Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee

Legendary Monsters. Epic Battles.

NA release: 8th October 2002
EU release: 15th November 2002
JP release: 12th December 2002
Developer: Pipeworks Software
Publisher: Infogrames
NGC Magazine Score: 68%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

As far as plots for fighting games go, aliens coming along and letting all the monsters loose is actually fairly logical. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is a one on one fighting game where you control hulking beasts duking it out in cities, causing all sorts of collateral damage – or even using buildings as weapons. The destruction is really what sets it out apart, and you can even have the destruction persist throughout multiple rounds.

The actual combat is fairly simple, though. You have some basic kicks, some long range blasts and a special move (like Godzilla’s tail whip, or burrowing, or flying). Glowing orbs will appear to recharge health, energy and even lets you summon Mothra to take pot shots at your opponent. It’s just a shame that the massive, lumbering monsters means that the game never feels frantic. The army fruitlessly fires at the monsters, but it’s all inconsequential. The 4 player mode does make it more chaotic, but unfortunately you can’t play that with bots.

There’s a decent section of city areas to battle on, with some recognisable buildings within them such as the Houses of Parliament in London or the Space Needle in Seattle, and a few different kaiju to pick between, but there’s not a lot to the game as a whole. The Xbox version came out later and added a few extra things to it, such as a destruction mode.

Fine

Godzilla is by its very nature a slow and lumbering game, lacking the finesse and depth to really hook you, and entice you to develop your skills as a more ‘regular’ beat-’em-up would. There are a lot of monsters to unlock, though, and much of the game’s cham comes from people playing as their favourites form the old movies.
Jes Bickham, NGC Magazine #74

Remake or remaster?

Would be good in a Godzilla collection.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee.