Godzilla couldn't save this game from Pipeworks laziness
Written: Mar 25 '05
Product Rating:
Pros: Still fun,proper 4-Player mode!
Cons: Removal of features!some graphics,music
The Bottom Line: Taking some steps both backwards and forwards, this is recommended to G-Fans and those who fancy a fun monster mash,providing it isn't too high priced.
flash-hammer's Full Review: Godzilla: Save the Earth for Xbox
One of my earliest reviews here was of Pipeworks' Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee(DAMM), and in my intitial writing of it, I went a bit overboard with praise, something that via the update feature I have changed, the game was a step in the right direction for Godzilla in videogames, after years of mediocre-at-best titles featuring the big guy's name and visage(strangley none based on the 1998 American movie, although 2 Game Boy Colour games did come from the spin-off cartoon), but it certainly wasn't perfect, and could have done with some extra work before they released it. I actually bought a copy on holiday in Italy, which was lucky, because I never did see a PAL copy on sale in the UK. Because of this, I always figured the game must have been a complete flop for the XBox, although I know the Gamecube version did ok, and was pleasantly surprised to hear about a sequel for the XBox and PS2, to be released in late 2004/early 2005.
Everything I read about the game looked promising, talk of underused monsters like Biollante and Titanosaurus appearing, bonus levels for all the monsters that take an on-the-rails shooter (ala Godzilla Generations:Maximum Impact for the Dreamcast) and all sorts of cool features, I couldn't wait for this game to be released, and was overjoyed to find it not only for sale in every game shop I visited, but for half the price of a regular XBox title: Score.
Dubbed Godzilla: Save The Earth(GSTE), a rather silly title, the game is a sequel-come remake of DAMM, featuring more monsters,more cities, a proper 4 Player mode and...the removal of custom soundtracks. The game plays the same, as a 3D fighting game where you control one of several Kaiju(monsters) from the Godzilla series of movies, and have to fight, in a city enviroment an opponent(or in multiplayer opponents) until their energy bar is completely depleted, using punches,kicks,tail-whips,special moves and throwing pieces of scenery to do so before the time limit runs out.
The gameplay is much the same as before, you have a fairly sluggish(on purpose) battle, which in a lot of cases can be great fun for Godzilla fans, especially on multiplayer. The game isn't any great definition of the fighting game genre, and it doesn't really improve much on the original game, but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it at least a little. The new addition is beam fighting, which is activated if two monsters capable fire off beam weapons at the same time. What follows is basically a game of Rock,Paper,Scissors to determine who wins, and the loser takes the damage of two beams. This is a cool addition, and Im just bothered that some monsters that should have been able to do it (such as Moguera) cannot.
The powerups that appeared in DAMM mostly stay the same, the Energy,Health, and Rage(think super-move) power-ups remain the same, although the Atari Logo now calls on an air-strike, replacing the Mothra logo, and relinquishing it's role of unlocking Gallery Items, which is now done through points. Also thrown in are 5 Green 'G-Cells' per stage. Exactly what these do baffles me, and the instructions don't tell me anything either.
One thing that bothers me about the gameplay, which becomes highlighted in some bonus stages, is how lame Godzilla's beam is at destroying buildings. What? that's what he is famous for! did you even watch the movies?
The game features various modes, Action is the main single player mode, where you fight through a series of enemies to win points to unlock more stuff, and if you do well can view a short ending movie. The plot involves Vorticia,Queen of the Vortaak, the race of aliens made up by Pipeworks, and her quest to get her hands on some of Godzilla's G-Cells, which make him unstoppable. She sends her monsters to Earth to wreak havoc to do this, and it's up to Godzilla, or some other monster, to stop them. The story is garbage, and takes on the same sort of sarcastic attempt at a classic Godzilla story that has let down more than one game in the past, and you have to wonder why you would want to alienate the fanbase of the licence, especially if you cannot parody the source in a funny way.
The ending lasts about 30 seconds, and is rubbish, only one ending, which is just lazy. With one of the Godzilla's, can't remember which, and Moguera, you get bonus levels which are the On-the-Rails shooters I had heard about. Godzilla's sees him swimming, fighting Ebirah and taking on a Vortaak submarine, and Moguera's is him flying through an asteroid belt after Spacegodzilla. These were actually really cool, and a nice diversion from the fighting, I only wish they had come up with more of them, the extras shows scenes of a Rodan level, which was obviously scrapped, which is a shame. All of the characters have generic bonus stages, such as shooting down UFO's, or throwing rocks at boats, which really just get annoying after a while.
These can all be played seperately in 'Challenge Mode', but sadly, apart from the Moguera shooter, all of them force you to play with Godzilla 2000.
There is also your standard Survival and 2-Player Versus modes, which do exactly what they say, but also there is Gallery, an option written in Japanese and Melee mode. Melee would be where the game was made or broken, the original title was a dire let down in terms of it's 4-Player mode, and thankfully, Pipeworks have somewhat redeemed themselves here, having a proper 4-Monster scrap option, as well as the destruction and Team Battle modes. Totally gone was the ridiculous points system of the first game, and the inclusion of a proper 4-Player really did add life, and by default fun to the game.
You begin with only a handful of monsters, and have to unlock the rest, as well as most of the cities, concept artwork, and pictures from the latest movie, Godzilla Final Wars,these were what went in the Gallery and Japanese text menus. While this is pleasant enough, I'd rather have seen unlockable bonus stages ala those of Godzilla and Moguera.
