This game was okay at best, but once again as a huge Godzilla fan I was disappointed by the latest Godzilla video game. I was not a huge fan of the fighting ones released last decade either as I wanted to see Godzilla in a game where you were Godzilla and you roamed a city and fought other monsters defending the city or destroying it and having monsters come to stop you. This one promised that to a degree, but did not deliver. It was sort of a fighting game, but not really. Sort of a level based game, but again not really. The game as a whole was less a complete game, but more like a bunch of mini games or something. The game is not all bad as it features a lot of monsters that Godzilla has faced through the years, but once again, the format of the game really hurts it as Hedorah and others just kind of show up and there is no story to how they arrived or why other than they are attracted to Godzilla. Which makes little sense when Mecha Godzilla shows up because they show him launching out of a dock so someone had to send him. The controls are also not very friendly as it often seems you are fighting with the controls and turning Godzilla and the other monsters seems like turning a river barge with a stick, you struggle.
The story to this one depends on what format of game play you chose. If you choose invade you arrive at Japan's shores as Godzilla and you destroy generators and get bigger and occasionally another monster shows up to fight you. There is another form of this where you can invade as another of the monsters in the game. Then you have defend where you protect a portion of the city from an onslaught of invaders. No matter what you choose though you have to hear this annoying girl say the same things over and over again. There really is not much to other than that as far as story. If you get so many photos you unlock a level where you battle either Super Mecha Godzilla or Kiryu and if your growth goes beyond 100 meters you fight a monster that may have been surprising had they not shown it in the opening cinematic. What ever you play though the game is over in a little more than an hour.
The game play as I said just does not offer much considering the console it is on. A PS2 disc could do an entire state that is highly detailed in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, yet in this game Godzilla is confined to only a portion of the city. The controls, as I've said, are really difficult and annoying as many a time a chain was broken simply because Godzilla takes forever to turn or get done with certain movements. It becomes frustrating when fighting another monster and said monster gets behind you are you are trying to destroy a generator but they keep making you face the other monster. Still, it is not all bad as it was fun discovering all the monsters and such, just wish they would have done more for the main game.
So all in all an okay game. It features an impressive roster of monsters though I was sad Megalon and old school Gigan were not in it. I would have preferred a game where you maybe went through each of the Godzilla films as that would have taken more time or maybe a free roam game where you wander Japan and either destroy it and have Mothra and other hero monsters try to stop you or defend it and protect Japan from the more diabolical monsters and perhaps even add the alien slant. As is, a game for hardcore Godzilla fans only as it just is not fun enough to capture a person who is not a Godzilla fan. I am a fan and it seemed weak to me, but it was cool seeing the monsters for the first time.
