Godzilla Unleashed: Final Four

Oops- my bad. Looks like there were still four final monster reveals to go for Godzilla: Unleashed. So, without further ado, here they are:

Mechagodzilla (90’s)

‘Nother MechaGodzilla...

Godzilla (90’s)

‘Nother Godzilla...

Godzilla (’54)

‘Nother Godzilla...

Space Godzilla

Actually, I like Space Godzilla a lot, as his abilities and attacks are weird and varied enough to make him more than just another Godzilla clone. Mind you, he’s the second monster in the game based around a crystal theme (the other being Obsidius)- do we really need two?

So we now have the final lineup. There are a few characters missing in the IGN galleries that are slated to appear in the final game, including Varan (who has a profile on the game’s official website), Moguera (who also has an official profile) and Showa-era Mechagodzilla (I think you can see him briefly in one of the game site’s trailers).

While I’m not terribly thrilled about the fact that there are quite a few repeating characters (three Godzillas, three Mechagodzillas and two King Ghidorahs) and two non-Toho, original creations (Krystalak and Obsidius), I’ll take what I can get when it comes to a new Godzilla-themed fighting game. It’s better than nothing. All the same though, here’s a quick list of the monsters I would have liked to have seen in this release in place of the variants and the two exclusive characters:

Hedorah

I’m actually kinda surprised that Hedorah didn’t make it into this new game as all of his strange abilities would make for a great fighting game character.

Kumonga

I had mentioned in a previous blog entry on the subject that Kumonga would be a welcome addition to the list of characters, and they could even give him the leaping ability from his Final Wars incarnation.

The Gargantuas

Admittedly, one of the fun aspects of a fighting game featuring Toho’s cast of daikaiju is to enact brawls that never actually happened in the films. Although the Gargantuas would be entirely melee-based in terms of their attacks, the game could compensate by giving them their signature regenerative abilities and allow them to slowly regain their health when not being hit.

Gezora

Yeah, it’s an odd choice, but I’ve always liked this beastie from Space Ameoba- goofy design and all- and it never hurts to have a few non-humanoid entries in the games’ roster to mix things up visually. Although he never displayed the ability in his film appearance, it wouldn’t be terribly out of character to give him some sort of pressurized water spray-like ranged attack for the sake of the game.

Kamacuras

The War of the Monsters fighting game for the PS2 featured a giant mantis as a playable character- why not a Godzilla game? Kamacuras could be totally based around speed and his flying ability, making him more of a “hit and run” fighter. Although he was briefly shown having a camouflage/invisibility power in Final Wars, that ability would be somewhat hard to pull off in the context of a two-player game.

Bagan

If you really want a new and exclusive monster in the game, why not make it one that was actually meant to legitimately appear in a movie? Bagan is sort of an infamous monster in Toho fan circles, as he has appeared in various projects, including early drafts of The Return of Godzilla (a.k.a. Godzilla 1985), as the headlining villain in the unmade Mothra vs Bagan film and again in another Godzilla installment which would eventually become Godzilla vs Destoroyah. He did finally show up in the Super Nintendo game, Super Godzilla as a final boss, but it would be cool to see him in a fully rendered, 3D incarnation. The best thing about Bagan though, is that he actually looks like a proper Japanese-style kaiju... unlike certain, other exclusive creations that I could name.

Zilla/GINO

Although having this monster appear in this game might be considered a blasphemous maneuver by some fans, I can think of no better way of making up for the American re-imagining than by turning the character into a virtual punching bag to vent frustrations upon.