I always thought Godzilla was super until I played this
Written: Nov 04 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Graphics, Sound, Bagan and SuperGodzilla
Cons: It's a dull, boring, bad idea
The Bottom Line: An attempt at a unique game succeeds in being unique, but fails at being enjoyable. All but the most devout of G-Fans have every reason to avoid this game.
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Super Godzilla for Super Nintendo |
You know, it really is beyond me how game developers cocked up Godzilla games so many times over the course of years since videogaming became huge. Godzilla: Monster of Monsters for the NES was playable, but utterly bizarre, it's sequel, War of the Monsters, in which you actually played the role of the JSDF trying to fight Godzilla was just stupid, Godzilla for the Game Boy was a ludicrous puzzle game featuring Super-Deformed versions of Godzilla characters, and basically nothing to relate it to the movies other than the license.
These were the predecessor's to 1993's Super Godzilla for Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Made by the company behind the Godzilla movies, Toho, themselves, you have to wonder exactly what the hell was going through the mind of whoever green-lighted this game. Given that Streetfighter 2-mania had swept the world, surely a 2D fighter would have been the sensible option? admittedly such a game for this console does exist, but it's incredibly rare. Yet, talking about what genre the game should have fallen into highlights one of the game's biggest talking points...I have no idea what the hell to call it. Stages consist of directing a little dot through a map, the dot representing Godzilla, weaving his way through the buildings of Japanese cities, with the top half of the screen showing a rather pointless picture of Godzilla walking around. On occasion you stumble upon an enemy, such as a UFO or one of Godzilla's many foes, the screen changes to feature some meters, in which you have to time your pressing of the button to initiate an attack, with a picture of Godzilla squaring off against the foe above. You have to time your attack exactly when your and your opponent's 'spirit bar' are at high and low points respectively, and then you can perform a tail whip or something.
This is about as lame and boring as it sounds. You never even truly control Godzilla, only a dot or a meter to represent him. Epic monster battles are represented by lame meter watching to bring up an animation of Godzilla or his foe performing one of a handfull of attacks.
You spend a painfull amount of time negotiating the map segments, only to get to fights which are also uninspiring, one thing a game about giant friggin monsters should never be is boring, yet it's one field in which this game excells in boredom.
Long story short, I really don't regard the game very highly. I love Godzilla movies, I really do, there are few series of movies that could have got me to sit through well over 20 entries and still want more. The worst thing about Super Godzilla is that it doesn't just squander Godzilla himself, but a nice cast of supporting monsters, consisting of his foes from the 80s/90s Heisei era movies, although not in any order. King Ghidorah, Mecha-King Ghidorah, Biollante and Battra all appear, as well as Mechagodzilla. Mechagodzilla is an interesting point, because in the Japanese version of the game, he is portrayed as he looks in the 1993 film Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla, while in the American version, he is first represented as a fake Godzilla, and when that is beaten he is revealed to be the 70s representation of the monster, which is awesome.
However, that isn't the entire roster, as the game actually features two monsters that never appeared on film. Godzilla Vs. Bagan is a Godzilla movie that seems never to happen, but apparently in 1993/4 it was closer than we thought, as this game was initially concieved as a tie-in. In the film, Godzilla would have to transform into 'Super Godzilla' to defeat Bagan, and this is an element the game incorporates. What makes it also clear that the film almost saw the light, is that Super Godzilla is basically the design used for Space Godzilla in what would be 1994's series entry, Godzilla Vs. Spacegodzilla. And Bagan, as he is presented here, doesn't look light years away from what became Destroyah in Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah in 1995.
I mean, the cast isn't perfect, but it fits the story, about an alien invasion and the Japanese government gaining control of Godzilla via some device and having to stop them, pretty well. The plot isn't exactly ingenious, but it does it's job, and Toho have used it in so many movies that it's a cert it would become a staple videogame plot line for Godzilla as well.
What makes things even more insulting, is that the game actually features some awesome graphics and sound. If you actually watch the rather pointless top half of the screen, you will be treated to a wonderful sprite of Godzilla that really looks like a general representation of all the Heisei era suits, as well as equally as impressive and detailed sprites of his enemies.
The sound also incorporates some wonderful music from Akira Ifukube's scores of the Godzilla films, as well as accurate monster roars. It makes you wish that these graphics and sound had been afforded to a better thought-out game.
While I can appreciate that Super Godzilla does try hard to be unique, and in that respect it succeeds, unique does not always equal fun or entertaining, things that this game could certainly have used a lot more work in the way of achieving. While the game may be of some interest to inquisitive Godzilla fans, this particular fan got nothing out of playing this game other than a healthy dose of frustration and boredom. The only reason it achieves a second star is because it does feature some excellent graphics and sound. If it's a good fun Godzilla-like 16-Bit game you want, check out SNK's unlicensed King of the Monsters, it may not have the license, graphics or music, but it captures the nature of a Godzilla film better than this bore.
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Recommended:
No
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