What’s On The Shelf | Games, Music & Culture

Some games age like fine wine. Others age like milk. And sometimes a childhood favorite sits awkwardly somewhere in between.

Giant monster movies are something that I simultaneously love and yet don’t watch nearly enough of. I’ve seen the original Godzilla from the 1950s, I watched Godzilla Minus One, and I’ve even experienced the horror staple 2010: Moby Dick. Oh, and King Kong. Is King Kong technically a Kaiju? I’m not sure, but he feels like he should qualify.

Anyway, three of those movies are great, and one is absolute dogshit. I’ll let you decide which one.

Despite not having much experience with the Kaiju universe as a kid, I somehow ended up with Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee sitting in my GameCube library.

Released in 2002 for the GameCube by Infogrames and Atari, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is a fighting game centered around the Godzilla universe. It was also developed by Pipeworks, a studio that would later go on to work on the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series. When you think about that lineage, it almost feels like an incredible opportunity was handed to them on a silver platter.

So what could possibly go wrong?

As it turns out, quite a lot. But not everything here is bad.

The story of Destroy All Monsters Melee is threadbare and, frankly, pretty stupid. An alien race invades Earth with the intention of mining the planet for its resources. Their explanation for this grand cosmic invasion? “It’s what we do.” That’s not a paraphrase either—that’s basically the entire justification the aliens provide.

While writing this retrospective I actually had to look up the aliens’ name because the game leaves such a small impression. They’re called the Vortaak, apparently.

Their plan is simple enough. The Vortaak mind-control Earth’s giant monsters and unleash them upon major cities across the globe. Luckily for humanity, the monster you select on the character screen happens to break free from the mind control and becomes the last line of defense against extinction. It’s convenient storytelling, but at least it gets the monsters smashing things quickly.

You begin the game with three monsters available: Godzilla from the 90s era, Anguirus, and Megalon. As you progress through the game you unlock several more Kaiju, including familiar faces like Rodan, King Ghidorah, Mecha King Ghidorah, Orga, Destroyah, Gigan, Godzilla 2000, and Mechagodzilla.

The initial selection doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, although at least they gave players a Godzilla option right away. Most people would probably gravitate toward him immediately. As a kid, however, I spent a surprising amount of time playing Anguirus simply because he looked like some bizarre dinosaur armadillo. Kid logic is undefeated.

The game begins on Monster Island, the apparent holding ground for all of the world’s Kaiju. Talk about “there goes the neighborhood.”

Combat itself is fairly simple. You have a punch, a kick, and a special attack, which usually comes in the form of a tail swipe or some other monster-specific move. Each Kaiju also has a breath attack that can be charged for extended use, along with a handful of directional attacks and the ability to grab enemies. Grabbing is performed by pressing two buttons simultaneously, and once you have your opponent in hand you can throw them like a ragdoll across the arena.

More importantly, you can also throw the environment.

Massive rocks, buildings, and other debris can all be picked up and hurled at your opponent like oversized baseballs. The arenas themselves are surrounded by glowing electric fences that zap monsters who wander too close, but they can also be used strategically to bounce enemies off the barrier and continue combos.

And when I say bounce, I really mean bounce. Some throws send monsters floating through the air for several seconds like a confused Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon.

Global Property Destruction

Once you defeat your opponent on Monster Island, the game moves you across various cities around the world, each filled with skyscrapers and structures begging to be demolished. While rampaging through these environments you’ll occasionally encounter powerups scattered throughout the stage. Some replenish your health or restore your energy meter, while others temporarily boost your damage output and send your monster into a rage-fueled state.

One pickup even summons Mothra, who swoops into the battlefield and begins blasting your opponent with lightning attacks like a friendly Kaiju airstrike.

Meanwhile, humanity, apparently unable to tell which monsters are helping them, launches rockets, fires artillery, and deploys freeze rays at everyone indiscriminately. To be fair, we are still leveling entire cities in the process, so perhaps their confusion is understandable.

After demolishing cities and defeating a who’s who of Kaiju opponents, the campaign eventually leads you to the alien mothership for a final showdown against Mechagodzilla. I never claimed to be particularly skilled at this game, but the final fight feels dramatically more difficult than anything that comes before it, almost to an unreasonable degree.

My eventual strategy was less elegant and more desperate: run away and repeatedly throw pyramid-shaped structures at Mechagodzilla’s head until he eventually collapsed. With the final boss defeated, the Vortaak essentially shrug, retreat back into space, and leave humanity to deal with the minor logistical issue of several major cities now being smoking craters.

If the Adventure mode doesn’t hold your interest, the game also includes a couple of alternate modes. One challenges players to cause as much destruction to a city as possible within a limited time, while another simply throws multiple monsters into the arena for chaotic free-for-all battles. Beyond those options, however, there isn’t a tremendous amount of additional content to dig into.

The “What If” Problem

What’s most striking about Destroy All Monsters Melee is how close it feels to being something truly special. The premise alone: a fighting game where gigantic monsters suplex each other through skyscrapers, should be a recipe for over-the-top fun. And occasionally the game delivers flashes of that potential. Godzilla can dropkick his enemies, Megalon can spin opponents around with his drill arm, and buildings can be thrown like toys across the battlefield.

But those moments are fleeting.

Once the novelty wears off, the combat system begins to show its limitations. Combos rarely extend beyond pressing the same attack button several times, with only minor variations depending on directional inputs. Considering the studio would soon work on the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series, with its deeper combat systems and cinematic special moves, it’s hard not to wonder what a Budokai-style Kaiju fighting game might have looked like.

Despite all of its mechanical issues and unrealized potential, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is often regarded as one of the better entries in the Kaiju video game universe. Which leaves me wondering if that says more about my own ability to judge a good game, or about the historically rough market for our larger-than-life lizard. Maybe the game was simply in the right place at the right time.

Final Thoughts

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee holds a special place in my heart, but it’s not the kind of game I’m inviting friends over to play every weekend.

Back when I was a kid—when good mechanics and storytelling weren’t really things I thought about—this game would have slotted perfectly into my GameCube rotation without a second thought.

Returning to it now mostly leaves me feeling a little sad.

It’s still a fun novelty for a few matches, and fans deeply invested in the Kaiju universe will probably squeeze more enjoyment out of it than most. But beyond that, the game ultimately feels like a missed opportunity—a reminder of how close it came to being something far greater.

Because when you’re making a game about giant monsters throwing skyscrapers at each other, subtlety probably shouldn’t be the guiding design philosophy.