The monsters of Godzilla return to fight
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered is a 3D fighting game inspired by the famous Godzilla film series, featuring some of its most well-known monsters locked in combat within various urban environments. The concept is quite simple, yet immediately understandable: choose your own Kaiju, enter battle, and use the monster’s size and abilities to dominate your opponents.
The narrative component is told through the Adventure mode, which presents an alien invasion by the Vortaak, a race intent on conquering Earth. To achieve this, the invaders take control of the minds of several famous Kaiju from the Godzilla universe, forcing them to destroy the planet’s major cities. However, one monster manages to break free from mental conditioning and decides to face the other Kaiju in order to stop the aliens from completing their plan.
Don’t expect a particularly elaborate narrative or a story packed with big plot twists. The plot serves mainly as a backdrop to frame the battles and guide the player through a series of encounters. After all, the real focus of the production is clearly on the ability to control the monsters of the saga and witness their clashes.
Apart from the Adventure, we find two other main modes. Destruction asks us to demolish as many buildings as possible before time runs out, highlighting one of the most distinctive aspects of the Godzilla universe. Survival instead offers a series of consecutive battles, during which we must face various opponents without being able to fully recover energy between encounters.
These are fairly straightforward proposals that allow you to approach the experience in a different way, though over time a rather obvious limitation becomes apparent. The available activities don’t always manage to sustain the same level of interest over time, and, above all, end up becoming quite similar when you decide to use different characters.
Kaiju vs Kaiju
The heart of the experience is naturally represented by the combat system. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered offers battles between giant monsters, aiming to recreate that sense of spectacle typical of the saga’s combat. We’re not facing the classic fighting game, where everything revolves around input precision and move chaining, but rather an experience that seeks to highlight above all the characters’ scale and interaction with the environment.
One of the most interesting aspects is precisely the possibility of exploiting the environments during combat. The maps are fully interactive and allow players to destroy existing buildings, gradually transforming cities into true battlefields. It’s a feature that perfectly complements the starting material and manages to restore a portion of the saga’s charm, in which witnessing the destruction of entire urban areas is practically a constant.
The destructibility of the environments represents one of the most evident strengths of the production. It’s not merely about fighting another monster, but also about watching the surroundings react to the combat. It’s precisely this element that makes certain battles particularly enjoyable, especially in the early hours, when one still has the desire to experiment with the various characters and observe the possibilities offered by the maps.
Even the Kaiju present different characteristics and moves, an aspect that helps give the fighters a certain identity. Although the number of characters is not particularly high, the differences between them allow for varied approaches to combat. However, the variety is not enough to fully offset the structural limitations of the combat system.
The controls turn out to be rather stiff, especially when compared with those of more traditional punch-and-kick games. Actions don’t always deliver the responsiveness one would expect, and as a result, some fights can feel less fluid and immediate than anticipated. It’s a characteristic that one can initially accept, considering the game’s unique nature, but which becomes more apparent with time.
The main issue, however, goes beyond the responsiveness of the controls, but also the overall repetitiveness of the experience. The modes essentially offer the same activities regardless of the Kaiju chosen, and after facing several encounters, one ends up with the feeling of having already seen much of what the game has to offer.
The limited number of maps also contributes to this impression. The ability to completely destroy environments is certainly interesting, but it’s not enough on its own to maintain high variety when situations tend to repeat. It would have been useful to have a greater quantity of scenarios and some more distinct differences between available activities.
Progressing through the character unlocks remains a rather pleasant initial incentive. Having new Kaiju to try allows you to discover the various possibilities offered by the roster and experiment with their features. It’s a functional system that provides a goal during the early hours of play, even though the total number of available characters remains one of the production’s limits.
In short, the gameplay manages to entertain when you’re in the mood to watch giant monsters clash and exploit the destructibility of environments, but struggles to maintain the same excitement over the long term. The core idea works, especially for fans of the series, but it would have needed more variety and a more polished combat system.
A graphics that could have done more
Visually, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered fails to fully convince. Considering that it’s a release this year, the graphics still appear too simplistic and don’t deliver the spectacle one might expect from a game centered around monsters of Godzilla’s scale.
The work on the environments is nonetheless interesting, especially regarding the possibility of interacting with buildings and progressively destroying cities during combat. It’s a feature that helps make the fights more engaging and likely represents one of the most successful visual elements of the experience.
Even the various Kaiju manage to maintain their own identity, thanks to the differences that define them. However, overall, I would have preferred a greater attention to technical execution, especially considering the visual potential offered by a franchise like Godzilla.
I didn’t encounter particularly obvious glitches during my sessions, so we’re not facing a visually problematic aspect from this perspective. Simply put, the final result looks less convincing than it could have.
No major issues on PS5
On the optimisation front, the PS5 version performs overall well. During gameplay sessions, I did not encounter particularly significant bugs or heavy frame rate drops, allowing me to proceed with the adventure without technical issues that could compromise the experience.
We’re not facing a particularly impressive technical production, but at least on this front I had no significant reasons to complain. Overall stability represents a positive element, even if it doesn’t suffice to offset a visual presentation that could have offered something more.
An experience mainly for fans of Godzilla
In the end, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered is a title that finds its audience primarily among fans of the iconic franchise. The idea of pitting different Kaiju against each other within completely destructible environments is certainly interesting and represents a good alternative to classic fighting games.
The first few hours manage to be entertaining, especially thanks to the ability to unlock new characters, experiment with their moves, and exploit the maps during combat. Unfortunately, however, the repetitiveness of the modes, the limited number of Kaiju, and some commands still too stiff end up penalising the experience over the long term.
It’s a game that could have done much more with a wider variety of content and a smoother combat system. The core is interesting and some ideas work, but it lacks the depth needed to keep interest alive after the initial sessions.
It remains a proposal worth considering if you’re a big fan of Godzilla and want to witnessmonster battles that destroy entire cities during fights. If instead you’re looking for a particularly deep, character-rich combat experience with a wide variety of time periods, you may be disappointed.
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