Gaming Target - GameCube: Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee

Written by Tim McGrew on November 06, 2002

Full Review: CRUSH! KILL! DESTROY!

Probably the best thing about Godzilla, when I was growing up, had to be the roar. I remember grabbing a few cardboard boxes, penciling out windows and doors on them and constructing a small city that I could stomp through as I roared insistently pretending I was the giant fire breathing lizard myself. No one was safe from my wrath, especially the tiny Lego men falling out of the boxes as I crushed them. However, when you crush an empty box, there's just no satisfaction from it. There's no sense of destruction and no sense of fear and it in fact, can feel dull. Unfortunately, Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee comes off in the same dull light.

Getting down to the basics of it all, Godzilla is a simple fighter that can be likened to Super Smash Brothers in terms of its style of fighting. Pressing a direction on the controller with a button automatically executes a special move much like SSBM, but the game can't even hope to duplicate the sense of fun that players have when completing a few rounds of Smash Brothers. For starters, even though these giant monsters aren't exactly the most nimble of creatures, the game makes them feel even clunkier then they actually are with slow game speeds and an otherwise poor frame rate. What's even more unfortunate is that the game fails to capture the essence of feeling like a giant among even the tallest of skyscrapers, but instead, makes you feel like a standard normal sized fighter in a miniature town which totally ruins the presence of some of these creatures on screen.

One of the good things about Godzilla is the fact that there are a dozen or so fighters to choose from. However, nine of those need to be unlocked in the adventure mode before you are allowed to use them, even in the four players versus mode. Although that doesn't sound too bad in practice, the adventure mode is too cumbersome to make it worth your time. The computer AI tends to knock you down over and over again before dashing to one of the many power ups that appear randomly during game play. The power ups themselves are devastating with a variety of different functions such as double damage and special energy recovery. He who controls the power ups holds the key to victory in this game which throws a lot of the skill right out the window and creates a far too simple arcade experience with little to no depth.

However, a few neat features are present in the game both graphically and during game play. For example, when one destroys buildings, plumes of smoke rise from the ground and spread through the city. Although the buildings don't look too real, it's still moderately satisfying to crush each and every one of them. Moreover, it's also quite fun to pull houses and buildings straight out of the ground and use them as projectile weapons and utterly level your opponent. The use of environments in that respect is quite entertaining although limited to the two examples listed above.

One of the game's strong points is the ability to break through your opponents defenses with relative ease. Turtlers and scrubs from other fighting games will find no escape here as there are many different ways to smash your opponent's guards with overheads which can be likened to the overhead punches first coined in Super Street Fighter II Turbo from Capcom. Along with this guard break are throws and trips that knock your opponents out. As one would expect, throws are colossal and destroy many buildings upon completion of the move, which isn't to say that you'll be throwing more often than anything else. But when you can, it's satisfying in the end.

While four player fighting is one of the big draws of the game, it isn't nearly as entertaining as one would have liked. There's two ways to fight your friends in this game which include team fights and a veritable free for all of four player action. Either mode isn't particularly exciting with the clunky monsters primarily because there's far too much emphasis on finding and using power ups rather than being locked at the horns in an all out war. What's worse is that a faint wall is placed around the action that gives damage to the monster that is unfortunate enough to run into it. Although in certain fighting games, boundaries are actually used to stunning effect, in Godzilla the boundaries hinder the game in multiple ways causing frustration more so than anything else. How can a group of giant monsters be confined to a rather small arena after all? People will spend more time destroying buildings and uprooting houses rather than actually fighting which is to say that the novelty of the game is more fun to manipulate than the actual game itself.

The graphics in the game aren't too stunning at first glance, but there are little details in certain arenas that make them stand out above the rest. One thing worth mentioning about the graphics has to be the excellent player models which sport a great deal of effects and details and really shine when a player uses a projectile weapon. The lighting in the game is also decent and details monsters and their scales and metal plating as they strike. The arenas are varied but are too uneven in their execution as San Francisco is a rather stunning city to look at, but ultimately dull in comparison to Tokyo. Some of the better details include armies actually testing next generation weapons against you during the game play creating even more interesting lighting effects. The inconsistent frame rates and the overall slow feeling of the game, however, bog down the entire experience greatly.

The sound of the game is probably one of the more interesting facets about Godzilla. For starters, the roars and crushing sounds of the characters are fully present and they will definitely blow you away as you spew nuclear fire all over your enemies. Unfortunately, the orchestrated score is barely heard as the sound effects dwarf any and every soundtrack. Although this sounds typical for a Godzilla game, it's not so typical for fighters in videogames and is actually quite a bit annoying after your 20th battle. The game does support Dolby Pro Logic II surround setups and is remarkably better in comparison to standard stereo setups provided by television sets. If you have surround sound somewhere in your household, this game is only justified when used with such a system.