Godzilla: Unleashed is a Wii and PlayStation 2[1] (PS2) video game based on the Godzilla film franchise. Like the previous two home console entries in the Godzilla video game series, the Wii and PS2 versions of the game were developed by Pipeworks and published by Atari. An IGN interview with Pipeworks indicated that the game was being built from the ground up and is specifically designed with the Wii Remote in mind.[2] A PlayStation Portable (PSP) version is planned, but was not released with the other versions of the game, as it is planned for 2008.
Gameplay[]
Arenas[]
A total of nine arenas were announced for Unleashed.[3] The revealed arenas are Seattle which is in the path of a volcano, Sydney as a frozen-wasteland, New York City in an apocalypse of meteors, Monster Island deformed by crystals, Mothership partially flooded and destroyed after crashing into the San Francisco Bay, Tokyo being flooded by tsunamis, San Francisco deformed and ravaged by earthquakes, Osaka infected with nuclear fallout, and London lifted into the sky by an anti-gravitational vortex.
Crystals[]
The plotline of Godzilla: Unleashed revolves around mysterious alien crystals. In the game there are four kinds:
1. Health crystals: blue: replenish health when shattered
2. Energy crystals: yellow: replenish energy when shattered
3. Large crystals: purple/green: rapidly increase Critical Meter/induce "excited state"
4. "Ambient" crystals, which affect your faction affinities when destroyed.
Critical Mass[]
A new feature introduced for the Wii version of Unleashed is Critical Mass.[4] It is the Unleashed version of Rage Mode from Godzilla: Save the Earth. Monsters enter Critical Mass by destroying the crystals scattered around the stages and filling up the "Critical Meter". If the monster destroys a large crystal, it enters an "excited state", during which all damage dealt and received will increase the Critical Meter. When the Critical Meter is filled, the monster enters Critical Mass. While in Critical Mass, the monsters' bodies increase in size and become covered in glowing red lines. They deal significantly more damage at the cost of their defense. As "punishment" for resorting to Critical Mass, one cell of the monster's HP is depleted when the monster exits Critical Mass. Godzilla 90's Critical Mass is his Meltdown from Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.
Power Surges[]
Unleashed has also replaced the Rage Attacks of the previous games with "Power Surges"; super-powerful attacks and abilities that can only be used once per battle. You earn these from the single-player mode, and can't use them in multiplayer until you have unlocked them from the single player mode. During the Story Mode of the game, you encounter monsters that have been given strange powers by the crystals. You can either defeat the monster and gain that power for yourself, or you can free the monster by destroying the crystals.[4] When the Surge wears off, the player can set off a Nuclear Pulse-like shockwave to deactivate it. Any one monster can have several Power Surges. For example, three Power Surges are the "Radiation Surge", which enables the "Nuclear Pulse" Rage Attack, the "Fire Surge", which enables the "Finishing Breath" Rage Attack, and the "Dark Surge", which grants immunity to all ranged attacks.[4] Initially it was believed that there were monster-specific Surges, but since the release of the game it has been revealed that the Surges are available for all monsters.
In the PS2 version of the game, Critical Mass is called Power Surge, and the Power Surge attacks are simply known as "Surges". Also, Surge Attacks in the PS2 version do not activate rage attacks, instead they release small shock waves with their own effects.
Kaiju[]
Atari has revealed all 26 playable kaiju for the Wii and all 20 playable kaiju for the PlayStation 2. There are four factions: Earth Defender, Global Defense Force, Alien and Mutant.
King Ghidorah face-to-face with Gigan
- Earth Defenders
- Anguirus
- Baragon
- Fire Rodan
- Godzilla 1954*
- Godzilla 90's
- Godzilla 2000
- King Caesar (Showa/Millennium hybrid)*
- Mothra (Heisei/Millennium hybrid)
- Varan*
- Global Defense Force
- Jet Jaguar
- Kiryu
- Mechagodzilla 2
- Mecha-King Ghidorah
- Moguera
- Aliens
- Gigan (Millennium)*
- Gigan (Showa)**
- King Ghidorah (Showa/Millennium hybrid)*
- King Ghidorah (Showa/Heisei hybrid)**
- Mechagodzilla*
- Megalon
- Orga
- Mutants
- Battra**
- Biollante*
- Destoroyah
- Krystalak*
- Megaguirus
- Obsidius
- SpaceGodzilla
- Titanosaurus*
*Wii only
**PS2 only
- Unproduced
- Hedorah - Not added due to the fact that Hedorah would need special shading programs to work well in the game.
