Movie Tie-in #3: Godzilla: Monster of Monsters (NES)

(Nintendo Entertainment System, 1988)

Despite the lack of big screen releases in the 80's, Godzilla was still a popular name among the youth of the world, thanks largely to the constant rotations of the films on TV, the cartoon and of course, the merchandising. Video games seemed like a logical step for Toho, as monsters attacking cities and being bombed by the army would have been perfect fodder for youngsters to dive into with a controller in hand. Also, by the time 1988 had rolled around, Midway's classic arcade button masher, 'Rampage' had already been a huge hit, and was soaking up all those 'giant monster' dollars that Toho hadn't tried to tap into yet.

So in they stepped with Godzilla: Monster of Monsters. Told in the slowest scrolling text in recent memory, the story goes that 'Planet X' and their inhabitants are using monsters to conquer Earth. Godzilla teams up with that lovable Guardian of Earth, Mothra, to put a stop to this. The player first controls either Godzilla or Mothra on an isometric playing board, moving your monster into position as the enemy moves closer to you, chess-style. After you make your move, you must battle across a stage, fighting a never ending assault of military firepower and UFO's. Once you clear the stage, you move again, in the hopes of finally coming up against one of the monster enemies. When this happens, once again you battle across the stage, and if you live long enough, you get to fight the monster one-on-one.

When I say 'live long enough', I mean it. This game is hard, in every way you could imagine. Fighting your way through each stage is tedious enough, but adding in the never ending stream of bombs and planes flying into you will push you to the limits of your patience. Your health meter is going to be constantly going down, but you can pick up energy by destroying obstacles and enemies. None of this is helped by the fact that the sprites are HUGE; both Godzilla and Mothra take up considerable screen real estate, and are very limited in their movements, meaning that dodging any attack, be it missile or laser, is a task in itself. The controls themselves are not good; I honestly thought my controller was busted when I tried to move Mothra around the game board.

Bombs, lasers and jets aren't the only thing you will have to dodge; it's very easy to get stuck behind boulders or jagged rocks, meaning you have to bash your way through all of this to proceed. If you are Mothra, you can fly over a lot of this, but even then, if you get hit by a bomb, you will fly back and downwards, right into these rocks. Good luck trying to blast your way through the enemies with Mothra's serious lack of firepower, even taking out the ground lasers is too tough to try and bother with. Godzilla himself fares a little better, at least he can punch, kick and swing his tail, even if his range is crap. His atomic fire-breath will definitely come in handy, but be careful about using it up too soon...

As I mentioned, the sprites are huge, especially for a NES game. And they do look great. Sadly, the trade off is some terrible slow-down, especially when going through the scrolling stages. It can make for an incredibly frustrating play, especially if you are getting thrown backwards into rocks, under bombs and dealing with slowdown. The bad monsters are a mixed bag, too, in battle. Gezora, who you meet first, can pin you in the corner, and if that happens, it's very hard to get out of it. Others, such as Moguera, seem to freeze up mid-screen, allowing you to blast him away with Mothra's fireballs, weak as they are. There seem to be quite a few stages to this, but I'm unsure of how far you have to go to beat the game. I usually die after about 20-30 minutes of play, and to be honest, I can't imagine anyone but the most dedicated NES fans sticking it out to the end. Even the prospect of fighting King Ghidorah or Mechagodzilla wasn't appealing to me...

One thing I did enjoy was the music. Sure, it's repetitive, but it was crisp and clear, with that glorious chip-tune sound. Sound effects for the monsters seem to be non-existent, which is a real shame. Overall, this one is best avoided, unless you like your gaming to be extremely frustrating.