KAIJU UNIVERSE

Well I got Unleashed.....and it's great!! Read on for a review (soon to be added), as well as a rundown of the roster.

Roster:

Earth Defenders:

Godzilla 2000

Anguirus

King Caesar (Wii only)

Fire Rodan

Baragon

Varan (Wii only)

Godzilla 1954 (Wii only)

Godzilla 1990s

Battra (PS2 only)

Global Defense Force:

Kiryu

Jet Jaguar

Mecha-King Ghidorah

MOGUERA

Mechagodzilla II

Atragon (unplaybable)

Alien:

Gigan Final Wars

Megalon

King Ghidorah

Orga

Mechagodzilla (Wii only)

Gigan 1970s (PS2 only)

Mutants:
Destoroyah

Krystalak (Wii only)

Obsidius

Titanosaurus (Wii only)

Megaguirus

Biollante (Wii only)

SpaceGodzilla

Review:

Ever since January 2007, Godzilla fans awaited the release of the latest game in Atari's Godzilla series. Titled Godzilla: Unleashed, the game promised over 16 monsters including two brand new originals. Over time, monsters where reveald until the roster was officaily confirmed at 26 monsters, 24 of which where actually playable in story mode. However, the roster seemed to be the only thing going for the game according to some fans and everyting else was a total disater. I however, along with quite a few others thought it lived up to the hype. This review will tell you exactly what I thought of the game.

When one looks back at Destroy All Monsters for the GameCube, you see a small roster of merely 11 monsters. Over time, that expanded to 12, then 18, then finally 26 towering beasts ready to take each other on. Godzilla: Unleashed offers this roster, and it dissapoints few. Including new monsters such as Biollante, Titanosaurus, Varan, Godzilla 1954, even King Caesar, and two originals Krystalak and Obsidius, Unleashed excels in roster size, even if it lacks those monsters such as Zilla, Hedorah and Monster X. Each monster is well made and there are few "clones" (only three pairs in total). Unfortunately, not every monster is 100% true to it's movie couterpart. Some examples of this would be Godzilla 1954, who is much faster than he should be and is able to pull off a few un-fitting attacks, Mechagodzilla who instead of Rainbow Eyebeams has white and green beams, a flamethrower (something not seen in any incarnation of Mechagodzilla) and benable fingers (although fortunatley he can still use his finger missiles) and Titanosaurus, who while fun to play as still has a few un-fitting moves. Overall however, playing as each of the 26 monsters is very fun and will keep you buisy mastering each one's moveset.

When it comes to gameplay, there seems to be something missing. While in the last games you could pull off combos and airial attacks among other things, this game features a simple moveset that doesn't allow you to constantly be finding new attacks to pull off. However, there are some very fun new twists, such as unlimited burrowing and flying and the new feature called rushing, in which your monster will gain much faster speeds. You can also jump much higher, and while it doesn't really fit monsters of this size and weight, it's still pretty fun. There are some frustraiting things when trying to pull off an attack however, such as preforming the right attack (a swing to the left might be mistaken as a swing up if it's not done perfectly). Still, the gameplay is unique among the last game and while it lacks some things it gains others.

The graphics are easily one of the game's best qualities. The monsters look truly amazing, some of them looking nearly identical to how they where portaid in the movie (Godzilla 2000, for example). There have been some complains about Godzilla 1990s, but I think he looks great. Yes his dorsal fins do look bad, but at least he looks like Godzilla instead of that cat thing we got in Save the Earth. The critical mass effects are very well done and makes each monster look cooler than before. Another thing that looks great is the water effects. It actually looks like real water, and if it weren't for the not so great splashing effects, it would be perfect. The only very big complaint about graphics is that Monster Island looks somewhat unfinished (monsters go through the ground, not so much detail, etc) but overall the graphics really push the Wii to it's limits.

Music is another high point for Unleashed. Each monster has it's own theme, and each one is sounds just as good as the next. Selecting Mecha-King Ghidorah's theme for the menu music was a great choice and really gets the player pumped up to slug it out with some monsters. Overall, while it would have been nice to have seen some Toho music make it in, it's understandable why they where dropped and the music we currently have is great anyway.

While Unleashed is very fun to play and there are many good things to say about it, there is some bad to go along with the good. While many people tend to gripe about the many glitches found in the game, I personally are not bothered by them. What I really don't like is the AI. While some monsters have fairly good AI, most notibley Godzilla 1990s and Destoroyah, most monsters will just let you kick thier butts. One example of this is MOGUERA, who is constintly shutting down. Monsters will also never fly as well, which ruins the fun of fighting some of them (what's a battle against Fire Rodan if he can't fly?). Also, while some monsters never fight back, there are also such monsters who are dubbed "beam spammers", monsters in which are constintly firing thier beam (and example of this is Mechagodzilla). There are also some monsters who never fire their beams (Anguirus for example, although he generally has pretty good AI otherwise). Dispite this seeming very negitive, the rest of the game makes up for the lack of good AI.

Overall, while the lack of good AI and glitches will make some think less of the game, Unleashed was still a great effort and will keep you playing it for a long time. Here's to seeing G4 in the future!

Score: 7.5


last updated 4-21-08