Just think about what the Godzilla phenomenon actually is, for a second. Then, think of an ideal concept for a videogame. There you are. So why, then, have all of the Godzilla related titles released so far been absolute rubbish’ Beats me. Released in the year that marks the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of Godzilla, Save The Earth sits rather uncomfortably between the genres of straight up beat-’em-up and superhero adventure.
And that isn’t a combination that sits well, to be quite honest. Whilst you’re taking one of the fairly impressive (and accurately recreated) characters into battle against the enemy, you’re supposed to be collecting “G-Cells”, which, if taken by the wrong people, could be combined to create a weapon that will destroy the earth. An intro to the plot appears before your first bout, and that’s as far as the storyline goes. After that, you get fight after fight against those who want to see our planet destroyed, broken up by a couple of “Challenge” mini-games, although the less said about these, the better.
If I was feeling particularly cruel, I would leave it there. Fortunately, I’m in a fairly good mood right now. The reason I could leave this review of Godzilla right there is because there really is little more to say. The characters amble about in a huge pedestrian-like manner, barely responding to your button presses, sometimes pulling off one of an incredibly limited range of moves against each other, until one is dead. If you collect those “G-Cells” I mentioned earlier, you get a couple of hundred more points added to your total score (that runs from the time you pick up the controller to the time you give up, thanks to the generous continuation system) but little more else. So it really doesn’t matter what they are for, or who’s hands they fall into’ Guess not.
The cardboard cities can be destroyed fairly easily, with some methods (picking your opponent up and tossing them into a building) proving to be more successful than others. But remember, you’re supposed to be saving the planet, not destroying it. Should you roam too far, the painful green energy wall throws you back into the confines of the battle space, and it doesn’t take long to work out that throwing your opponent into this wall several times is enough to kill them stone dead. Over and over and over again. You see, Godzilla: Save The Earth never gets any more difficult in single-player mode. If you can defeat the first enemy, you can defeat the last.
So pretty much all that’s worth looking at is the multi-player mode. With a multitap attached, four combatants can go at it at once, destroying all in their path and trying to be the ultimate survivor. Unfortunately, again, the novelty doesn’t last and the game’s masses of flaws start to show through very quickly.
It isn’t that Godzilla: Save The Earth is a technically terrible game, more that I don’t think I’ve ever been more bored when playing a game. Punch, kick, throw into wall, throw into wall, punch, throw into wall, “Godzilla 2000 wins!”, next round…ad infinitum. Maybe some decent sub-games or some sort of challenge would have done the job and helped the game from troubling bargain bins worldwide. As it stands, Godzilla: Save The Earth is a bigger travesty than the Roland Emmerich-directed motion picture, although unlike the film, this game does give a nod towards the history of the character. That isn’t enough to save it, though.