- King Kong (Toho) - Dropped due to legal complications.
- Mechani-Kong - Also dropped for legal complications.
- Zilla - Not added because of license problems.
Military vehicles[]
King Caesar and Anguirus in battle
Military presence is displayed in the game through various vehicles shown at the periphery of battle. There is a slider in the Options menu that allows the player to adjust the amount of military presence in the levels. These vehicles attack the monster that poses the greatest threat to the city. The Gotengo was seen briefly during pre-release gameplay footage, but with no revelation as to what it is for. As the game is released, players find out that the Gotengo, or as they call it by it's original name in the game "Atoragon", is a boss battleship: Admiral Gyozen, the pilot of the Atoragon is driven to insanity through his hatred towards monsters and the radiation from the crystals. The battles between the player and the ship consist of three -It can launch freeze missiles as well as normal missiles.
Story[]
The storyline of Unleashed, taking place 20 years after Godzilla: Save the Earth, begins with a meteor shower raining down on Earth, causing climate shifts and earthquakes. Simultaneously, the kaiju of Earth begin to attack cities across the globe as a result of crystals growing on the ground.[8] Factions form among the members of Earth as well as the monsters attacking them, totaling four monster factions. Choices within the story affect later events, including the relationships between Earth factions and the monster ones.[8] Earth Defender, Global Defense Force, Alien and Mutant are the factions in Unleashed. In the PS2 version, it turns out at the end that the source of the crystals is from SpaceGodzilla trying to escape the alternate dimension he was imprisoned in at the end of Save the Earth. In the Wii version, the crystals were transferred onto the planet by the meteor shower while Krystalak, a creature born from the same meteor shower, attempts to absorb the energy of the crystals in order make himself the most powerful monster on the planet, with SpaceGodzilla using the crystal radiation to escape from the alternate dimension.
After Destroy All Monsters Melee and Save the Earth, the Vortaak return for the game, as their mothership crashes into San Francisco bay after one of their monsters is defeated by another kind of monster (Godzilla, Kiryu, Anguirus, Fire Rodan, ect.) and they send their monsters to attack the earth to seize control of the planet as an opportunity. In Unleashed, the Vortaak's role as the main antagonists is usurped by SpaceGodzilla, who is now a member of the Mutants, one of the monster factions which includes Godzilla's original adversaries, and the one who is responsible for the creation of Krystalak and his counterpart, Obsidius.
Development[]
An IGN interview with Pipeworks states that the title is completely new and is specifically designed with the Wii Remote in mind. There were also plans to use WiiConnect24 support for downloading purposes, but they seemed to never have happened..[3] IGN has a development blog running, but it is updated irregularly. The Wii version of the game, while much more developed than the PS2 version, has been criticized in early reviews for somewhat unresponsive controls.
A screenshot of Godzilla and Anguirus from an early build of the PlayStation 2 version
The Wii, PlayStation 2[1] and PlayStation Portable versions of Unleashed are in development by Pipeworks Software. The PlayStation 2 version has two exclusive characters unavailable to any other console apart from Double Smash. The PlayStation 2 version has 20 monsters, including the two exclusive characters. While the game was in early development, a screenshot was also shown with the press release on some websites, but it was revealed to be a falsely edited from screenshots of Unleashed and Godzilla: Save the Earth.
On September 14 2007, two screenshots from an early build of the PS2 version of the game were released, revealing Godzilla 2000 and Anguirus with similar models to their Godzilla: Save the Earth designs, and crystals on a Monster Island arena.[9] It has been speculated that the gameplay will be a rebuild of the Save the Earth mechanics.
