Godzilla made his first appearance in the 1954 film that shared his name. Since then, there have been a further 34 films featuring the monster that was woken up and fueled by the nuclear radiation left in Japan after World War II. The majority of these films have been received well by fans and critics alike, including the 2014 film “Godzilla” that was produced by Legendary Pictures.
There have also been many great video games released since they first hit the market in the 1970s, with classics like Nintendo's Tetris, Donkey Kong and Super Mario proving popular. And just like there have been dozens of Godzilla movies, there have been numerous game releases featuring Japan's most infamous mythical monster.
Like the films, some have been hits, while others have not been received so well. Here are some of the best.
Godzilla: Monster of Monsters - 1988
One of the earlier Godzilla games was Godzilla: Monster of Monsters. It was released for the NES/Famicom in 1988 and was a typical slide scroller game, similar to many others released in the 8-bit, 2D era.
In the game, Godzilla works with Mothra to fight a gang of invading aliens across multiple levels. The fighting takes place in various different terrains, with a range of monsters from other Japanese sci-fi films being roped in by the aliens to attack.
Super Godzilla - 1993
Back in the early nineties, when the SNES was one of the most advanced game consoles on the market, a big proportion of titles were released with the word “Super” in their title, just to show how advanced they were.
Super Godzilla was no different when it launched on the SNES in 1993. It contained an odd mechanism for controlling the game, as you direct Godzilla around a 2D, top-down map of the city to collect energy, before heading to fight another monster.
The fight scenes were also unique, and resembled an anime film or cartoon with short, pre-rendered cutscenes that depicted the action.
Godzilla: The Series - 1999
It’s not just home console gamers that got to enjoy Godzila games. Godzilla: The Series was released to Nintendo’s hit handheld device, the Gameboy Color, in 1999. It was modelled on the animated TV series that was a spin-off of the 1998 TriStar movie.
Another 2D side-scroller, Godzilla: The Series had players direct their monster through various locations as they fended off the waves of attacking soldiers, tanks, helicopters and fighter jets that are sent to destroy the monster.
Although primitive and a little repetitive, the game was on par with many other portable titles released on the Gameboy devices.
Godzilla: Save the Earth - 2004
With the advancements brought on by more powerful consoles, gamers could enjoy Godzilla in the glory of 3D graphics by the 2000s. The 2004 release of Godzilla: Save Earth for PlayStation 2 and Xbox brought a new take to a now familiar premise of saving the planet from a gang of attacking aliens.
This was a follow up from a 2002 game that was released on the Gamecube and Xbox and had many of the same features which saw you control multiple different iterations of Godzilla as you brawled with many of his monster rivals.
Godzilla - 2014
A decade later, Godzilla returned to consoles, this time with HD graphics on the PlayStation 3 and 4. However, while these graphics were a huge step up on the games for the sixth-generation consoles, they were below par when compared to their contemporaries.
Players can play as several of the different iterations of Godzilla as they trash different cities and take on the many monster foes. Godzilla for the PS3 and PS4 brought online multiplayer to the franchise for the first time. While the single-player mode was above average, the multiplayer mode was much more fun.
All in all plenty of games to keep you entertained when you’ve exhausted the entire Godzilla film catalogue. Whether you’re looking for a retro title like Godzilla: Monster of Monsters for NES/Famicon or a more recent release like Godzilla for PS3 and PS4, these Godzilla titles will keep you entertained for hours.
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