circle, refills your Energy Meter and also speeds up the rate at which it replenishes. Lastly, the Rage Power-Up, a blue explosion-like thing inside of a golden circle, makes the Monster who gets it go into Rage Mode. In Rage Mode, attack power is increased and a special Rage Attack can be used by pressing A+X. These items are dropped by passing flying saucers, courtesy of the aliens. Now, while three items may not seem to be a big deal, they can give whoever gets them a huge edge. Using items, and being lucky enough to be close to where they appear, can literally shift the control of a battle from one Monster to another.

Finally, there is the fact that Camera will always be a factor in any game. Bad cameras can ruin the experience. The camera in this game is somewhat irritating at times, but is not horrible. As there are buildings all around you, and some are taller than even the biggest monster, they will occasionally get in between you and the camera. That’s not a problem, however, as they conveniently go translucent so that you will not miss any of the battle. It does sometimes swivel in a bad way, and that is never good. But I have found that camera in 3D fighting games is usually unsatisfactory, so it wasn’t like this was unexpected and disappointing. The final word is that if it doesn’t bother you much, it’s a good camera. This camera usually meets that criterion.

GRAPHICS — 9/10

This game is a visual feast, with plenty of detailed characters and amazingly accurate cities. The game has a total of around a dozen real places to battle in, all of which are strikingly designed and have photo-like accuracy to the real cities. The option of battling during either the night or the day is also interesting, and fighting at night always proves to be fantastic, with a beautifully done nighttime skyline. This level of precision gives the game an original feel, and it only helps the validity of the plot, though it is extremely hard to get into. The original stages are also well done, being very accurate to the movies they were extracted from.

The Monsters, however, is where the graphics truly come through and make this game worthwhile. Every monster is rendered exactly as it was in the movies they appeared in, and in some cases, they actually look better. Godzilla, for one, looks much less like the puppet he appeared to be in his movies, actually moving realistically and having noticeably scaly skin. The special attacks, such as Godzilla’s Atomic Breath, look wonderful in the game, and again, are often done better than they were in the movies. Fans of the series will relish in the superb presentation of their favorite creatures, and their attacks that were pulled straight from the films.

SOUND — 7/10

Music in this game is somewhat lacking, and almost completely extraneous to the battles. Truthfully, the music is very passive although it is clearly supposed to create an atmosphere of tension. While battling, I commonly forget there is music, if I even notice it to start. It is generic music at best, but the important thing is that it does not get in the way of the fights. At times, if you are aware enough while playing to actually notice it, it isn’t too shabby. But the point is that there will hardly ever be times when you aren’t concentrating so much on fighting that you will be able to notice the music. This is better than music that gets in the way or otherwise hinders the game experience but is not fantastic in any respect.

The real treat in the category of Sound, however, is the “voices” of the Monsters. You cannot rightly call is speaking, more like an assortment of grunts, squeals and roars. But to any person that has seen a Godzilla movie, these sound bits will complete the experience of the game. Every character has their own unique “voice” and during battle, unlike the music, you will notice the sounds they make. To anyone who hasn’t seen a Godzilla movie they will come off as simple sound bits but to a fan they will be exactly as they remember them to be. And in an area that could easily be botched and would then almost completely spoil the genuine “Godzilla feel” of the game, Atari comes through with an excellent transition from the movies, again. The 7/10 is only that high thanks to this fact.

BUY OR RENT?

If you don’t like Godzilla, don’t even rent it. Seriously, the game will not appeal to anyone who doesn’t enjoy the idea behind the movie series. But that pretty much goes without saying. If you like Godzilla, or even if you don’t particularly like him but have seen some movies that you thought weren’t so bad, maybe rent the game for a few laughs. If you are a fan or fanatic, definitely rent it. I would only buy it if you find you have the patience necessary to deal with the AI and you are willing to put long hours into Adventure Mode in the quest to unlock extras. If you can do that, then you have yourself a surprisingly fun game that will keep you entertained for a long time with its surplus of multi-player features and battles.

OVERALL — 7/10

RECAP

Story — 7/10
Gameplay — 7/10
Control and Camera — 8/10
Graphics — 9/10
Sound — 7/10
Overall — 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/02, Updated 12/27/02