Reviews

Unleashed is the third Godzilla fighting game, a series that began in 2002 with Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (Gamecube/Xbox) and continued with Godzilla: Save The Earth (PS2). Once again, the Vortaak aliens are back to try and take over the planet, using huge crystals and Space-Godzilla to destroy major cities.

As with the previous two entries in the series, it's up to Godzilla to fight off the invaders whilst battling other giant monsters. Some creatures are on his side - i.e. Earth Defenders and the Global Defense Force, aka giant robot monsters - but other factions such as Mutants and Aliens are purely in it for the destruction. Although the G.D.F consists of machines created by the government, the mysterious crystals give off energy that can influence them to turn to the Vortaak's side.

I'll scratch your metallic eyes out!

Godzilla: Unleashed is a 3-D fighting game where big monsters smash the living daylights out of each other in various locations like San Francisco and Sydney, Australia. As well as tussling with each other, you'll be pitted against military force (especially if you destroy too many buildings and piss them off) and the power of the crystals. There are good and bad crystals, though: yellow ones give you a full energy gauge and blue ones increase your speed. The larger crystals crackling with electricity are most dangerous and must be smashed.

Training mode puts you on the island holding Godzilla and friends and allows you to go one on one, showing you (via visual prompts) what the controls are. So A is punch and B is kick, with a series of combinations created by flicking your remote and nunchuk in a certain direction to launch flying kicks, spin attacks and jumps. Different monsters have different moves and each has their individual special move; Godzilla whips his tail around, Fire Rodan can fly and Anguirus can use his powerful screech.

You know it's a bad day when it snows, giant crystals appear, and two great big monsters start fighting.

Holding down the C and Z buttons charges up your energy gauge to a maximum of four bars. This powers your attack beams (or whatever special attack your character has) and you need at least one full energy bar to be able to use it. Beam attacks were in previous games, but the accuracy here is pretty poor, so you need to be pretty close to hit your target. Three-headed dragon King Ghidorah probably has the most powerful beam in the game, save for bad guy clone Space-Godzilla and his shoulder crystals that can levitate buildings to be thrown at his enemies.