Godzilla Hands-On Preview – Beware of Giant Reptiles (PS4)

As a kid growing up, Godzilla movies seemed to always be on TV and I can remember being plopped down in front of our old black and white watching them every chance I got. Sometimes he’s a good guy, sometimes he’s a bad guy, but one thing’s for sure, destruction was always found in his wake. Godzilla is recognized by Guinness World Records to be the longest continuously running movie franchise ever, having been in on-going production from 1954 to the present so he’s not only a mega-monster, but he’s a mega-movie-star as well (he even has his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame). I had the opportunity to play his upcoming video game recently and this mega-monster is mega-impressive.

Developer Natsume Atari had a pretty big task ahead of them when they started on this game, as Godzilla is known to quite a few different cultures and has countless fans, both young and old. With that in mind, you are given the option to go old school by choosing between the classic 1954 monster or new school with the 2014 version. Both are equally destructive and both can kick some major monster butt, so whichever you choose, you can’t go wrong.

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Fans of the movie series will quickly recognize the foes in the game as they are created nicely in-game. From the three headed Ghidorah to Mecha-Godzilla, these bad guys look ready to reprise their film roles right now. The level of detail to all of the monsters is very high, with fluid animations for attacks, and the level of destruction to the surrounding area looks catastrophic. For what is basically a movie tie-in game, the developer went above and beyond the usual fare in the graphics and animation departments. This is a great looking game on the PS4, and I would hope it looks great on the PS3 (haven’t seen the PS3 version so I can’t say much about it).

Godzilla is a fun game to play and pretty easy to control. Whether you are in fierce combat or just bashing through a metropolis, Godzilla can easily wreak havoc on a major scale. As he does wreak havoc, he collects G-Energy which can make him grow from 50m all the way up to 100m tall. The more damage you do the more likely you’ll trigger one of the classic monsters to battle and these guys are pretty fierce.

Godzilla has some basic attacks that fans will quickly recognize. His massive tail is great for those close quarter encounters, but that halitosis of his is really his best attack. The Atomic Breath attack can do some serious damage to buildings and monsters alike, and ended up being my go-to weapon of choice. It’s a great weapon for not only leveling buildings, but also for ranged attacks on monsters that want to get close to you.

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Is that bad breath or bad-ass breath?

From the cities to the monsters, this game looks to be shaping up to be a great summer title that may surprise you with its quality, even being a movie tie-in game. From what I’ve seen and played so far, Developer Natsume Atari has done the Godzilla franchise justice and has me anticipating the summer release for this title.

PSLS has an import review of the Japanese PS3 version here.

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