Godzilla: Save the Earth

Quick! Tell the Earth Defense Force to pull on their white cotton gloves and hop into their toy tanks! The monsters are coming, and they're looking to remodel your town!

Godzilla: Save the Earth is almost here, hot on the heels of last year's surprising sleeper hit, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee. I say УsurprisingФ because historically, Godzilla games have been less than outstanding; however, with G:DAMM, Atari and developer Pipeworks broke that dubious trend by creating a delightfully fun rock Сem, sock Сem monster version of WWE and Street Fighter. G:DAMM was heralded as a great party game but it did have some faults; the monsters pretty much all had the same fighting style, and unlocking every character was a pain in the Baragon (you had to replay the entire game with each character to unlock another, and you couldn't do it on Easy).

Godzilla: Save the Earth promises to not only correct these issues, but improve almost every aspect of the game. Each monster will now have its own distinct fighting style and a wide range of special attacks, including those seen in the movies like Mechagodzilla's laser-beam eyes and, naturally, Godzilla's radioactively stinky bad breath. As well, each monster will now have uniquely different attributes like attack, speed, defense and weapons that can also be upgraded, creating a nice variety ranging from slow but powerful brutes to fast but weak hit-and-runners. After all, not all monsters are created equal.

Ah, yes, the monsters. Worry not, Godzilla fans, there are 18 rompin' stompin' monsters in total, including classics like Rodan, King Ghidorah, Megalon and Gigan, and relative newcomers SpaceGodzilla, Megaguirus and Moguera. Fans will definitely approve the addition of Mothra as a playable character (previously, she was only a NPC) who, in a unique twist, starts off as a silk-spitting larva and can be transformed into the adult winged Mothra whenever you wish. Another pleasant surprise is the inclusion of Jet Jaguar, a giant Ultraman-like robot who can fly and transform into a smaller, faster version of himself for a quick getaway or to throw in a few rapid-fire attacks.

The maps are bigger, more destructible, and take place in 10 major cities including Los Angeles, New York, Osaka, San Francisco, Seattle and (surprise!) Tokyo, all complete with familiar landmarks, skyscrapers and geography. Similar to MechAssault, the destructible buildings will now show more realistic, real-time damage like gaping holes with the internal framework visible inside. The buildings aren't just for looks either; nothing says fun more than picking up an office tower and slamming it over your friend's head.

The single player campaign has been improved by making it a lot easier to unlock secrets. Not only will you beat up various monsters across each map, but you can also participate in several side objectives that earn you points. You don't have to complete these objectives to advance through the campaign, but you will need these points to unlock new monsters and a variety of mini-games in the new Challenge Mode. These mini-games include a UFO space shooter where you take out an assortment of monsters; a Уdefend the fortФ game where you have to protect the TransAmerica tower in San Francisco from attacking UFOs; a Уmonster roundupФ where you have to throw enemies into special zones, sort of a monster version of basketball; and several more mini-games we haven't seen yet. The addition of Challenge Mode seems like it will add a nice alternative for those who may want to do something other than beat up giant bugs.

Multiplayer is where the big fun will be, however, thanks to support for up to four players both on and off Xbox Live. The multiplayer modes include the standard one-on-one Versus mode, or the aptly named Melee mode, where players can battle it out in a free-for-all mayhem or together in teams. Unfortunately, the Melee camera looks less than impressive; if there are more than two players, the camera shifts to a top-down angle so you can view everyone at once, and zooms in or out depending how far apart the players are from each other. This could make it difficult to see what you're doing, especially if the players are at the extreme edges of the map. We'll have to see how it works in the final build, though. Regardless, if you get tired of beating up your friends, you can make up your own fun games like УBuilding DodgeballФ or УMothra Larva SoccerФ.