Bandai Namco will bring Godzilla over from Japan this year on PlayStation 3 as a digital release and PlayStation 4. Both games are called Godzilla in the West, but these aren’t the same game. Godzilla for PS4 even has a different name in Japan, Godzilla Vs., and I tried a mission from the PS4 version.
The stage I played had a three monster rumble, a feature not in the PlayStation 3 release. I controlled Godzilla who had a couple of minutes to smash buildings. Rampaging through Japan grows Godzilla and makes him more powerful. The easiest way to destroy the town was dashing by pressing X and then whipping Godzilla’s tail around. People below aren’t thrilled with Godzilla running amok and the Global Defense Force will retaliate with increasing force depending on how much damage Godzilla causes.
Before the Global Defense Force could save the city, King Ghidora dropped in. Godzilla’s gameplay switched here from Rampage to something like a modern King of the Monsters style game. Godzilla moves like a tank, which is different from other fighting games. You have to make Godzilla turn around by pressing L and R to get Godzilla and King Ghidora in line. Godzilla’s energy breath can do a little bit of damage, but I found it more effective to dash into King Ghidora, tail whip him, and then do an energy blast. Godzilla can also fire an energy blast that propels him backwards, think of it as something like a breath powered back dash. King Ghidora fires lightning-like beams that are difficult to dodge. Fortunately, Godzilla can take quite a bit of damage and it looks like he had regenerating health in the demo.
After I whittled King Ghidora’s lifebar down to 75%, Space Godzilla entered the arena. While Space Godzilla was an enemy, he wasn’t King Ghidora’s friend either. When all three monsters were on screen it was like a giant reptile royal rumble. Space Godzilla has a breath attack and can also make spikes appear from the ground. Straight from the movies, Space Godzilla can also create a defensive barrier. It appears that these spikes hurt King Ghidora when they touched him. I tried to see if I could get the monsters to actively fight each other, which didn’t work as planned. The two monsters did their own thing sometimes clashing with each other, but mostly they flailed around while walking towards Godzilla.
Trying to fight both monsters at once is futile since Godzilla’s breath attack has limited horizontal range. I had to draw King Ghidora away from Space Godzilla to even the odds. Once King Ghidora was knocked out I focused on defeating Space Godzilla by using a mix of energy breath beams and tail whips. After Space Godzilla collapsed the demo ended. I left wanting to play another kaiju battle. Natsume Atari and Bandai Namco captured the campy fun of the Godzilla movies with a game that takes the best parts from Rampage and King of the Monsters.
Godzilla is scheduled to come out on July 14 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 (but this version will not have Space Godzilla or 2 vs. 1 fights) in North America.
