Whats that coming over the hill, is it a monster?
So bad it redefines the standards by which you rate games.
Sometimes a game will come along that is so bad it redefines the standards by which you rate games. One such game that springs to mind is Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. One gaming magazine gave my favourite review quote ever. “This game could only be worse, if it sprayed sulphuric acid in your face.”
Of course Atari are no strangers to such games. ET in the 80s not only killed their Atari 2600 games console, but almost killed the games industry in the whole of North America.
Well, they have had a dammed good go at doing it again. Enter Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash on the Nintendo DS. The idea is great, take control of a tag team duo of Godzilla story based characters and rampage through cities. In practice though it just delivers on nothing you could hope for.
The main part of the game seems to consist of just punching planes and jumping on trucks as they try to attack you. Then there is some parapa rappa style boss section where you must press keys in the combinations displayed to destroy a crystal. Occasionally there is a boss battle, which is a little more entertaining, but nothing challenging. Then the section is complete. This then repeats. There is no variation that I could see.
Flying monsters (such as Mothma) are pretty much indestructible and can avoid most of the action, where as Godzilla is a wimp who seems to be close to death after only a few hits.
The graphics are for the most part dire. My wife summed it up when she asked if it was a remake of a game from the 80s or if it was just deliberately bad! The characters are all distinctive, but are made from blocky polygon models that would have looked bad on the SNES. If this had been a free flash game it would be forgivable. I will say that some backgrounds were pleasant, but that s about as far as it goes!
The split screen is made good use of, with flying characters sticking to the top screen and land based monsters fixed on the bottom.
Controls are simple and responsive. The touch screen is used as nothing more than an extra button, which is a shame. Face buttons control the main action, such as high and low attacks, whilst the shoulder buttons are used to ‘tag’ in the other monster.
The problem is there is no game play to speak of; in fact there is nothing to recommend this game at all, unless you want it to prove how good your other games are. It could be the worst game on the DS, although Jenga is close (also Atari as it happens).
Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash is a dire cash in on a tired franchise that should never have seen the light of day outside of Japan.
The Bad: That I wasted time playing it.
Stinker Award!