Godzilla: Unleashed

Poor Godzilla. Outside of the brief late 1970s Americanized Godzilla cartoon, the big green lizard has had a hard time transcending his B-movie status in non-Japanese markets. Spectacular special effects, King Kong, and even TV legend Raymond Burr have all been utilized in an to attempt to broaden Godzilla's appeal. Atari is giving Tokyo's greatest fear another chance at stardom with Godzilla: Unleashed, and surely the remarkable worldwide success of the Wii will make the perfect vehicle, right? I have my doubts.

Despite the name, Godzilla is not the only big bad monster in Godzilla: Unleashed. Accompanying him are his old pals Mothra, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, Biollante, Fire Rodan, and many more. In all, the game features 24 towering creatures with which to to wreak havoc.

Furthermore, each monster belongs to a faction with its own agenda. The Earth Defenders faction, of which Godzilla is a member, protects Earth from alien invasion - even if they have to stomp on petty humans and their buildings to do it. The Global Defense Force faction is mankind's contribution to the monster frenzy. These giant robots defend humans and their cities from any and all threats. The Aliens faction is allied with the evil Vortaak race of another galaxy, hell-bent on conquering Earth. Finally, the Mutants faction just wants to fight and break stuff. Only the Earth Defenders faction is available at the beginning of the game. Additional factions can be 'purchased' in the game's 'store' by earning spendable points from the destruction of buildings, defeat of monsters, and so on.

The game's plot resembles the movies in almost every way. Various story scenarios were contrived as an excuse to put Monster X, Monster Y, and Monster Z in the same city at the same time. The ensuing mayhem and destruction is predictable. Anyone who has seen any of the plethora of Godzilla vs. insert-monster-name-here movies will recognize the events of the game. Monsters meet. Monsters fight. Humans get smashed. Credits roll.

Forget monsters with awesome powers for a moment, though. An even larger menace to the survival of earth is the bad dialogue and voice acting of this game. To make matters worse, the voice overs are often out of sync with the subtitles. Perhaps the game's designers were attempting to emulate the bad acting and dialogue of the movies, but then the game would have been better served by totally selling out to the films' over-exaggerated exultations and self-deprecating humor. Some Godzilla spoof comedy could have added a great deal of charm to the otherwise boring storyline.

When the monsters do meet, they bring with them all of the powers and special abilities made famous in the movies such as Godzilla's atomic fire breath or King Ghidorah's lightning strikes. Unfortunately, using these awesome powers is more of a hassle than they are worth. Each special power must be 'charged' by holding the Z and C buttons simultaneously on the Nunchuck, followed by a tap of the C button to activate the move. This disjointed control method is very frustrating, especially since blasting big monsters with death rays and fireballs is Godzilla's most appealing attack by far.

I dislocated my shoulder trying to pull this move off.

Other attacks include punching and kicking with the A and B button, respectively. Combining punches and kicks with a jerk of the Wii Remote will create "modified punches" and "modified kicks" that do not seem to do any more damage than the regular variety. Players can perform "Fierce attacks" by shaking the Wii remote while holding both the A and B button. The only other move that players will be interested in is the pick-up-and-throw move, handled by moving both the Wii Remote and Nunchuck in a downward motion and pressing the A button. This move is good for hurling boulders and other objects, as well as chunking enemies across the city.

There are also blocks and parries, but the control scheme is so haphazardly tacked on that most gamers won't bother with defensive postures - they'll be too busy struggling to attack while the computer opponent effortlessly pummels them with a full range of moves. Obviously, the Godzilla: Unleashed developers put very little thought into the Wii's control scheme. The attack combinations are ridiculously more complex than they need to be and rarely ever work correctly.

The graphics are annoyingly last-gen in every way. The creatures lumber around the screen with the guy-in-suit look that is so hilarious in the movies, but the humor doesn't quite translate into the game and looks bad as a result. Cutscenes consist of ridiculously bland still drawings that add as little value to the game as the dialogue itself. The cities are destructible, as they should be, but there is little reward in destroying buildings except in gaining points. The attack animations are also very bland outside of the special attacks, which happen to be very cool. The lack of any killing moves is disappointing; instead, a defeated monster simply slumps to the ground. The entire presentation seems to lack any flair or imagination from the game's designers.

I have to say I'm disappointed. As a fan of the campy old Godzilla movies, I expected more. Does Godzilla: Unleashed have any redeeming values that might earn your gaming dollars? Probably not, but come back for Stage 2, just in case.