Game #1039: Godzilla Unleashed

 One angry giant lizard.

 I've never been the biggest Godzilla fan, although I know for a fact that I used to like it back when I was younger. Godzilla Unleashed is a game that was very poorly received, to say the least, which is why I'm about to find myself knee-deep in yet another trademark unpopular opinion.

 This is, for all intent and purposes, the third game in the short-lived Godzilla fighting game series that started with Destroy All Monsters back on the Gamecube. I remember that game having a rather small roster, well, worry not, as this game has 20 different monsters to fight with. A few more in the Wii version, but that's not the version I have, now do I? Monsters felt different enough from one another, although a few characters, like both Godzillas and both Mecha-Godzillas do share most moves and animations.

 The game is an arena fighter in which you fight as a giant monster, which is a very enticing concept in and of itself. Up to four monsters can join the fray, and naturally as the fight goes on the cities you fight in will start falling apart. Battles can be fought either in free-for-alls or team-based affairs, and you either fight under time-based rules(Most enemies defeated) or until your lives run out, which is what you'd expect. Monsters have three basic attacks: Punch, Kick and Fierce(Usually a tail or a body blow), which can be joined together in pre-existing attack strings. You can also grab your enemies, perform projectile attacks and, heck, some characters get unique abilities such as burrowing underground!

 Fights are very slow paced, and most fights involving more than two combatants will result in a hefty amount of slowdown, but.... I think it fits, y'know? These are giant monsters slowly dragging their heavy limbs behind, I think the slow-pace is warranted and the slowdown doesn't really hurt the product, specially considering that this isn't supposed to be a competitive fighter. While I played the game, the overall physics and weight everything had completely sold me on the idea that these were giant monsters duking it out.

 While basic fights with CPU and/or Player opponents are decent enough, the game also boasts a story mode. It's a bit bleh. In this mode you get a wonky third-personish camera, and sometimes fights have alternate goals, most of the time being 'destroy every crystal or defeat X monster'. It features some very cheap cutscenes made up of hand-drawn stills. It's better than nothing.

 I read some of the reviews, since I was curious as to why the reviews were so negative, and it seems that this game is too similar to its previous outing, a game I skipped entirely and don't plan on ever getting since this game probably makes it obsolete. As someone who skipped the middle game, and some who's only experience with the series was the previous game... I thought this game was more than acceptable for what it was. There's no real depth to the combat, that's for sure, but I think it's an entertaining giant monster fighter that I feel delivers what matters most. 

 6.5