Anyone who has ever sat in rush hour traffic for longer than they would have liked on a day that was hotter than it really should have been in a car that was past it's prime has had "The Urge". "The Urge" to destroy everything around them in a gleeful rage that will end only when the source of their frustration is trampled into oblivion. Simply put, they wished they were Godzilla and could stomp the bajeezus out of everything. I've been there - wow, have I been there. I grew up on Godzilla movies and I have been consistently disappointed by any game that game from the legendary Toho license. None of them captured the campy joy of two guys in rubber suits kicking the stuffing out of each other on a miniature version of Tokyo. None of them until now, that is.
"Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee" is a game that got the license perfect in every sense of the word. You really do feel like you are controlling a twenty thousand ton dinosaur-thing as it battles a rival in a world urban center. Part of that is intended with the visuals, sound and gameplay…part of it isn't. The controls leave something to be desired and the finesse that you find in most fighters these days is missing from the game. But, they manage to get the feel of the game right, and that makes the flaws of this game easy to over look.
Visually, the game is middle of the road. They didn't break new ground with the graphics, nor did they do that exceptional of a job within the current visual standard. The textures stretch around the joints of the monsters and you start to recognize the cookie-cutter building models. Part of me wonders if this may have been intentional on the part of the game designers. The Godzilla films were not known for being visual feasts; in fact they were the epitome of camp. So, if you keep that in mind you can forgive the stretching textures that look like poorly tailored rubber or the buildings that look like they were built out of cardboard instead of steel and concrete, since both of those are things you would find in the movies.
If they were trying to emulate the visual flair (or lack thereof) of the Godzilla movies in their artwork, they flat out stole the sounds. Yes, really Godzilla's scream, the real King Ghidorah's weird hyena laugh, and the real MechaGodzilla's mechanical screech. Every monster sound effect in the game is directly lifted from the original Toho source material. If you are a real dork you can even tell the difference between the Classic Godzialla's roar and the roar of Godzilla 2000. The sounds are a small little comfort that further lend to making sure you believe that you are a giant monster stomping across a city.
The real brilliance of this game is not in its visuals or sound, but in its gameplay. The game has five different modes of play ranging from the traditional story and arcade styles of combat to survival modes to four-player melee madness and my favorite…the Destruction Mode. There is no feeling like being able to pick-up a four-story residence and hurl it across a map only to see how many other buildings you can smash with it. That sentence pretty much sums up the Destruction Mode in which you race another player to see how much of an area you can smash in a given amount of time. It's a silly kind of pleasure that tickles you deep on the inside. But, it fits right in with everything that is Godzilla. The mayhem, the destruction, the rubber suit monsters, the game modes bring them all out in a stellar way.
The only real flaw in the game is its fairly basic combat system. The controls are clumsy and simplistic and most moves are easily accomplished by button mashing. This allows for quick learning and mastery of the game, but it leaves one with a feeling of wanting more. Throws are incredibly cheap, as are some of the power-ups that float across the map. However, you could chalk it up to the fact that you're trying to maneuver a 280-foot tall lizard through a narrow street and fight off an attack from another giant thing all at the same time. I don't think grace and finesse are the two words that best describe that situation. It's a forgivable flaw when you're playing with friends, but its gets annoying when you're trying to beat the game and unlock some of the special characters, levels and images.
For me, this is a dork's dream come true. I get to play as my favorite Japanese rubber suit monsters and stomp the %@$# out of cities across the globe and my friends at the same time. All the flaws of the game go completely out the window because I buy into the movie license. But, that won't do it for everyone, if you are looking for a tight complex fighter, then this is definitely not the game for you. But, if you have never played a fighter this game could get you started. Its controls allow for even a novice player to become a veteran after a few rounds, and that's something to put in the plus column for the game, along with the fact that the game is genuinely fun. It's not great - it won't go down as a classic…but…it's fun. And that says a lot.
And the TV says to me, "I will eat your children." I look back, and say, "Only if I get to play their games after you're done."
