Godzilla: Save The Earth

Microsoft Xbox

2004

The long anticipated sequel to 'Destroy All Monsters Melee' is a vast improvement over its predecessor. Like the first game, 'Save the Earth' is principally a fighting game, pitting giant movie monsters against one another in savage brawls set in the world's greatest cities. The controls are largely the same, with special attacks being rationed by an energy meter that slowly recharges after use and UFOs zipping around the screen dropping useful power-ups such as extra energy and health.

The cities are even more detailed than before, with new metropolitan areas like New York City and Boston being featured, the towering sprawl of Manhattan dwarfing even the likes of King Ghidorah. The buildings crumble in an even more realistic manner, with tiny people fleeing from them as monsters damage the structures. Cars, ambulances and other vehicles race along the city streets - large vehicles like buses can even be grabbed and thrown at an enemy. Tanks rumble along the roads in armoured columns, helicopters fly in definite squadrons, combining their attacks to deliver some serious damage against their target. Unlike the first game, the military forces no longer target whichever monster has done the most damage to the city, but pick on whichever beast has the most health remaining to it. This can sometimes prove disastrous and gives a certain edge to weaker monsters who can try to avoid their enemy until the military has taken its toll.

The roster of monsters has been vastly increased from the previous game. Godzilla is represented in both his Heisei and 2000 incarnations. Rodan, Anguirus, King Ghidorah, Mecha-King Ghidorah, Orga, Destroyah, Mechagodzilla 2, Kiryu, Gigan and Megalon all make return appearances in the game, some of them given new powers and abilities, such as Kiryu's energy blade and Anguirus' new super-charged death roll. The real buying incentive, however, are the large number of new monsters. Mothra has become a playable monster, starting out as a larva and employing a power-up move to transform into her adult form, each form providing different powers and abilities. Although physically weak, Mothra has the bonus of regaining her health when she changes forms, which redresses her physical inabilities. Jet Jaguar is a fast moving kung-fu robot able to alter his size from a speedy but weak midget that reflects beam weapons to a lumbering giant able to swat even Godzilla aside like a gnat. Space Godzilla is an energy-powered behemoth able to grab foes from distance with his telekinesis, though he needs to summon crystal spikes to replenish his power, energy collectors which his enemy can target and destroy. MOGUERA is a bizarre, tank-like robot with a wide array of projectile weapons and an almost unbelievable speed. Baragon acts as a hybrid of his Showa and GMK incarnations, able to burrow, leap and spit fire. Finally, there is Megaguirus with her nasty energy absorbing powers and brutal tail attacks. Each attack has been given a different category, from radiation to edged attack to blunt weapons. Some attacks hurt different monsters more than others. Worse, some attacks can even heal other monsters - using Baragon's fire breath against Rodan is a particularly bad idea.

With Mothra as a playable character, the 'air strike' power-up has changed. Now instead of calling Mothra's aid, the power-up summons either the Super X-III or Battra to deal damage to your foe. The Super X-III is particularly noteworthy as its cannons will freeze your enemy in the manner of the Maser Tanks.

A new innovation is the concept of 'challenges'. In Action mode, over the course of the game, you will be faced with different challenges to earn extra points. These range from the silly (monster basketball, a Godzilla vs the Sea Monster style game of boulder bowling) to the pretty damn entertaining. There are different 'smash the city' challenges, giving your monster either a percentage of the city to destroy or a points value objective. There is a mission to save San Francisco's Trans-America Pyramid from UFOs, blasting saucers from the sky before the building collapses. There is an undersea mission to destroy an alien submarine, a 'flight-sim' style challenge that pits Godzilla against enemy subs, underwater mines and even Ebirah himself. A particularly amusing challenge is to fight Jet Jaguar and his clone - a giant and a tiny Jet Jaguar. Another brutal challenge is a fight with Mecha-King Ghidorah that involves destroying a 'monster generator' in Osaka - until it is destroyed, MKG has three clones and invincibility! The challenges can also be played separately once they have been unlocked in Action mode, allowing players to try them without labouring through Action mode again.

Rather than unlocking new monsters and cities in the manner of the first game, in 'Save the Earth' points are awarded for each level in Action mode. Higher difficulty settings increase the award amounts, as does remaining time in the battle, G-cell canisters collected and helicopters and tanks destroyed during the match. A different high score is kept for each monster that is used - new points are only given out once the previous high score has been beaten. Hence, if you have Godzilla Heisei with a 5,000 point score, playing again with Godzilla would not give you any points until you exceeded 5,000, but you could play again with Rodan and earn points regardless of your score with Godzilla. Points are used to purchase new monsters, unlock cities for Versus and other multiplayer modes, concept art from the game and design sketches from the upcoming Godzilla: Final Wars film. All of the previous multi-player modes are present, such as Destruction and Melee, as well as the Survival mode.

'Godzilla: Save the Earth' represents a great improvement in Godzilla gaming. The monsters look and play better, cities crumble even more realistically and the roster of playable monsters is becoming enormous. With X-Box Live, there is the possibility of expansions being released (conspicuous by his absence from the first game is Hedorah, perhaps indicating that he will be showing up as a playable expansion monster, and also Titanosaurus, who features in one of the pieces of concept art for the game). Well worth the price and another sign that Atari is on top of their game with this franchise.