Directed by Kunio Suzuki

Developed by Natsume

The general rule of thumb is that it’s almost impossible to make a legitimately good Godzilla game. It makes sense when you think about it. The things that make Godzilla movies fun to watch are things that generally make for bad games. Think about any action game you’ve played. Even the most stereotypical badass is built on the idea of being somewhat vulnerable. No matter how tough and powerful Master Chief, or Commander Shepard, or Marcus Fenix is, they’re still just a person, which means they are inherently a bit vulnerable. Additionally, those are fast-paced action games. You move quickly through the levels and combat because they’re humanoid characters specifically created for video games.

Godzilla, by contrast, is not that. He is a large, hulking brute – a force of nature – that is impervious to everything (except for oxygen destroyers and Mothra). Missiles and bombs and gunfire are like the buzzing of flies to him. Plus, he’s also just huge. When you watch a Godzilla movie, it’s hard not to notice that he moves slowly. This is done to enhance the sense of scale, all the while making him more menacing and powerful. Some of the fights in the film franchise are fun, but they rarely leave you feeling like that would make for a good video game. 

One of the big complaints I’ve seen from reviewers is that Godzilla and all the other usable kaiju are slow, immobile, and lack agility. This is a little unfair as it disregards the source material and ignores what the game is going for. To be sure, there are several noticeable and very flawed mechanics to the combat and gameplay, but this isn’t really one of them. A lot of people might have in mind the idea that it was going to be another arena fighting game similar to GameCube and PS2 entries like Save the Earth or Destroy All Monsters Melee. It does have an element of that – as one would expect given the entire film franchise is often predicated on the idea of who will Godzilla battle this time – but that isn’t the kind of game it’s trying to be. 

Godzilla and his kaiju family weren’t exactly designed with video games in mind. Just look at the creature design of monsters like Biollante, Hedorah, King Ghidorah, or Rodan. They’re not really designed to be fast and agile. While those GameCube/PS2 games are fun and worth collecting for Godzilla fans, it is jarring to see those creatures jumping and zipping around. It’s actually a part of why those games don’t quite work. They might be fun, but they don’t really feel like Godzilla.
In this rendition though, Godzilla and company aren’t fast or agile. Mobility is very limited. It takes a little while to get from point A to point B. It’s a much truer Godzilla experience. That’s what makes it refreshing and interesting for Godzilla fans. We haven’t gotten a game that lets us play like that. Slowly barreling through the cities, casually brushing aside missiles and stomping on tanks is – for as repetitive as it is – surprisingly cathartic. It’s probably not much fun for most people, but if you recognize that this game isn’t trying to be that typical kind of fast-paced action game, it actually is a little enjoyable.

Even fighting other kaiju can be exciting. With a more film-based pace, it actually does feel like you are fighting in a classic Godzilla battle. The power and size of the creatures resonates more. While it takes a long, long time before you can do really cool things and mix up your combat style, there is still a bit of strategy that comes into play (even if it is sometimes just “keep your distance and swing the tail”). Scuffles with other monsters feels huge and destructive. The monsters move like they should.  Ultimately, this isn’t exactly what makes a great video game, and it’s probably one source of the turnoff many players have had.

Still, while I’ve genuinely enjoyed the gameplay on the most part with that understanding, there are some pretty glaring flaws. For starters, there’s no block button. I’m totally in favor of not having the creatures fight like they’re in a fighting game and instead act like they do in the films, but a block function wouldn’t contradict that. The inability to block attacks means that when an enemy strikes, you just have to take it. There’s no health bar either, so it’s hard to tell exactly how much damage you’re about to take. It’s really frustrating seeing an attack about to happen and knowing there’s just nothing you can do about it, especially when often it seems like an enemy’s attack has priority over yours. (I’ve found that any time I strike at the same time as the other monster, the other monster’s strike trumps mine.)

Even more frustrating is the lack of any real abilities.  You don’t get any combos from the outset.  It’s one thing to make all of the maps the same and have the tasks be super repetitive. It’s another to make it so that the combat is exactly the same for hours and hours and hours. To be sure, I’ve enjoyed it on the most part. This only becomes a problem on harder difficulties when you face enemy kaiju. 

Hands down the worst reality of the game is that there actually are special moves to unlock, but the unlocking process is insanely tedious and time consuming. During “God of Destruction” mode – the only mode really worthwhile – you rampage through the cities destroying generators and occasionally fighting off other monsters. After you defeat them, you earn resources that you can then use to “evolve” (Godzilla speak for upgrade, apparently) Godzilla.  You also use them to unlock all the other playable monsters, which you can then use in arena battles or to Invade or Defend cities (God of Destruction mode, but with those guys instead of Godzilla). 

Frustration builds as it can take a long, long time to encounter the monster you need, due it is randomization. For example, it took me weeks to encounter Mothra. This is a huge problem because I needed Mothra’s resources to upgrade moves for Godzilla. Until you can fight Mothra, you’re stuck playing the game the same exact way over and over again. Which also means you can’t really try harder difficulties because to have an actual chance to succeed, you need to evolve Godzilla quite a bit. It appears as though monsters show up in levels at random, but it also seems that some monsters show up only (or mostly) in Hard levels. If that’s where Mothra is, then you’re kind of screwed. You can’t really get far on Hard because you need to level up Godzilla, but you can’t level up Godzilla until you get Mothra’s resources, which you can’t get because she’s in Hard levels. What? 

Even more disheartening is when you realize that all of the monsters you unlock function the same way. This means that even if you do unlock all of them, they’ll all be incredibly boring to play as until you gather those resources to level up each monster. Basically, you really need to commit and play for a really, really, really, really long time. Sure, I can honestly say that I mostly enjoyed the game overall, but I can’t say that I’ll want to be doing this any time in the future. There isn’t that much diversity to really keep it interesting and fresh. 

Godzilla is by far the most accurate Godzilla experience we’ve gotten to date, but it’s a far cry from calling it our Arkham series. (See: Batman games were horrible for so long until RockSteady made Arkham Asylum.) Still, while it looks and feels like Godzilla, it’s still an extremely flawed video game that could have stood a little more thought and a lot more diversity – even if it were just diverse maps!

Tales of its awfulness are a bit overstated though. People calling it the worst game of the year or one of the worst games ever are being a bit dramatic and hyperbolic. That’s not to say it’s a good game by any means, but it really isn’t that bad if you look at it for what it is and what it’s trying to be. A lot of reviews seem to ignore this, but it’s also easy to see why. As I said, the things that make me enjoy it as a Godzilla fan are also the things that I would probably hate about it if I were just a gamer who wanted to try a Godzilla game. 

Of course, a Godzilla game is presumably not going to have too much appeal outside of the Godzilla fan base, and generally the Godzilla fan base has been pretty positive about it. This game does have some interesting stuff going on and certainly has something to offer for fans of the giant (not) lizard (seriously, America, stop calling him a giant lizard). And even if you are a big fan and a big gamer, it’s hard to say it’s worth the $60 price tag. Presumably it won’t take long before the price starts to drop though.

And for people who aren’t a fan of Godzilla, well, there’s really nothing for you. Perhaps someday we’ll get a truly decent Godzilla video game, but we haven’t gotten it yet. 

Reductive Rating: Especially bad if you’re not a Godzilla fan. Very mediocre if you are.

Available on PS3 and PS4