April Fools has been an annual tradition at Toho Kingdom for well over a decade. In fact, you can see the range of pranks we have done over the years in the archive right here. It’s always a challenge to do the tradition as it does take a bit of creativity. In the past we have run the spectrum on ideas too, from outlandish KWC matches to animations to news that does masquerade as legitimate for the day. This year’s prank was the latter, which is always risky. A lot of people are pretty savvy not to trust news that comes out on April 1st. As a result, these kind of pranks generate eye rolls from a lot of people, which I can understand. A few do fall for it, only to quickly learn that it was a prank and get upset… which is in many ways worse (and I have gotten messages to that effect).

At any rate, this year we did a prank around Godzilla Battle Line, which is a mobile title that has consumed a lot of my time of late. I’ve been pretty happy with the support it has gotten from Toho to date, and felt it being so frequently updated wanted to do a prank related to the title. I wanted to pick something that was a little out there… but also in the realm of possibility. Thanks to Kong being added to the game, which was a huge shock last year, something related to the upcoming Shin Ultraman felt like a good fit.

Anyway below is the original prank as it appeared on April 1st, 2022. I’m particularly proud at how the screenshot image turned out, which took a bit of effort to get to the final state shown below (arguably, I spent too much time on it).

Ultraman is coming to Godzilla Battle Line.

To celebrate the upcoming Shin Ultraman, which releases May 13th, 2022, Toho Games has announced a new “collab event” (short for collaboration) for their mobile game Godzilla Battle Line. The event includes being able to get a four star Ultraman battle piece for use in the game. A release date of the event is unknown, but given the movie comes out on May 13th it’s likely to come out late April or early May in conjuncture with the new season in the mobile title.

Battle Piece Details

Please note that the below information might be considered spoilers for the upcoming film, assuming the powers are based on feats from Shin Ultraman. As a result, those wishing to avoid spoilers might want to avoid these details.

Now, the upcoming Shin Ultraman collab event will introduce an Ultraman battle piece to the mobile game. From the report this is referred to as “Ultraman 2022” and is based on the new Ultraman from the upcoming movie. While no stats were listed for the battle piece, Toho Games did reveal that Ultraman will be “the ultimate versatile fighter” and will have four different attacks depending on the enemy he is facing. These attacks are:

• Ultra Punch (ウルトラパンチ): a fast melee attack used against enemy leaders
• Ultra Chop (ウルトラチョップ): a slow melee attack used against ground units that also causes stun
• Spacium Beam (スペシウム光線): a powerful beam used against flying units
• Ultra Barrier (ウルトラバリヤー): after being hit from an extra long range attack will pause and reflect future attacks until the enemy is defeated

The list doesn’t mention what happens when Ultraman encounters a facility in battle. Of these attacks, the Ultra Barrier is particularly unique and could shake up matches where the Super X is still a dominate force.

In addition to the listed details above, based on the screen shot below we also know that Ultraman 2022 will be a 6 energy unit.

Event Tokyo Level

With the addition of Ultraman to the game an alternate version of the Tokyo stage is being added. However, going by the released screenshot, the stage appears to be identical in appearance to the one that was first released for the Godzilla Singular Point collab event. This includes the red mist look to the stage. For those who recall before the stage was removed from the game, it was mostly a visual change to the regular Tokyo stage. The main difference was the addition of a third force unit, which was initially Rodan and Godzilla Ultima before later being swapped for Jet Jaguar and Godzilla Ultima.

So while the stage might be visually the same, it’s possible that the third force unit will be new… likely Ultraman 2022.

Limited Release?

This Shin Ultraman collab event marks the third such collab event for the mobile title. The first, coming with the game’s worldwide release, was a Godzilla Singular Point collab event. The second was a Godzilla vs. Kong collab event, which started June 25th, 2021, with the release of the Kong battle piece. Both events had two phases to them, where they introduced Jet Jaguar 2021 and Godzilla 2021 respectively at a later date. They also had limited time stages introduced, the previously mentioned Tokyo variant and Skull Island.

Unfortunately, the Godzilla vs. Kong collab event turned out to be a limited release. While the battle pieces were available for around seven months, eventually Kong and Godzilla 2021 were pulled from being acquired inside Godzilla Battle Line on February 14th, 2022. This didn’t stop the battle pieces from being used from those who already had them, but did prevent the pieces from being picked up for newer players. Worth noting as while nothing of this nature was brought up in the announcement, Ultraman is not a Toho property and would likely be limited as well. Producing the 2022 movie, Toho has a vested interest in the film’s performance, but due to the situation it’s likely that the battle piece will at some point be pulled from being acquired. As a result, interested players might want to consider prioritizing getting him just in case.