Godzilla Game Makes You the Monster, New Trailer Shows Crazy Kaiju Variety

Godzilla is coming, and he’s ready to prove that he’s the king of monsters. In the just-revealed July 14, 2015 release exclusive to the PlayStation 4, players will take control of the original Kaiju and do what everyone wants to do: fight other giant monsters and destroy a damn city.

Indeed, that’s what Shinsuke Fujita-san, producer of the game for Bandai Namco intended from the beginning. He wanted a game that captured the feel of the classic films; that means you can destroy everything, and you’ll fight monsters – up to two at a time in this particular instance. You’ll fight in locations that mimic those films: cities, ports, industrial districts, and mountain regions, and you’ll gain power the more you destroy. Godzilla starts at his original movie standard 50m, but as you defeat other kaiju and destroy more public spaces, you can increase his size, power, and defeat everyone to become king of the monsters.

Of course, Godzilla isn’t alone in this game; indeed, he’s joined by kaiju both major and… less well-known. A short list includes Biollante, Jet Jaguar (!), King Ghidorah, Destroyah, Mothra, Mothra Larva, Gigan, Hedorah, Mecha Godzilla, Space Godzilla, Movie Godzilla, and many more.

There are three-way battles. There are crazy alternate camera angles that temporarily show the point of view of humans at ground level or inside a high-rise building. There’s online play that makes the battle worldwide. Most importantly, there are major, knock-down, drag-out battles between giant monsters, one of which you are controlling, that play out in the plodding manner of the classic movies.

In a hands-on demo of the game, I played as the titular, classic version of Godzilla. Some expository dialogue from a human politician and a scientist gave all the set-up needed: Godzilla is coming, and has gotten to the city. With that, you take over as the monster and start destroying. After a couple of buildings go boom thanks to fire breath, a short head-first charge, or a powerful tail slash, the humans start attacking with planes and helicopters. They’re little more than annoyance, though, and your fire breath can easily swat them out of the sky. Suddenly, reports of another monster come in, and King Ghidorah lands in the middle of the city. The two monsters can continue to destroy the city, but are also drawn to immediately fight each other, and fight we did.

The game, thanks to the classic style, is not a traditional fighting game. The kaiju move deliberately through the city, as the producers joked, “no one wants to play 1998 Godzilla here.” The more you destroy, the more the humans will send at the battle – the scales tip both ways, though, and Godzilla (and other monsters) can progressively get stronger through destruction goals and defeating other kaiju, absorbing some of their strength and getting physically larger and more powerful. Aside from the brief moments where you can activate unique cinematic camera angles to “study the monsters,” the gameplay is very straight forward. Your goals are simply to destroy the city and defeat the opponent monster.

After fighting Ghidorah for awhile, and getting his health down only a fraction, a third monster entered the fray. Space Godzilla arrived to panic from the humans, and the three Kaiju began to battle each other. Now the game becomes about your strategy: both these monsters are very powerful, and if you get backed into a corner, they will team-up against you. However, if you can manage to put one of them between you and the other, it can make taking them down much easier. Once comfortable with the basic controls, you can add in more powerful attacks by roaring, increasing the strength of your basic moves. There is also an incredibly satisfying grab, after which you can bodyslam the enemy, bite them, or blast fire directly in their faces. It’s somewhat difficult to pull off, but that makes it all the more fun when you do.

Overall, the game is fun, and the difficulty balance seems to be just right, enough to make you feel like Godzilla can kick some kaiju butt, but the victory needs to be earned and some strategy implimented. The cities feel a bit lifeless, with the only humans around being those in vehicles attacking you; it’s a minor gripe, but it does go against the whole “classic cinematic feel” they consistently said they were working towards. Still, Godzilla is one to watch for July, and PS4 owners should have a lot of fun mastering and powering up each beast, destroying old-school looking sets, and becoming the new king of the monsters.