Reviewed: February 5, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Atari

Developer
Pipeworks Software

Released: November 16, 2004
Genre: Fighting
Players: 4
ESRB: Teen

9
9
9
9
9.3

Supported Features:

Xbox Live Features

This giant lizard (who has ranged from 165’ to 325’ during his career) has seen almost as much screen time as any major Hollywood star, getting his start in 1954 and starring in no less than 27 Japanese films and a few U.S. productions including the 1998 debacle with Matthew Broderick, which I own and proudly admit to enjoying.

Godzilla originally got his start as a villain, terrorizing Tokyo and reducing the city to a pile of rubble. It took ten years and four more movies before Godzilla became the unlikely hero, the defender of the Japanese way of life, when he took on King Ghidorah with the help of Mothra and Rodan. Godzilla's relationship with mankind would gradually improve until, by the 1970s, Godzilla was considered a full-blown "good guy". Much like a nation’s prize fighter, Godzilla would be called upon to defend the country’s honor time and time again fighting all sorts of horrifying creatures from both Earth and outer space.

In Godzilla: Save the Earth the threat is once again from outer space, and much like the old Batman movie (the one with Adam West), the entire rogues gallery has been assembled to give Godzilla the ultimate challenge as he must defeat 18 powerful monsters and save not just Japan, but the entire planet.

The level of detail and sense of scale is amazing. Cars and tanks are mere dots on the landscape. Sometimes you will be taking damage and have to closely scan the screen to see the formation of tanks rumbling down the city street of the squadron of attack choppers flying in over the river. A stomp of the foot, a swish of the tail, or a powerful blast from your potent breath weapon generally takes care of the human agenda.

The actual battles are more akin to wrestling than fighting. All monsters have various classes of attacks included Blunt, Edged, Weapons, and Special Abilities. You’ll be doing a lot of grabs and throws, both of the monsters and random environmental objects. Nearly everything in the level can be used as a weapon. Rip a smokestack from the ground and wield it as a club, hurl a supertanker from the pier across town into the face of your opponent or pick up an entire apartment complex and smash it into the enemy. I have never played a game with this sheer amount of total destruction.

The breath weapons are great fun since you charge them up then unleash a sustained blast, all the while being able to control the direction in real-time with the right stick. This allows you to face one direction and spray fire or atomic energy, or whatever it is coming out of your mouth in a wide arc taking out choppers or you can focus you attack on a single target. You can even get into that classic blast-meets-blast encounter where two breath weapons meet in the middle and you have to furiously tap your controller to push back their blast.

There are some interesting power-ups that include a Rage Attack, health and energy canisters, and perhaps my favorite, the Air Strike, which, depending on your chosen character might be Mothra coming in for an attack, or some assistance from the military or even the alien invaders orchestrating this tournament.

There are multiple game modes including the Action mode where you will spend a lot of your initial time. This is where you unlock most of the game content. When you start off you only have a handful of monsters and locales to fight. You earn battle points by quickly defeating the enemy, destroying as many collateral military targets as possible, and locating up to five hidden G-Cells scattered about the level.

The nicest feature of the Battle Point system is that while each monster’s earned points are individually tracked, all points are centrally pooled allowing you to purchase new monsters and cities for single and multiplayer battles. The reward system is actually quite “evil” since you must first purchase a monster or city “pack” for a large sum of battle points then go back and individually purchase each city and monster in that pack. It can get quite expensive to fully unlock everything Godzilla has to offer, but the game is just so addicting that you will have no trouble doing so.

Versus mode is for one or two players and is much like any traditional fighting game. Pick your champion and your location and fight to the death. Melee mode supports up to four players in a multi-round battle royal, and you can even team up for two-on-two battles. You can opt to score these games based on KO’s or how much of the city you can destroy in the given time limit.

Survival mode puts a single player and a single monster against a series of encounters to see how long they can last. You earn minimal health between battles, so your objective is to take down the enemy quickly and with the least amount of damage to yourself.

There are also Challenges, or mini-games that include Vorillium Basketball where you and three computer-controlled monsters shoot hoops. This is a strategic blend of precision shooting and the occasional monster attack to interrupt their flow. Battleships basically puts you on the edge of the water and you must take out passing battleships with your breath weapon. Of course you need to smash the environment and any land-based military targets to replenish your breath weapon meter, so there is a balancing act going on the entire time.

The best part about Godzilla is just how diverse each character really is. A good example would be Mothra who starts off in larva form then, when you decide, can switch to adult form with a fresh health meter. Orga can literally absorb the essence from any creature it can grab while SpaceGodzilla must plant energy crystals around the city then stay close to maintain his energy levels. It is just so much fun playing each and every monster in this game that you almost hate to switch characters, but the other monsters are just as irresistible.

Without a doubt, this is one of the few games in the GCM office that literally captivated anyone who played it. You’d show off a recently unlocked monster and the next thing you know you are three hours into a monster marathon and loving every minute of it. Save the Earth might not be the most advanced fighting game of 2004, but I can honestly say that no other fighting game in the past two years has given me this much pleasure.

As good as these monsters look standing still, their animations are flawless as they stomp their way through town, swinging tails, flapping wings, biting chunks from buildings, or stomping out the traffic jam in downtown Manhattan. Combat moves are slow and awkward but they should be. These are giant creatures. When appropriate, the animations are fluid and fast, but most of the time this is a battle of wrestling giants, more sumo than kickboxing.

There are some nice subtle touches like interactive buildings that glow, and traffic that flows through town, seemingly oblivious to the giant monsters in their rearview mirror. Everything in the game can be destroyed, and often these objects have multiple levels of destruction. Buildings will crack, windows will shatter and eventually the building will sink to the ground in a smoking pile of rubble. Water erupts with white foam when large objects or monsters splash into it.

Special effects are huge. Power-ups have a distinctive colorful glow and the breath weapons have to be seen to be believed. You can toss enemies into power lines and watch the resulting fireworks or toss them into a cluster of oil storage tanks and enjoy a toasty fireball that lights up the surrounding city. There are day and night missions, and both have their own subtle charms and exquisite details.

The bonus section is a virtual library of production artwork for both the game and the upcoming feature film. You can pan and zoom these images much like any interactive multimedia disc. One of my favorite images is the panicked design team running down the street with a fire-breathing Godzilla hot in pursuit.

The gameplay is rich with the sounds of destruction and it all comes at you in glorious Dolby Digital 3D surround. The developers worked with Toho to secure the actual sounds from the films so every scream, roar, hiss, and breath weapon blast is 100% authentic. The rest of the sound package consists of explosions, crumbling buildings, and other standard sounds of a city being laid to waste.

With that in mind we can estimate that Godzilla will take the casual gamer 12-15 hours to finish, and unless you are getting maximum battle points you will likely have to replay a few of your favorite characters over to earn enough points to unlock everything in the Store. Artwork is cheap but buying cities and monsters can run into the hundreds of thousands of points.

The multiplayer battles are insanely fun, both versus and melee and taking the fight onto Xbox Live is just as fun. I was amazed at how many people are playing this game online and now that you can find Save the Earth for $20 I’m guessing the number of gamers will only be going up.

Godzilla: Save the Earth is likely to become the sleeper hit of the year. This game is definitely not getting the praise it deserves, especially by the anal-retentive media that wouldn’t know a FUN game if it came out of the water and breathed fire on their ass. At least the fans have spoken and they recognize this game to be a fun and challenging fighter that will please both gamers and Godzilla fans alike.