Review #758: Godzilla - Domination!

 They don't call him the King of All Monsters for nothin'

 Remember Destroy All Monsters Melee? Well, not content with crafting a then-well received Godzilla game, Atari tasked WayForward with creating a handheld version of that game, and thus Godzilla Domination! was born. With this game, WayForward opted to take inspiration from the King of the Monsters, no, not Godzilla, but rather the old Neo Geo classics, the first game in particular. So what we've got here is a 4-man arena fighting game featuring 6 characters from the world of Godzilla.

 I'm not gonna lie, the game feels more than a bit barebones. There's a very basic Story Mode that ends with you fighting a gigantic Mecha Gidorah, a VS Player Mode and a VS CPU mode. You can have up to four different monsters fight on the same battle, and can divide players and CPUs in teams if you so wish it. The six characters are fairly different from one another, even MechaGodzilla and Godzilla, but movesets are very basic: A and B are different attacks, L blocks and R jumps. You also have to aerial attacks, pressing either A or B on the air, as well as two different charge attacks, with either B or A, and no, you can't attack with the other button you're not charging an attack with, so if you begin a charge you are forcefully committed to it.

 You also get super moves. By landing charged attacks or destroying buildings around you, by stepping over them, you'll build your three-tiered Rage gauge. There are three levels of Rage moves, performed with either L+R, A+B or A+B on the air. First issue: Commands are not universal between characters, this means that while L+R may be Godzilla's level 1 Rage Attack, it's actually King Gidorah's level 2 Rage attack, which is kinda annoying when switching from character to character. The second big issue with Rage attacks is that in what's actually quite surprising from a WayForward game.... getting these attacks to come out can be a hassle, controls just don't feel responsive enough, I often times found myself mashing L+R together in frustration waiting for my attack to come out.

 Godzilla Damnation! is a decent time, but it's nothing special. With a paltry 6 characters and a very limited moveset for each character you'll be done with the game after a few hours. Fans of Godzilla might get a kick out of seeing their favorite characters in gorgeous 2-D, but even then these are far from WayForward's Rob Buchanan's best work.
 5.0 out of 10