Not quite the King of the Monsters
Written: Mar 11 '04 (Updated Dec 07 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Different,Good music, better than most giant monster games
Cons: poor animation, lack of point in 1p, lack of characters
The Bottom Line: KotM is a decent, different 16-Bit fighter that is spoiled from being really good by a few silly flaws.Godzilla fans should definetly check it out for a laugh.
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: King of the Monsters for Sega Genesis |
I’ve always loved Godzilla movies. Since I was a kid and I talked my parents into setting the VCR to record Destroy All Monsters on late night TV, I’ve been hooked on movies about giant monster wrecking cities and scrapping with one another.
So when I got the only Godzilla games available in the UK at the time, the Game Boy puzzler and the NES...thing, I was slightly disappointed. Lets face it; the best thing about Godzilla movies is the battles! Where was the fighting game?
Then it was SNK, the company behind such games as Fatal Fury and Samurai Shodown, to the rescue with King of the Monsters. I recall whining and whining to talk my parents into buying me this at the time, I had witnessed people play it on it's original form, on SNK's Neo Geo, on the GamesmasterTV series, and it's Godzilla-styled approach to the fighting game was exactly what I was looking for.
While KotM does not have an official licence, it is pretty clear what it is meant to be. The name even comes from the subtitle added to the US version of the original Godzilla movie, and each of the game's 4 available characters is inspired by some form of giant monster, if not necessarily from the Godzilla series, from various other Giant-Monster franchises.
The game is essentially a wrestling game, with the sweaty blokes in spandex replaced by big monsters. The game only utilizes three buttons, so the regular pad will suffice.
A is punch, B is kick and C is run. Pressing the two attacks jumps, and while next to a downed opponent jumps on them and pins them.
Holding down A and B causes you character to charge their special projectile move. When your character flashes you let go of the buttons and let rip on your enemy.
This is where it becomes a wrestling game. While most fighters end after you beat your opponent’s energy bar down, KotM requires that you pin them for three seconds, WWF style. The arenas you battle in also have electric powerlines surrounding them to give the appearance of ropes. You can also move up and down as well as left and right, giving you a larger battlefield to work with.
When you throw your opponent, a red sphere comes out of them, collect enough of these and you level up, which changes your colour and gives you a better special move. You can level up twice.
While this differentiates it from the hordes of Streetfighter 2 clones from around that time, the game also has a few faults. For one, the roster has been cut from the arcade version, with King Kong wannabe Woo and …er, thing Poison Ghost(Hedorah I guess) missing.
This leaves us the remaining cast of:
Geon: Godzilla’s rubbish cousin with a horn on his head. His special move is belching a fireball.
Astro Guy: what would happen if Ultraman swapped outfits with Captain America for a laugh. He even has Ultraman’s specium beam as his special.
Rocky: no, not Balboa(although Rocky vs Godzilla would be great), but like the giant son of Marvel Comics the Thing and that big rock monster from the Neverending story. His special involves shooting a boulder out of his chest.
Beetle Mania: with a name like a crap rave song, we have a colossal stag Beetle that shoots its horn at enemies.
The game has two modes, Player vs Player, which is pretty self explanatory and Player vs Computer, which is essentially arcade mode, where you fight through each monster twice to meet an ending of ‘ Congratulations! Try again on harder difficulty’.
The game’s controls respond all right but you feel they could have been better. Collision detection is Russian roulette to see who will connect though. This can get old very quickly, especially when you charge a projectile only to see it fly through the enemy.
The graphics are once again, ok but could have been better. The animation can be decidedly shoddy at some points, like the punching (Beetle Mania looks like he is dancing to Staying Alive at light speed for his)
One aspect in which the game shines is sonically. The music is pretty cool and catchy, and I love how while the Takara,Sega etc logos are loading up you get an intro of thunderous footsteps like the theme from the original Godzilla movie did during the opening credits.
Each monster also has a roar. Its only one noise, but it is usually pretty clear and cool.
The game really offers no incentive for replay value, other than the multiplayer, which seeing as the game isn’t all that great that doesn’t leave much.
I would recommend the game to fans of Godzilla with Sega’s 16-bit console, purely out of the novelty factor and it is the closest thing to a good 16-bit Godzilla title.
While it is by no means perfect, it is kind of fun in its own way, and at least it isn’t trying to be Streetfighter 2.
Related Reviews
Games
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee for XBox
Godzilla: Domination for Gameboy Advance
Ultraman for Super Nintendo
Movies
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Gojira
King Kong (1933)
King Kong (1976)
King Kong Vs. Godzilla
Ultraman Gaia: The Battle in Hyperspace
Recommended:
Yes
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flash-hammer
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