Godzilla: Unleashed - Wii, Playstation Portable (PSP) Previews


	Platform Wii, PSP Genre Fighting Publisher Atari Developer Pipeworks ETA Fall 2007
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Godzilla: Unleashed

The general description of Godzilla Unleashed on Pipeworks’ website could easily be applied to Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee and Godzille: Save the Earth, two projects that Pipeworks produced in the passed four years:

The game stars the legendary Godzilla and a slew of the most renowned monsters of all-time. Gamers are challenged to ultimately save the planet from mayhem and destruction. Set in urban arenas, Godzilla: Unleashed’s interactive 3D cityscapes, big destructible buildings, soaring skyscrapers and towering alien formations provide the backdrop to epic worldwide destruction. Players will claw, kick, stomp, throw and blast their way through the streets of major world cities in order to claim the ultimate, beastly title: King of the Monsters.

But given that I still drop Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee into my GameCube – okay, actually into my Wii – I’m already looking forward to what Unleashed, coming for Wii and PSP, might have in store, which is all guess work at this point

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since there’s little official information and I’ve only been able to unearth one short gameplay clip of the Wii version.

In the clip, Godzilla and Mecha-Godzilla duke it out and careful analysis reveals a few things, all of which can also been seen in the previous games: buildings crumble and collapse, objects can be thrown, Godzilla’s trademarked

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radioactive breath is present, large fighting arenas are included, and the fighting moves at a slower pace than the likes of Virtua Fighter, Street Fighter, or Mortal Kombat. The last aspect is one that deserves some closer examination though – it appears that the action will be slightly faster than fans might be used to. The slightly slower action is something I like about the previous Godzilla fighting games – it helps convey the sense of scale of the monsters – but it’s hard to make a judgment like this based on a short gameplay clip. (At least they showed some gameplay – sometimes all we get is a polished CG cutscene.)

I’m really curious as to how the control scheme for the Wii will be implemented. I can picture it kind of like boxing – the nunchuk and Wiimote being used as right and left hands with the buttons handling the kicks, tail swipes, flying/jumping and special attacks. Using some kind of reference point for Wii fighting games is difficult since there hasn’t been a wealth of fighting games available. There’s Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and…can anyone think of another fighter? We’ll get a couple in the coming months – we hope – in Super Smash Brothers and Mortal Kombat but that doesn’t help right now. My only hope is that the controls aren’t over complicated, which, based on the previous Godzilla games, isn’t likely.

My only other observation is that there’s not much of a step up in the graphics department. Maybe it's just my imagination but four years since Destroy All Monsters Melee and no significant boost to the graphics? The answer lies in the fact the game is being developed for both PSP and Wii – the lowest common denominator being PSP, which means the graphics take into account the PSP more than the Wii. Even if some months separated the two versions I’d like to see the same approach that was taken with the GameCube and Xbox versions of Destroy All Monsters Melee. Several months separated the two releases and the Xbox version received pumped up visuals, but kept the action intact from the GameCube version. That said, the graphics aren't putting me off the game.

I guess we’ll see how it all settles when Godzilla Unleashed hits shelves in Fall 2007.

- Omni

(April 25, 2007)