I hear the US version has Live! support, being in Europe, and the PAL version lacking it, I can't even give my usual "I don't have live..." spiel.
The game ups the ante in terms of selectable monsters, with a slew of new additions to the roster available we have: Godzilla 90s,Godzilla 2000,Rodan,Anguirus,Gigan,Megalon,Jet Jaguar,Destroyah,King Ghidorah,Mecha-King Ghidorah,Mechagodzilla 2,Mechagodzilla 3(Kiryu),M.O.G.U.E.R.A 2,Spacegodzilla,Mothra,Baragon,Orgah and Megaguirus.
While Mothra appeared in the first game, it was only as a flying power-up, where she has now been replaced by her brother Battra and the Super X-3 fighter. Here she begins the fight in larval form, but transforms, and gets her energy back, when her health is over half depleted.
Baragon is as he appears in GMK, and it's Moguera of Godzilla Vs. Spacegodzilla form, not the original Mysterians robot. The new monsters bring some new fighting styles to the game, including Megaguirus, with it's having to steal other's energy and beam weapons, although some just don't really work well, such as Spacegodzilla's over reliance on energy, and Baragon for basically being a Megalon clone.
The moves the characters have are still a bit off. Mechagodzilla 2 still has finger rockets,Gigan and Destroyah still cannot fly, and even the new monsters get a bit of a dressing down, and changing. Jet Jaguar loses his flight ability, yet gains a beam weapon, while Mothra's gold dust is AWOL.
The character roster is actually pretty good, and Im happy that they put in some of the lesser used beasts like Spacegodzilla and Jet Jaguar, but you still feel it could have been better. Titanosaurus, Biollante,Mechagodzilla 1,King Seesar, I would have liked to have seen them, and I would have been prepared to wait a few months had Pipeworks been willing to put in more effort into getting them into the game. I do like Ebirah's cameo in Godzilla's bonus stage, but why remove Hedorah? I also wonder what was going to be the boss in Rodan's bonus stage, had it not been scrapped.
The cities on offer have improved a bit from the first game, but it still wastes your time with having multiple versions of some cities, but it now boasts New York and San Francisco to smash. Im still fairly unhappy about the lack of specific stages though, still no Amusement park with laser-eyed Godzilla tower?Fukuoka under Spacegodzilla's crystals? nope, Pipeworks have carried on their trend of laziness with this game.
The controls are,as far as I can tell, the same as the first game:
X+A together can be used to pick up objects/enemies and throw them, and when the RAGE powerup is picked up, A+B is used to activate your rage attack. The response times are ok, if not perfect, but the layout is pretty good, probably as good as it could be. I don't really have any control complaints.
Graphically, the game remains a mixed bag. The cities look pretty good, and some of the monsters look great(Megalon,Gigan,Mothra,Jet Jaguar), but a lot of the monsters just look poor. Destroyah has the same faults as in the first game, Godzilla 90s has a too-square head and an overly large lower body, Spacegodzilla just lacks detail and the effect used for Rodan's wings is just horrendous. The beam weapons still look great, but the game still suffers from parts of the monsters disappearing into buildings with no effect. All in all, the graphics are workable, but Im used to better on the XBox, and Pipeworks really dropped the ball with the graphics in some places.
The sound in the game lead to one of my biggest gripes. The sound effects of the monster's roars,the beams and the destruction are all good, and in most cases the seem movie accurate, although why Anguirus walking sounds like someone eating an apple was rather disturbing, but the music is where the game got to me. Pipeworks bought the rights to use the Akira Ifukube Godzilla theme, and only use it over the end credits. Stupid. The in game music is generic and pointless, so, as in DAMM, I figure I'll go slap in some Ifukube of my own. WRONG. In an act of grosse stupidity, Pipeworks removed what was a great feature, and I cannot see any reason why you would REMOVE a feature that added to the game. It also hurts the mulitplayer, as playing to some rocking tunes could boost the fun, but instead Pipeworks gave themselves a real shot in the foot here.
On the whole, I cannot help but feel that in some ways Godzilla: Save The Earth was a bit of a waste of time, for both Pipeworks and the fans. There is no denying that it makes improvements on the original game, but the fact that it actually removes one of the most entertaining features of the game hurts it more than a little, and the sheer amount of things promised and not, or only half, delivered leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. But with all of this said, I still enjoyed the game quite a bit, and I wouldn't say I regret buying it, but the fact is that it could have been so much more, but instead it's almost like an alternate version of DAMM, rather than a sequel. I would certainly recommend it if it's at the price I paid, and the person didn't own DAMM, but how much of a Godzilla fan they were would also play an important part, because most of the game's appeal will only strike as powerful a chord with them than your average gamer. While I pondered giving the game 4 stars, one up on it's prequel, but to be perfectly honest, not all that much has been improved upon, and this really wouldn't deserve the higher accolade,although the inclusion of the proper 4-Player mode almost saw to this, had they left the custom soundtracks in, Im positive it would have scraped it . It also doesn't go downhill any, so I guess the same score that I hit DAMM with will suffice here too. It's recommended to G-Fans, providing it's inexpensive, but don't go expecting too much. I do hope Pipeworks bring out another game, hopefully fixing the problems, and possibly making the ultimate Godzilla game, but I've no doubt they would end up removing the buildings from the cities or something ludicrous like that.
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