Sure sure, Godzilla for PS3 and PS4 has been out in Japan since the end of December 2014. The King of Monsters has been tearing up Japan (there is something poetic about that) for a bit over a month now but that doesn’t mean our giant reptilian friend won’t be marching over to North America soon. What better way to celebrate the independence of the United States than Godzilla’s North American release on July 1st?
In the floor demo, I found myself in control of none other than Godzilla himself. The gameplay involved me fighting a random kaiju nemesis of the King himself. In my match, I happened to be against the smog monster of the franchise, Hedorah. Here we met in mortal combat while not giving two s@#$s about the silly city that stands in the way of our battleground. Godzilla captures the finer points of what you’d want out of a giant monster fighting game; slow action, laser beams, roaring, and destructible environments.
Something I had trouble getting over, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, is that I couldn’t help thinking that Godzilla looked like a well detailed action figure. Going to the roots of the spirit of the genre, this was probably intentional which I’m all on board for. This captures the old-school filmography of the originals. So while Godzilla looks fantastic, there is still this air of watching an old time monster fight.
What did bother me was how the maps designated boundaries. There of course have to be some sort of boundaries to a monster fight and while games generally have invisible walls, Godzilla was halted by small waterways in the city. Not only could the King of Monsters walk over these dips if he wanted but he could also easily walk down than up. This is extremely nitpicky and I understand why it exists, it just took some of the realism out of giant monster battles for me. I know what I just said.
For those counting the days until they can get their monster fight on, Bandai Namco has announced that an exclusive poster will come with pre-orders. As of now, I don’t have all the details on this but this might be retailer specific. After all, poster is better than no poster. July 1st is still somewhat distant, but things could definitely be worse. Keep your eyes off those Japanese gameplay videos and keep the experience fresh!
