As a child who grew up watching the Godzilla movies, I always thought it’d be great fun to be a powerful beast with enough strength to destroy entire cities – as I’m sure every other kid my age did too. With Bandai Namco’s Godzilla the Game, this childhood dream has finally been realized, putting the player in complete control of the legendary monster and allowing them to rampage as they please.
The game demo started off with Godzilla just destroying buildings and skyscrapers in an effort to create as much mayhem and destruction as possible. A meter at the bottom of the screen indicates the level of destruction you’ve caused in the city, and you can even see what the police and news reporters are saying about you in the top right corner. Once I caused enough destruction, the game saw fit to deliver my first real challenge in the demo: Mecha-King Ghidorah.
This three-headed monster was a lot faster and agile than Godzilla was, putting me at a great disadvantage in terms of mobility. However, what Godzilla lacks in speed he more than makes up for in strength. With a press of the X button, Godzilla can perform a running charge at the enemy that stuns it for a second. He also has the ability to grab the enemy and perform various moves such as biting it to cause additional damage. You can also have Godzilla dodge with R2, but I found it more efficient to quickly take down Ghidorah by timing my attacks properly.
After bringing Ghidorah’s health down to about 50%, Space Godzilla makes a sudden appearance. While I was initially panicked at the thought of having to face two foes at once, I found that both Ghidorah and Space Godzilla would fight each other as long as I got out of the way. Things got a little dangerous when I ended up between them, as both monsters could catch you in a pincer attack; however, by methodically dealing with one before the other, I was soon able to take both of them down.
The controls in Godzilla the Game are as tanky as you’d expect, with players having to hold down either L1 or R1 to have Godzilla turn left and right. While his movements are extremely slow, there was still a strange kind of satisfaction to be had from smashing everything in sight. The fights between Godzilla and his large foes felt epic in scale, and every move had to be strategic and timed properly in order for it to have any real effect.
Godzilla the Game isn’t a title where you can randomly mash buttons and expect the beast to mow down anything in its way. The strategy involved in the game’s combat is a pleasant surprise, and Godzilla the Game is all the better for it.
Godzilla the Game will be made available for the PS3 and PS4 on July 14 in North America, and on July 17 in Europe.
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