Godzilla: Unleashed
From Wikizilla
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.
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Gameplay
A total of nine arenas were announced for Unleashed.[3] The plotline of Godzilla: Unleashed revolves around mysterious alien crystals. There are a total of four in the game.
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.
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.
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.
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 its original name in the game "Atoragon", aka Atragon, 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
Plot
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.[5]
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.[5] 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, etc.) 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.
Endings
There are endings in Unleashed in four factions, which are only one or rarely two.
Aliens: There is no hope for Earth while, Vorticia, the queen of the Vortaak laughs while watching the monster the player chooses destroy a city.
Mutants: Several cities are seen being destroyed by the crystals when SpaceGodzilla and the Mutants have won, when suddenly SpaceGodzilla appears and roars in triumph.
Global Defense Force: The GDF unit destroys SpaceGodzilla's army and saves the world.
Earth Defenders: The monster the player chooses is thanked for their bravery against SpaceGodzilla while the world becomes normal again.
Human Characters
Base Commander Tagaki: The base commander is the man in charge when it comes to evaluating situations and ordering GDF's mecha forces into action. He's the cool head in chaotic situations--always keeping his emotions in check. Commander Tagaki began his illustrious military career as a young, hotshot G-Force pilot assigned to "Project-M" (Mechagodzilla). His mettle was put to the test during the Vortaak invasion of 2004 while piloting Mechagodzilla (II) into battle against the alien threat. It was then, in the heat of battle, that Tagaki witnessed firsthand how Earth's monsters seemed to join forces against the aliens to protect the planet. The experience changed his personal views on Earth's monsters being a threat to humanity.
Specialist Kenji Miku (Miku): Miku is one of many GDF technicians who monitor the global defense grid and all monster activities. She reports directly to her superior, Commander Tagaki. Miku has been fascinated by monsters since childhood and has devoted her life to the study of Kaiju. Because of her knowledge and expertise, Miku has become the commander's top consultant and right hand in all monster-related matters. A mutual respect exists between the two.
Miku is among those who believe that Earth's monsters are noble defenders of the planet who rage only when their fragile world is threatened by human arrogance or extraterrestrial forces.
Admiral Gyozen: The admiral is a semiretired, hardcore military man who serves as military advisor on the GDF council. But he is a bitter man, having fought and lost many battles with Godzilla and having the scars to show for it. The admiral lost command of the battleship Atragon after a particularly humiliating defeat that resulted in the death of his crew. As a result, he harbors a deep-seated hatred toward all monsters. Though no longer in active command, the admiral has considerable sway within the council with his bombastic, overbearing nature.
Dr. Shiragami: A brilliant GDF scientist and the world's leading expert on giant monsters, Dr. Shiragami makes some "fascinating" discoveries regarding the properties of the crystal formations and the alien radiation they produce. He accidentally makes Biollante.
Kaiju
Earth Defenders
They tolerate humankind but are known to rampage through cities when provoked. The Earth monsters see the crystals as a blight on earth and destroying them is their primary goal-even if they have to destroy a few cities along the way.
- Anguirus
- Baragon
- Fire Rodan
- Godzilla 1954*
- Godzilla 90's
- Godzilla 2000
- King Caesar (Showa/Millennium hybrid)*
- Mothra (Heisei/Millennium hybrid)
- Varan*
Global Defense Force
These Mecha-Monsters have electronic brains and are autonomous. A Global Defender Force unit's role is to protect humanity from attacking monsters or from alien invasion. However, because they are autonomous, they are vulnerable to the corrupting power of the alien crystals.
Aliens
These Alien monsters do the Vortaak's bidding. Their primary goal is to conquer Earth in the name of Vortaak by defeating any monster that gets in their way.
- Gigan (Millennium)*
- Gigan (Showa)**
- King Ghidorah (Heisei/Millennium hybrid)*
- King Ghidorah (Showa/Heisei hybrid)**
- Mechagodzilla*
- Megalon
- Orga
Mutants
What identifies monsters from the mutant faction is a lust for power that comes before all other concerns. The mutants have been especially active since the appearance of the crystal anomalies-drawn out by their promise of power.
*Wii only
**PS2 only
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.
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.[6] It has been speculated that the gameplay would 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, Megaguirus 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 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, if the Wii version of the game sells well there could be a PSP version coming out in 2008.
Atari stated that the Wii version of Godzilla: Unleashed would be released on November 20 2007, the same day as the Nintendo DS version.[7] 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.Template:Fact
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.
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.
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.
It was revealed in an interview with one of the producers of the game that there is no plans for a PSP version. However, it was also revealed in the same interview that if the Wii version of the game sells well there could be a PSP version coming out in mid 2008.
Reception
The Wii version of the game was met with negative to below average reviews from all major gaming magazines and websites. [8] Some common complaints were based on imprecise controls, a high pricing of monsters, and an overall lack of polish in the game's final production.
The PS2 and Nintendo DS versions of the game also met with similar disdain from journalistic reviewers. [8]
Fan and player reactions to the game have been surprisingly positive, however, with reader reviews averaging around a 7.8. Fans praised the game for inclusion of fan favorites like Biollante, and Godzilla 1954, as well as the new story mode, which allows the player's action to direct the plot.
External links
- http://www.atari.com/godzilla/ (Official Godzilla Unleashed Site)
- http://www.tohokingdom.com/vg/godzilla_unleashed.htm (Toho Kingdom Godzilla Unleashed Wii site)
 This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Godzilla: Unleashed. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Wikizilla, the content of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
