Ah Godzilla: Unleashed. It's been awhile since I can recall a game I was more eagerly anticipating (...well ignoring Super Smash Bros Brawl...). As a fan of the franchise it was great to see the roster slowly fill over a year's time as more and more details came to light. Suffice to say, when the title did come I was fairly excited. Unfortunately, my first play through was a pretty disappointing experience. I had trouble with the controls, while playing through the much touted Story Mode wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped for. Still, I stuck with it and was amazed to find my appreciation for the title grow drastically over time as the controls and fundamentals of the game became more apparent. It's a game with a large learning curve to it, but one that's sure to delight fans who continue to play past the "initial impression" point.

For the third outing in the Godzilla fighting series, Pipeworks has shaken up the format a bit. Some elements remain, like the always fun ability to pick up buildings, but in many ways this is a starkly different game from its two predecessors. It might look similar on the surface, but the modifications to the way health, energy and the addition of crystals over items actually change things around a lot. Are these changes for the better? That will come down to personal preference, as this game has deemphasized the importance of beams, as they can't KO someone (save the Mechagodzillas), and melee combat has become the predominate focus. The overall sense of the game is more frantic too, as one is usually scrambling to keep up the assault so that the rather rapid health regeneration doesn't kick in.

Regardless of one's thoughts on the direction of the franchise, and if they might prefer the play style in Unleashed or the previous two games, there are some new dynamics which are excellent additions. The foremost of these is the ability to have one's monster rush. It's a simple action, yet there is something so satisfying about seeing your character charge and smash buildings out of their way, and it's even more satisfying when one of those structures happens to fly out and smack an opposing player. The other major addition here is that energy no longer automatically recharges, but will have to be done manually. The nice angle to this is that a character (with a few exceptions) can't regenerate health and replenish their energy at the same time, which presents a fundamental dilemma for the player that works out well in the context of the matches.

So, enough broad details, how do the characters fare in this entry? Surprisingly well, actually. I was worried that many of them would play similar after seeing the earliest footage of the game, which had monsters firing their beams and punching at the same time, yet many play drastically different from one another. Yes, some "clones" are back, like the Godzillas and Mecha-King Ghidorah, but a lot of the characters, like Megaguirus and Biollante, are very unique from other combatants and this certainly adds to the experience. Some will probably miss the rage dynamic from previous games, in the sense of seeing a character unleash a more powerful attack. A few of these, well Kiryu's at least, are still present; however, it would have been nice to see a few more represented in the final game as so few characters actually have ABCZ moves, and a Godzilla 1990s without a nuclear pulse is disheartening...

Okay, time to dig into the most touted feature of the new game: Story Mode. Upon getting the game, this was the first thing I dived into and... sadly it left a sour taste in my mouth. I selected Fire Rodan for my first play through and started out in the intro level for the Earth Defenders. Regrettably, this first arena is really boring, as it lacks any opponents and fails to really teach someone the controls or really what the objectives are to someone who hasn't played before. It's a bad start, and left me disappointed for the remainder of this first play through. It also doesn't help that the story itself is extremely simplistic yet still slightly hard to follow, as events can be witnessed out of order. Overall, I was pretty under whelmed from this first attempt through the game. However, I stuck with it, selected a different fraction, now with a better sense of how it works, and went for another play through and ended up having a lot of fun. So what's the verdict? Story Mode is hard to get into at first, but has a nice pay off the more you play it, and some of the more unique aspects (like the Atoragon, aka Gotengo) will keep you coming back for more.

Unfortunately, the one area where this game really suffers is the AI. To put it simply, it's very lacking. On the Easy difficulty, it's pretty much a push over, as the computer stands around and often does nothing for long strands of time. Normal is better, Hard mode even more so... but I would suggest against playing on the latter difficulty. The reason being the way beam locking is handled, as the computer becomes incredibly proficient at this stage. This makes it hard to win, but even worse is if the CPUs get their beams locked as this can often last for over a minute as they continually bounce the surge. My other major gripe is that, on any difficulty, they never go for crystals. It was a common complaint in the previous two games that the computer would often run after power ups that were off screen, giving them an unfair advantage; however, I think it's even worse for this game that the CPU will never actively attempt to get an energy or health crystal, which in turn gives the player a huge edge against them.

Given the console the game is on, Pipeworks has done a commendable job with the graphics here. A number of characters, like Megaguirus and Titanosaurus, look truly fantastic. A couple could have been done a little better, like the lack of detail in Obsidius' mouth or the way Godzilla 1990s dorsal fins end prematurely, but at the distance they are typically viewed there isn't much to raise a fuss about.

There is no doubt that the characters look great, but what about the levels? They generally look pretty good, although there are some uneven aspects to them. For example, the water looks fantastic in the game, but the "splash" effects are very under whelming and really draw attention to themselves because of it. Building destruction, while more complex than ever before in the series, could have looked a bit more sophisticated as well. Overall, though, the locations look good, but won't evoke a sense of awe like some of the character models. As a plus, the stages also won't hamper the frame rate much, although a few moments in Story Mode, such as SpaceGodzilla spamming crystals in New York, do cause noticeable slow down.

So the characters look great, levels look good and the added effects like lighting are handled well. Is anything not up to snuff? Sadly, yes. The cut scenes, shown in Story Mode, are extremely lackluster. They are done in a comic-like fashion through still art, which is similar to how cut scenes were handled in the Wii launch title Red Steel. Unfortunately the technique looked cheap there and it looks cheap here as well. There is also a lot of art reused during these sequences, which only compounds this feeling.