On September 27 2007, IGN posted a new PS2 video showing Godzilla (2000), Destoroyah, Orga, Anguirus, SpaceGodzilla, Moguera, Fire Rodan, Megalon, King Ghidorah, Baragon, Jet Jaguar, Mechagodzilla (Heisei), Mecha-King Ghidorah, Megaguirus and Gigan (Showa). This left five monsters to go. It also furthered the idea that it is a rebuild of Save the Earth as several characters are completely unchanged, including King Ghidorah, Megagurius and Gigan, who were revamped for the Wii version. On the following day, Tohokingdom.com posted an area for PS2 holders to watch. They have placed a character confirmed list on it which shows all of the characters that were seen in the PS2 video.
On October 10 2007, it was announced that summonable monsters would not reappear, according to an interview. Two days later, IGN's development blog has revealed that Heavy Melody has created the soundtrack for the game and that every monster has a unique theme song that ties to the overall feeling of their faction for the Wii version.
On October 19 2007, IGN stated that the PSP version of Godzilla: Unleashed was canceled, however, it was confirmed on the Atari Forums that it is still on, it is just not being worked on at the moment.
Atari stated that the Wii version of Godzilla: Unleashed would be released on November 20 2007, the same day as the Nintendo DS version.[10] Atari later stated that the PS2 version of Godzilla: Unleashed would be released on November 20 2007, along with the Nintendo DS and Wii version.[Citation Needed]
On November 9 2007, GameSpot posted its sixth and final designer diary with Simon Strange talking about the factions' importance.
On November 19 2007, GameSpot put up a Monster Battles feature to have people vote for which monsters they want to face off. Also, Battra was revealed to be in the game, as he is one of the monsters in the character pool.
The PS2 version of Godzilla: Unleashed has 20 monsters. Beyond Battra (exclusive to the system) and Obsidius, the roster is completely lifted from Save the Earth, featuring none of the other new characters in the Wii version. The PS2 version is a modified version of STE only with Battra and Obsidius. However, Battra is just a clone of Mothra and Obsidius is just a clone of Orga. [Citation Needed]
On November 30 2007, Atari put up a contest for the upcoming Wii version. The contest was a trivia game. If the players guessed the answers correctly, they would have a chance to win a poster of Godzilla: Unleashed, 10% off digital downloads at Atari, or Atari T-shirts. Also on the same day, all of the "monster cards" on the official website were revealed. The odd part is that the website still says there are 23 monsters when there are 26 (the other 3 kaiju are secret characters).
On December 16 2007, King Caesar won the Gamespot Monster battles while Baragon was in 2nd place. Obsidius got the least amount of votes (9380 votes).
On December 23 2007, Tohokingdom.com came out with the Godzilla Unleashed Soundtrack.
Not all of the monsters in the game have their legal licensing on the back of the game box. the first available video in gallery 2 has a video with Minilla and Gabara in it, but it is unknown if Atari and Pipeworks have the legal rights with Toho.
Reception[]
Overall, the Wii version has gotten mixed reviews. It has gotten negative reviews from official sources, with a 4/10 from GameInformer[11], and 3.5/10 from Gamespot, however it has been well received by players, giving it reviews as much as 90%. The game has sold over 11,000 copies its first week.
The PS2 version received poor reviews including a very disppointing 4.9 from IGN's PS2 team. GameSpot gave the game a 3.0. It is thought to be a bad game since Unleashed was focused primarily on being a Wii game.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 GameStop lists Unleashed for the PlayStation 2 platform. Atari's Australian site also lists the game for the system.
- ↑ Ekberg, Brian (2007-02-22). Godzilla: Unleashed First Look. GameSpot. CNET. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Mirjahangir, Chris (2007-04-20). Interview. Toho Kingdom. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Godzilla: Unleashed Designer Diary #2 - Critical Mass. GameSpot. CNET (2007-06-20). Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ↑ http://www.tohokingdom.com/vg/godzilla_unleashed/characters.htm
- ↑ http://media.wii.ign.com/media/881/881519/img_4707061.html
- ↑ http://media.wii.ign.com/media/881/881519/img_4707058.html
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Godzilla: Unleashed Designer Diary #1 - The Story. GameSpot. CNET (2007-05-21). Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ↑ http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9495140&postcount=273
- ↑ http://www.atari.com/us/games/godzilla_unleashed/wii
- ↑ http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/D99EAE02-D366-49DC-A2A4-F02DFB3B00DC.htm