Godzilla games, are they really that bad?

[Edmond Dantes]

So just looking through Youtube (and not just the famous AVGN video) I've noticed people tend to dislike the Godzilla games that were released in the USA.

Anyone but me feel like these games get a bum rap?

Okay, the first NES game (Monster of Monsters) could be a slog at points--in fact, my main problem with it was that it got repetitive long before it was over--but I found the gameplay fairly solid, and I didn't have the difficulty issues a lot of other people did.. especially once I figured out how to cheese it using Godzilla's atomic breath.

I never played the second NES game, War of the Monsters. It seems to have become pricey on ebay.

Last night though I did play a bit of Super Godzilla on SNES. To be honest, there is one problem with this game: If you don't have a manual or someone to explain it to you, you will struggle to figure out how the combat works. I somehow managed to figure it out but its not an experience I'd like people to go through without explanation (the game tries to provide one, but its kinda useless because it gives you the wrong idea).

The deal is this, BTW: During battle, you hit the other monster, then hold BACK. This will start a picture filling in at the bottom of the screen and if you like the attack it shows, you hit the A button when the picture is fully filled in. Otherwise keep holding back and it'll change to something else. Pick something soon tho or the enemy will attack you instead. Picking an attack initiates a cutscene and these attacks are the only ones that do real damage--your punch (and its kinda hilarious to think of G punching) merely open a window of opportunity. And no, distance does not matter--you can swing your tail even if you're across the screen.

Other than that, the only thing I didn't like was the walking-thru-the-city part. It's literally just leading a dot thru a maze. I think this game would be better if that part were truncated, but the kaiju fight (the one I got into anyway) was a hella blast.

..... the Gameboy one, however, I just totally don't understand. Like what my objective in each level even is.

Anyway, so what are your thoughts on the various Godzilla games? Any you think deserve more love than they get?

[Az]

Okay, the first NES game (Monster of Monsters) could be a slog at points--in fact, my main problem with it was that it got repetitive long before it was over--but I found the gameplay fairly solid, and I didn't have the difficulty issues a lot of other people did.. especially once I figured out how to cheese it using Godzilla's atomic breath.

The NES game release was around the height of my younger Godzilla fandom and I had no issues at all with the NES port. I might have preferred a more straightforward level design rather than the hex-based light SRPG element, but beyond that I really liked it. The music was great, backgrounds were fine, and it was my first introduction to Baragon, Gezora, Smog Monster, & Mogera. Somehow I managed to find VHS copies of The Mysterians and Godzilla VS The Smog Monster within the next year or two but never saw Frankenstein VS Baragon, Destroy All Monsters, or Yog until 10 or so years later. I thought the representations of the Toho Monsters were all fantastic and spot on.

Everybody makes a big deal about the combat menu. The "Will you fight the enemy?", "Will you fight XXX?" was designed so if you land on a spot with two or more monsters surrounding it you can choose which of them to attack. It's not rocket science. Making you answer both questions may be a bit unintuitive if you're only next to one monster, but how many other console games of this type had intuitive menus? At least it was written in plain English and not a poor Japanese translation or Ye Olde Medieval English that some RPG's tried to do.

As hyped as I was for the first NES game I had zero interest in the sequel. By that time I had gravitated back toward the SMS/Genesis and had no interest in a full-on strategy or military sim. I didn't own a SNES when it was contemporary but I remember Super Godzilla being one of those dozen or so titles Toys R Us always had in clearance bins towards the mid Nineties. Awesome choice of box art but again, the back of the box clearly showed more sim-style elements, so a pass from me. King of the Monsters 1/2 for the arcade and the Genesis port of KotM was about as close to a kaiju game as I got around for a very long time.

..... the Gameboy one, however, I just totally don't understand. Like what my objective in each level even is.

If I remember correctly, the objective is to break/smash each of the square rocks on the screen to proceed to the next level. You can easily put yourself in a position where you've shit the bed and can't get to one due to a bad decision, which is why the pause screen has a restart level option.

This one here, gee whiz what a disappointment for me. I bought this as a blind buy from a local Roses department store with my $5 Nintendo lawsuit coupon, and boy did I feel dumb. It was one of those deals where you know you've bought a shit game and force yourself to play it hoping for that tinge of buyer's remorse to go away. The static cut scenes showing the various characters looked absolutely awesome but the game itself was just a generic puzzler with a Godzilla license shoehorned in. It wasn't until the late Nineties that I played the Japanese version, which has the title and cut scenes as chibi 'Zilla figures, that I realized it was given "serious" makeover for the US audiences.

[Edmond Dantes]

As hyped as I was for the first NES game I had zero interest in the sequel. By that time I had gravitated back toward the SMS/Genesis and had no interest in a full-on strategy or military sim. I didn't own a SNES when it was contemporary but I remember Super Godzilla being one of those dozen or so titles Toys R Us always had in clearance bins towards the mid Nineties. Awesome choice of box art but again, the back of the box clearly showed more sim-style elements, so a pass from me.

That's kinda ironic as Super Godzilla isn't a sim/strategy game, not unless it radically changes after the first level.

Speaking of sim games, last night I watched a youtube video retrospective on Godzilla games. The very first one was an unlicensed game for Commodore 64, where the goal was to kill Godzilla. One of your options for doing so? Nuking him. AND. IT. MIGHT. ACTUALLY. WORK.

Seriously, there is nothing more wrong in gaming than the existence of a game where Godzilla can be nuked to death. It's like those game designers had never seen a Godzilla movie.

According to that same video, the one 16-bit console that got a good Godzilla game in the US... was the TurboGrafx (or possibly Turbo CD, I forget what exactly it said). That one got a fighting game, one that looked similar to the SNES one, but the vid said the SNES one was actually inferior (but only slightly).

[Tanooki]

Being a fan of the franchise and having experience with a number of them, I'd say that most of them are terrible or a terrible waste of the license on a mediocre game. The Godzilla was got mostly in the US was just not good, or kind of boring/mediocre with that puzzler/action style Gameboy game. We did in the past get just one really solid game but most never played or heard of it and it was just Godzilla on SuperCD for the TG16/Duo console. I had this one over 20 years ago and it's one hell of an amazing street fighter 2 style fighter with most of the monsters of the line and it handles nicely. It had a game similar in style in Japan on the Super Famicom I'd look up as it's good enough too. You can kind of take it or leave it more on your interest, but there was Kaiju oh Godzilla on the original Gameboy in Japan and that one plays out as a combo of a side scrolling brawler but had mid-boss and boss monster fights. It's not that easy, even with the slowly (when not hit or walking) regenerating health but it plays fine. I do own that one on the Gameboy and it's worth bothering with.

[SpaceHarrier]

As a Godzilla obsessed kid, I enjoyed playing the NES game, though I found it very, very weird. Weirdest game I had as a kid. As an adult, I appreciate it more, seeing what it was trying to do. A combination light military strategy (very light), side scroller, and 1 v 1 fighting game. Now, it was a master of none of these disciplines, but I admire the oddball mix. Love the title theme music. And the more I think about it, one of the noteworthy flaws of this game makes perfect sense: you take a ton of cheap hits from tiny enemies. But guess what, so does Godzilla in every dang movie. It's a super accurate simulation! Also it spawned my favorite creepypasta, Red the hellbeast.

edit: Oh yeah, and I made this out of perler beads, which hangs on the wall and guards me while I sleep.