Overall, though, Pipeworks has done a good job where it counts. Yes there are better efforts on the system, like Super Mario Galaxy and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, but amongst the myriad of slapped together titles on the console Godzilla: Unleashed stands out positively.

First off, the music in this game, done by Heavy Melody Music, is simply phenomenal. From the moment I heard the excellent "menu" theme I was hooked. They have really done a great job in delivering a score that at times sounds like a traditional video game score, but really mixes it up with a lot of guitar work and other elements that really convey a sense of energy. It's perfect for a fighting game, and fits with the character as it feels reminiscent of some of the better themes done for Godzilla: Final Wars (2004).

As for the sound effects, they are pretty good. The roars are all here, each matched faithfully to their source without many mix ups. Some of the unique touches, like Destoroyah's victory "cackle", are also handled well. Some others aren't, though, like Kiryu who uses both the Showa and Heisei Mechagodzilla roars in his victory stance. Sadly, punches and other effects are less satisfactory. Many of them sound similar, and a few, like Moguera's punch noise, get on one's nerves quickly as it's not an uncommon strategy to use the quicker attacks in rapid succession.

On the plus side, the game features both English and Japanese audio for the cut scenes. Personally, I selected the Japanese option and never looked back. Unfortunately, it feels fairly shoehorned in. For example, much of the dialogue is out of sync with the subtitles, and some cut scenes even end prematurely with the actors still reading a previous line. The problem seems to be that it's still set on the same timing for the English audio, which causes a lot of problems. As for the readings, they are fairly competent. The Japanese audio, while not having a lot of emotion in the readings, gets the job done. The English side of things is a bit more of a mixed bag, with things like the stereotypical "surfer dude" for Seattle, but fares okay overall.

On a closing note, given that the Wii is capable of it, it would have been nice to see custom soundtracks as an option here.

No ifs or buts, there is a large learning curve to the game's controls. In fact, it took me two days to get really comfortable with them. As expected there has been a lot of integration with the motion control aspect of the Wii for the title. A lot of this is pretty simple, like pressing B and swinging the remote to perform an attack in that direction (typically). What this does is allow the player to be moving and perform just about any attack without interruption, unlike other fighting games where someone would have to stop to perform a Down and A move for example. Unfortunately, it isn't always easy to perform the move you want. I still have trouble with this too, which is commonly acted out in doing a "Down Swing" move when a "Left Swing" was intended. Precise actions, done smoothly, will get the desired effect. However, in the frantic pacing of the title, and it's never more frantic then when you are trying to deliver a knockout blow before an opponent regenerates health, calm and collected gestures can be hard to achieve. Is there a fix for this "problem"? Not really, unless the controls were incredibly simplified to only two directions.

Unfortunately the same passing advice can not be applied to beams in the game. Now beams are set on auto-aim unless the remote is shaken, which is quite easy to do by accident. If this does occur, then manual aiming kicks in, which is performed by aiming the remote. Manual aiming is hard to get used to and one will want to be standing a good distance away from the sensor to get it right. Eventually, one should get the hang of it to the point where they can focus on their intended target after a second or so of misfire. The exception to this is Moguera, who thanks to his rotating upper body is incredibly hard to aim with. In general, for all characters, more often then not one would like to just rely on auto aim... at least in the theory. The problem is that the auto aim has this habit of focusing on the military planes and what not, which is very aggravating when you are desperately trying to keep someone at bay. To end on a positive note, though, beam locking is incredibly fun once one gets the hang of it, as it's performed by swinging the remote to "volley" the surge as timing comes into play.

Compared to its predecessors, replay value is where the game really shines. The biggest improvement in this respect is the number of options now available for matches. These are found in "custom" modes, and it saves four different methods of play at a time, which was an excellent choice as, speaking personally, I play the game very differently depending on who I'm with and it's great to be able to select these on the fly. The degree of options present is also really nice, from being able to customize the military to messing with the game speed. I was disappointed with the lack of a "friendly fire" option for teams, but otherwise the variety is great.

Now in terms of game modes, Destruction (ability to trash a city which is tied to scoring points in a time frame) is back. It can't be played with only one monster, but it's here. I was never much of a fan of this mode, though, so don't have a lot to say about it. I was disappointed by the lack of Survival Mode this time around, though. Overall, there are a number of modes to toy around with and the level of options present adds spice to the matches, which is a great combination with the "pick up and play" category that fighting games fall under.

It's not all roses though, as unfortunately this brings us to online play, or lack there of. It's disappointing not to see it given that it was hinted at when the title was first officially revealed. To be fair, there hasn't been much of an online presence for Wii games in general, but that doesn't mean there isn't one, as Atari themselves even distributed the online enabled Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 on the same day as this game.

I have grown to love this game, I won't lie. However, I don't feel I'm the most impartial person when it comes to Godzilla: Unleashed. There are certainly flaws to the title, one can't deny that. The better question, for fans, probably is: how does this fare compared to other games on the character? To be honest, it's hard to give a straight forward answer. There are elements of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee which I still really enjoy, yet I'm having a lot more fun with this title from the multiplayer aspect. At the moment I would probably say it's a draw between those two.

If there is one thing I want to convey, though, it's that this game takes time to get used to, possibly even more so if one has played one of the previous Godzilla games and is used to those. A lot of dynamics have been changed and the controls take awhile to get the hang of, and even then one will be making the occasional mistake. This can lead to a sour first impression of the game, and from that angle it's very understandable to see all of the negative reviews for the title, but it's much more enjoyable after one has sat down with the game for a fair bit of time to get used to the new play style.