The Retro Critic

Godzilla: Monster Of Monsters!

You’d think that making a good Godzilla game would be pretty straight forward: big monsters fighting.

The end.

Why complicate something so pure, so perfect?

It’s the 1998 movie all over again!

The NES did not NOT complicate things, alas, and thus we got Godzilla: Monster Of Monsters!.

The game opens with a text scroll so slow they might as well have played the very first Godzilla movie before finally telling you to press start!

First we get the setting:

Text Scroll Godzilla

Then the text scroll goes on and on…

Rodan Godzilla

…and ON!

End Scroll Godzilla

About whatever, war and monsters or something.

The plot’s not particularly long or complicated, it’s just the excruciating pace of the scrolling text which makes it feel endless.

We’re even given the most useless level title card you’ll ever see, like there’s time for it:

The Earth Godzilla

Thanks.

Otherwise the game offers the opportunity to battle some of your favourite enemies from the Godzilla movies as Godzilla himself (or Mothra). From Gezora to  Mechagodzilla, this is actually a pretty cool mix of  monsters and the game certainly shows it isn’t without ambition.

It even attempts to be something of a board game with its often unclear map:

Map Godzilla

You move Godzilla around and enter various levels, fighting other monsters along the way.

And the Enterprise, or whatever that thing is on the bottom right of the picture.

Map 2 Godzilla

Has our solar system always been this organised and adorable?

I would have noticed that, I’m sure.

The main game itself is a side-scroller in which you play as Godzilla and walk from left to right battling all sorts of sprites. The sprites in question are all over the place, keeping Godzilla nice and occupied and keeping your screen full and glitched.

The way it should be.

Snake Guy Godzilla

The graphics are decent enough for the NES but it’s the stiff gameplay which makes side-scrolling a bit of a chore. Godzilla’s jumps are annoyingly slow, his attacks are limited and the creepy way in which he walks makes the iconic monster look like a cross between Mr Burns and Frankenstein’s Monster.

And a Hollywood diva.

Godzilla Walks Off

Mothra’s a good one to use because he can fly over most things but his attacks are even weaker than Godzilla’s somehow so be on your toes if you ever come upon those fiery phoenixes:

Mothra

Then again, if you wanna fight Alf…

Screen Shot 2014-05-14 at 13.49.48

Godzilla’s your guy.

While there are far better Godzilla games out there, this one has its moments. What it lacks in competent controls it makes up for in ambition. It’s still honestly not very good in that it’s about as smooth as Godzilla’s back and memorable as Rodan’s bank account number and there’s about a thousand games you probably should be playing instead of this one but, for what it is, it’s worth a shot.

I can’t imagine you’d be playing it through the entire thing, though.

Not too bad, then, but not great either.

For our Nintendo Legend’s own (read: fuller) review of the game, make sure you check out nintendolegend.com!