Game Name: Godzilla: Save the Earth
	Systems: Microsoft X-Box & Sony Playstation 2
	Release Date: November 2, 2004
	Players: 1 - 4 Also has online playing capabilities
	Playable Characters: Anguirus, Baragon, Destroyah, Gigan, Godzilla (Heisei), Godzilla (Millennium), Jet Jaguar, King Ghidorah, MechaGodzilla (Heisei), MechaGodzilla (Millennium), Mecha-King Ghidorah, Megaguirus, Megalon, MOGERA, Mothra (adult & larva), Oruga, Rodan, and SpaceGodzilla
	Non-Playable Characters: Battra, Ebirah, Super X3, and Millennian
	My Rating: 7 out of 10
Synopsis
After their defeat last time in “Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee”, the Vortaak return, this time lead by their queen, Queen Vorticia. Vorticia arrives in Earth’s orbit and transmits a message to the people of Earth. She has discovered that Earth’s scientists have unlocked the secret’s of Godzilla’s DNA and have encapsulated its incredible power in the form of G-Cells. Vorticia makes it known that she wants the G-Cells in order to create the ultimate monster. In order to obtain the G-Cells, which are located in groups of five in cities all over the world (cities like New York City, San Francisco, Tokyo, Osaka, Seattle, Boston, and Monster Island to name a few), she sends several controlled space monsters and takes control of all of Earth’s monsters. She sends them all to the cities where the G-Cells are located, ordering them to get the G-Cells and destroy anything and anyone that gets in their way. However, one monster manages to escape Vorticia’s control and goes on a mission to stop the Vortaak and the invading monsters. The game has several different modes of play, the main one being “action,” which is the game’s story mode. In action mode you have to battle through several monsters and two challenges to beat the game. As usual, Vortaak UFOs drop power-ups in each level, these include health, energy, rage, and the Atari symbol which summons either Battra or the Super X3 to attack your opponent. You can also collect the G-Cell canisters (five in all), which are hidden in each level, for extra points. Other playing modes include versus, melee, survival, challenge, and multiplayer (which can also be played online). In challenge mode, you can choose between several different games to play on your own or with friends. These games include Battleships, Vorillium Basketball, Osaka Crunch, Demolition, Monster Bowling, UFO Attack, Clone Attack, Monster Roundup, Replicator, Mothership, and Ebirah’s Underwater Battle. The game also has you earn points each time you play in action mode. With these points, you can unlock monsters, cities, gallery images of the creation of the game, and images from Godzilla: Final Wars. You start off with six playable monsters: Godzilla (Millennium), Gigan, Megalon, Godzilla (Heisei), Anguirus, and Rodan. After playing through the action mode with these monsters, you take the points you earn and use them to unlock three parties of monsters with four monsters in each party. You then have to unlock individual monsters in that party for 30,000 points each. Cities for multiplayer action have to be unlocked in parties and individually as well.
Controls
The controls for this game are basically the same as the X-Box controls for “Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee”. However, this time around each monster has differences that have to be adapted to by the player. You have fast monsters like Baragon, Rodan, and Megaguirus (who also has to drain the energy from her opponents so she can obtain energy herself), strategy monsters like SpaceGodzilla and MOGERA, and plain old rough and tumble kaiju like Godzilla, Anguirus, Jet Jaguar, King Ghidorah, etc. Each kaiju have different types of attacks that they can either inflict, resist, or become weakened by. They also have level bars at the beginning of action mode that show their amount of power behind their speed, weapons, defense, and attacks. Overall, every monster has the same basic control with different attacks, you just have to know how to use them. Below I have listed the controls for “Godzilla: Save the Earth” on X-Box. Left thumbstick/directional pad - move your monster Right thumbstick - allows you to unselect target / aim your beam weapon A button - Punch / High Attack X button – Kick / Low Attack / Rising Attack B button – Fierce Attack / Rising Attack Y button – Block Left trigger – Disengage / Run / Duck Right trigger – Jump / Fly Black button – Press & hold to charge beam weapon / Tap to fire projectile weapon White button or A button + X button – Grab Left trigger + Right trigger – Monster’s Special Ability A button + B button – Rage attack (in rage mode) / roar B button + X button – Taunt Right thumbstick button – Lock / Unlock target Start button - Pause
My Opinion
This game is basically just taking “Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee” a step further, but it also ends up falling back several steps. All of the monsters have once again been reproduced faithfully to look like their movie counterparts, for the most part (Gigan’s color scheme, MOGERA’s roar, etc.). The levels also look nice for the most part and are much bigger than those featured in the previous game. The opening titles are also great, but the ending of the game in action mode leaves a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, aside from this, the inclusion of several new kaiju, the new challenge mode, the new battle abilities like the beam war, the ability to play online, and the real sense of scale you get in each level, the game kind of falls flat. The X-Box version is much better than the PS2 version when it comes to visuals, way more polished. Although the crumbling / melting of the buildings and the water battle scenes are still pretty unrealistic looking. The overall sound of the game is alright with the roars, sound effects, and so on, but the music is almost 100% original music, only having the traditional Godzilla march playing during the end credits. The story of the game is short and not much explanation other than the opening sequence of action mode is given, basically taking a backseat to the battles between the kaiju. Several features promised by the developers were cut, including custom sound tracks, certain levels and challenges, a larger story mode, and even kaiju like Biollante. Challenge mode, while new and interesting also offers a completely disappointing reticule control system used in every single challenge level, which can make it extremely hard to battle and target opponents with the bad camera angles it provides. Multiplayer matches can also be difficult due to the bad overhead camera angle. Another thing I noticed is that if you leave the game sit on the post match screen for more than 2 or 3 minutes, the game actually resets itself (BEWARE!). The game is basically G:DAMM all over again with more kaiju and a challenge mode, no real improvements at all. Like I said before one step forward, but several steps back.
Screenshots