Godzilla: Unleashed

Godzilla: Unleashed was the third and final entry into the Pipeworks Godzilla trilogy of games, and, allowing players to take control of everyone’s favourite kaiju to battle giant monsters in the middle of the world’s most famous cities. For fans of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters, as well as Godzilla: Save the Earth, this game is a must-try for any fan of the Godzilla film series.

The Story

Several years after Godzilla: Save the Earth, scientists spot a meteor shower headed towards the planet. These space rocks eventually cause drastic climate changes across the globe, and monsters have begun to attack cities in search of mysterious crystals that have appeared around the world.

The alien race seen in the previous games, the Vortaak, return, and are set on using the crystals to take control of planet Earth. While this might be the most focus that the series has given on story, it doesn’t manage to do anything other than offer a mild distraction from the classic monster versus monster gameplay.

These story sections are displayed through semi-animated illustrations that have a certain charm to their art style, but fail to deliver a narrative with any impact. In fact, if the story was so poor it might be more suitable for the campy nature of the Godzilla series, but instead it leaves players feeling nothing more than ambivalence.

Hear Me Roar

The real meat of the game is the battles and city mission zones, of course, and Godzilla: Unleashed has the largest and most varied selection of monsters in any of the series, while the number differs between the Wii version and Playstation 2 version of the game.

There are four total groups to choose your fighters from: Earth Defenders, which are monsters natural to Earth; Global Defense Force, which are robot mechs used by humans; Aliens, which are monster aligned with the Vortaak fleet; and lastly Mutants, which are a faction that seeks pure power from the crystals found in the game’s various stages.

All of the characters have unique movesets and control schemes. There’s a decent amount of variety because of this, but it does require a bit of training before you jump right into your first battle.

Control Your Inner Monster

Each monster in the game has a basic set of moves like block, walk, brace, jump, run, etc, but each monster is given its own unique set of abilities. Some monsters have the ability to fly, and all monsters have energy attacks that can shake up the feeling of a fight, especially if both monsters use the attack at the same time, which sends the game into ‘duel mode’, creating a cinematic standoff where you have to over power your opponent.

The quality of the controls varies depending on which console you play on. The PS2 version plays just fine, but the Nintendo Wii can be difficult at times. Calibration for the Wii seems to be under-sensitive, and players might find themselves flinging their arms around just to get their monster to attack. There are also frequent issues in monsters doing the wrong attack, as the Wiimote and nunchuck struggle to distinguish between each arm flail.

PROS:

• Huge roster of official Godzilla monsters
• Interesting faction gameplay adds extra layer of complexity
• Variety of attacks, movesets and gameplay modes

CONS:

• Wii controls are poor
• Attacks can be unresponsive
• Some of the monster character models are ugly and poorly textured