Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been a big fan of Godzilla. Sure, the dubbing was horrendous and it always delved down to the same thing – Godzilla kicking another monster’s butt while destroying the city in the process – but you know what, I didn’t care. I love the lizard (even the badly done 90s remake starring Matthew Broderick). So when I had the chance to visit the Foundation 9 booth and get a walkthrough of the upcoming Godzilla: Unleashed for the Wii, you better believe I was raring to go and see the game in action.
First up, if you’re a fan of the series and know your monsters, you’ll be pleased with the announcement of a final total of 16 monsters being included for your battling pleasure. Though the final roster hasn’t been revealed yet, Foundation 9 promised us that it wouldn’t be anything like Godzilla skinned three different ways, but rather 16 completely different and unique monsters. Out of the monsters announced so far, you’ve got Godzilla, Gigan, Mecha-Godzilla, and Megalon. That’s all well and good, but the thing that was really surprising to hear is that Foundation 9 actually worked with TOHO (the creators behind the Godzilla franchise) to develop two new monsters, who not only would appear in the game, but could be applied to the Godzilla canon of movies somewhere in the future.
The monsters will also be split into four factions, with similar grouped monsters being in the same faction, such as the Earth defenders featuring Godzilla or a mechanical faction featuring Mecha-Godzilla among others. The factions aren’t just for grouping, as they’ll play a factor in the story as well, which unfolds as a choose your own adventure story, as your decision will affect where and how the story advances. For example, you might enter into a battle arena and see two monsters battling – from here you can choose which monster to battle, instantly making you friends with the monster you are helping and giving you a negative reputation to the one you are beating up on. For that matter, monsters will have different missions and boss battles depending on decisions and the factions they are a part of. It’s a unique feature that hasn’t been seen in the Godzilla series of games yet. As for the story itself, much like the good old movies, the story involving crystal meteorites that strike the planet that the monsters are immediately drawn to, will be told from the perspective of the humans of planet Earth and will unfold with static, graphic novel styled cutscenes.
As for the gameplay, Godzilla: Unleashed was designed specifically with the Wii in mind, and it shows with the variety of ways you’ll be using the Wii-remote and nunchuk during combat. To start off with, a simple press of the A-button will give you instant gratification with small, quick attacks; however, combine that A-button press with controller movement and you’ll be performing stronger based attacks. Also, not every monster will have the same moves, so every character will play differently from one to the other. You’ll also perform moves like grabbing buildings by holding a button and lifting both the remote and nunchuk into the air, just like Godzilla getting ready to throw a building in the game. You’ll also have moves like laser beams and breath beams, which are completely steerable in the game by controller movement, but even cooler is if two of these weapons cross paths and hit each other, you’ll have to battle against each other’s weapon to see whose will come out on top and hit the other player, playing out like a tug of war battle of sorts. And unlike the past games where buildings took so much damage and simply fell, this time around they will take damage based on where you attack them, showing damage there before ultimately suffering too much and completely collapsing. And the nice thing about all of this battling action is that it will allow support for up to four players to battle it out at one time, just like in the past games.
Godzilla fans look like they have a lot to look forward to when Godzilla: Unleashed is finalized and ready for release. Not only is the game looking good graphically, but the action looked to be both smooth and enveloping, really drawing you into the battles of the game as you move the remote and nunchuk to act out your own monster moves. With 16 characters and the ability for four player battles, get ready to duke it out when Godzilla: Unleashed comes out later this year.