Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee

System: Gamecube
Release Date: 2002
Published By: Atari
Reviewed by: Darien
Rating:

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is not what one would call a good game, but it is exactly as good a game as anyone who buys a game called Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee would expect.

Let me explain. You see, this is a tournament fighting game about giant monsters beating the tar out of each other and destroying Tokyo. It reproduces faithfully the Godzilla experience, all the way down to the ponderous movement of the beasts. This does not exactly create a compelling gameplay experience, but it does create an experience that will keep four Godzilla fans - or, hell, four guys who are at least amused by Godzilla - happy for quite some time as they trash the city and smack each other with buildings.

The single-player game is useless. Forget about that, and go get the cheat codes off the internet so you can unlock all the monsters and all the levels and not have to play through the boring-ass story mode by yourself fixty times to do it. Then get some buddies who are not above overlooking flaws in gameplay and have a blast in the various multiplayer modes. The modes vary from simple last-monster-standing brawls to matches scored according to how much damage you do to the city (my personal favourite), and the levels contain various powerups that may restore your health, charge your attacks, or sic the vicious Mothra on your opponents.

Pretty much all the classic Godzilla monsters are here for your enjoyment; hell, you even get Orga, Mothra, and the Smog Monster, though the latter two are environment hazards rather than playable characters. The only quandry is why Mecha King Ghidorah, easily the baddest in the ass of all the monsters ever, sucks so badly in this game. The world may never know.

Buy this game from Amazon.com!