Godzilla returns for another fight fest on the PS2. But is it time to crown him King of the monsters or is it time to put that rubber suit back in the closet?
Godzilla Unleashed is another in the long running monster battle games based on the giant lizard where you control a large selection of monsters and battle it out over cityscapes. The story starts with unexplained asteroids crashing to Earth, leaving strange crystals in their wake. Through this the inhabitants of Monster Island are set free and the rampage begins.
In the story mode you are able to play as a monster from a specific faction. Initially you only have the Earth Defenders faction to choose from which includes Godzilla 2000 and Fire Rodan. After a few plays you will earn points to unlock a total of 18 monsters over three more factions. Included in the Earth Defenders are Godzilla 90’s and Mothra, the Global Defence Force have Mechagodzilla 2, Jet Jaguar and Kiryu, the Aliens faction includes Gigan and Megalon and the Mutants faction have Destoroyah and Battra.
Each monster has the basic moves of high and low attack, block, jump and throw. There are also character specific moves like a flying attack and whiptail. Each monster also has a distance attack like a gravity beam or fire attack.
Graphically this game is reasonable, each monster is well represented and animated, the playing field is also interactive, allowing you to run for cover behind buildings and also take the fight to the sea. Whilst the monsters look cool, the environments looks are very bland, with giant cities looking like small towns, but with the ability to destroy these buildings and also use them as projectiles they will not be around for long anyway.
The fighting mechanics on this game are very slow, I know you are controlling giant monsters and of course they are not the quickest when compared to Ryu and Ken, but for a fighting game this really slows the action down to a snails pace. The fights themselves are laboured efforts, it feels like you have no real control, an attack is not instant, and the blocking is just ridiculous.
If you can be bothered to play through the game you will open up other characters to play as and you can also invite friends over for a 4 player battle, either in teams or as individuals. This is slightly more fun than the story mode, though it does help if everyone playing are fans of the genre as they will be able to overlook the games flaws, but the enjoyment is short-lived and there are much better multiplayer games out there.
