Somewhere between sci-fi and fantasy there resides a giant radioactive lizard called Godzilla. As far as films go there’s no denying he’s as bigger part of cinematic history as he is the skyline. I can’t imagine meeting anybody that doesn’t at least know his/her name. And admittedly I’m no huge fan but there’s only so disappointing an angry giant lizard can be.
At least that’s a solid theory until you play Godzilla. The first thing Godzilla does right is let you get in control of the beast and go around effortlessly smashing buildings. It’s a tough job but somebody has to do it. And Godzilla seems to enjoy it. Bless him.
You start off with a nifty tutorial that mimics the original 50’s film quite well. In black and white you follow the narration and screen prompts to figure out how best to control the giant. And no more than 10 minutes into the game one of the fundamental problems rears its head. The controls are weird. Transported back a decade or two you’re going to need to get used to tank controls. Using the shoulder buttons to turn and the thumbstick to move forwards or backwards. You are then ‘allowed’ to alter the camera separately using the other thumbstick. Okay then…
You’ll therefore often find yourself using lots of controls just to turn. Resident Evil is probably the best known use of tank controls and when for the recent remake they used analogue controls. Even in a 2 generation old pre-rendered background the analogue controls were better so why Godzilla doesn’t use them I cannot imagine. Whoever made that design choice wasn’t thinking.
Perhaps you could argue it lends a certain weight to moving Godzilla but in reality it just makes it awkward and overly fiddly. It probably wouldn’t shock you to know that originally Godzilla was actually a guy in a rubber suit – I know, shocking. But you feel the same even in this game. The controls are plain stupid and make everything a chore.
Aside from lumbering around walking into stuff you also have access to a few attacks. You have strong attack on ‘Triangle’ and quick attack on ‘Square’. You can also grab and do a sort of charge thing. And finally of course atomic breath which is basically just fire breath.
Nothing feels particularly exciting. The animations are at best lack lustre and despite the slow speed caused by the annoying controls there just isn’t the sense of power that you would expect. But to be brutally honest the game is so simple it’s not even worth thinking as deeply as this.
Certainly nobody did when they designed the…plot. You start playing as a relatively small Godzilla and your objective is to trash, smash and ultimately absorb energy from various sources. When you do you’ll grow bigger. You’ve been hibernating for a long time and you’re hungry. So get snacking and beef up.
On occasion things will change up as you play against other monsters. I’ve never quite understood the logic behind the creatures in the world of Godzilla but most, if not all, are here. Other forms of Godzilla and giant creatures are waiting for you to engage in epic battles. Using the controls mentioned above there is obviously not much to do. Basically walk up and press ‘square’ until it dies. Hopefully it dies before you. It usually does.
Nothing feels polished or loved at all. I can’t think of a single feature in Godzilla that anybody can be proud of. The graphics are so obviously built from assets the dev team had lying around on a 512MB flash drive. Godzilla is an ugly game. Of course not every game has the multi-million budget of a AAA but Godzilla might look passable on a PS2. And that’s not me being dramatic.
One possible plus point is how hilarious the voice acting is. It genuinely made me laugh audibly even when sat playing on my own. It is just so terrible and cheesy. It’s like when the actors turned up that day the direction was to put as much cheese into the performance as possible above all other concerns. It all sounds like a kid playing an online game putting a ‘cool’ voice on. It’s terrible to the point of pure farce and comedy.
I tried so hard to find the best in this game but there just isn’t anything on offer. The visuals are an insult to your PS4 and the voice acting is absolutely ridiculous. “Give him some food to chow on and he’ll leave us be. He’s no different from the family dog.” is just one of the lines that had me weeping slightly with embarrassment while laughing uncontrollably.
Walking around is a pain beyond belief and makes no use of analogue sticks for some reason. I mean the only comparison is to that of a PS1 game. There are no upgrades or combos. No mechanics at all above walking and pressing attack. At it’s very best Godzilla is boring. It gave me a few laughs but I was definitively laughing at it and not with it. I don’t know why this game exists, this is one nobody will be sorry they missed.
