During a trip to Seoul, I looked out at the city from my hotel room. From a large electronic display in the distance, I caught a glimpse of a large hand followed by a pink flash. While I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, I knew it had to be Godzilla related. A while later, while walking through Myeong-dong and enjoying various Korean street foods, such as Tteokbokki and Gimbap, I got to the large screen that had grabbed my attention earlier. Sure enough, it was an advertisement for “Godzilla X Kong: The Ride” at Lotte World, in Seoul.
Wait! That’s wrong! It’s not Godzilla X Kong The Ride, but rather KONG X GODZILLA THE RIDE. Kong gets top billing. More on that later, but it’s an interesting title difference compared to the Godzilla-led titles that most of the films have. To my surprise, the ride had also just opened. Thankfully, as my family and I had not made any concrete plans for our trip, it was easy to take a detour to Lotte World. In this article, I’ll be going over my experiences before, during, and after the ride. For those that don’t know, Lotte is a major South Korean conglomerate that operates the large indoor theme park where the Kong X Godzilla: The Ride is. Getting to Lotte World is simple enough, it’s about a 40-minute train ride from the center of Seoul. Lotte World has a lot of little attractions and theme park rides, although it’s not exactly on par with it’s more popular contemporaries.
When I entered the theme park through one of the gates one of the first things to greet me was a giant statue of Kong’s hand holding his axe. Interestingly, it’s the B.E.A.S.T. Glove arm that is holding the weapon. It’s a nice statue and impressively large which left me with a great first impression. Likewise, the park was filled with posters and advertisements for the attraction.
Finding the ride and queue
Getting to the ride was a pain. I understand that many amusement parks are designed to be a little bit obtuse in order to keep the allure of being in a magical place, but this was ridiculous. The ride was on the third floor, but the only way to get to it was to find a series of staircases and wander around until I found it. When I asked staff where it was located, they had difficulty explaining where it was, though that might be because the ride had just opened. There was also little in the way of actual signage leading there, which was strange since the park was so heavily advertising this ride.
At last, I found it, and the waiting began. The queue was probably the longest in the park at around 70 minutes. I expected this, so it was no issue. Thankfully, after a small line outside the ride’s entrance, the remainder of the wait was in a series of intriguing Monsterverse themed corridors. This represented the entrance to Monarch Outpost 42 where the ride takes place.
The first waiting room had a lot in it. Hanging from the ceiling were two large bone sculptures. One is a skull of presumably King Ghidorah’s and the other of an arm that belong to a giant ape. Beyond this, the walls are plastered with Monarch-related posters that foreshadowed and built-up excitement for the attraction. Examples included a poster that reads “Hollow Earth Advance Mission” which showed HEAVs. There were also monitors that showed clips from Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024). These were a nice distraction, as well as introduction to anyone who might not be familiar with the film series.
At the end of this room was an animatronic monarch scientist who repeated information about the Hollow Earth, the monsters that lived in it, and a new group of monsters, Crystal Crawlers. They’re classified as protectors, though a large warning siren blared warning visitors that they the creatures are a “medium threat”. The Crystal Crawlers got a lot of build-up and I was excited to see what the ride would do with them. As an aside, I also caught a glimpse of graphics of monsters that were cut from Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), such as Shimidah, which indicates that although they didn’t appear onscreen the door is still open for them to exist in the Monsteverse. In the final waiting section, there was a large model of the seats of the ride and a video that shows what mission the riders will undertake. The seats of the ride will be loaded into a HEAV and enter the Hollow Earth.
Right before the ride, there was a place to lock away personal belongings such as keys and cellphones so that they wouldn’t go missing during the ride. Right next to this was a desk with a bunch of research papers. Interestingly, there was a notebook that read Project R.A.G.E. Perhaps this was a hint for the future of the Monsterverse? After this, visitors are ushered to board the ride.
Ride experience
The ride consists of sitting on an elevated platform which moves down a series of carefully disguised hallways with different Monsterverse flourishes. Large screens to the left, right, and front of the carriage show the events of the ride as it moves along. Occasionally, the ride would get very close to a screen and enter a perspective that made it seem like you were actually flying through the Hollow Earth rather than passively watching. In addition to the screens, there are also a handful of animatronics to grab the riders’ attentions.
Here is a detailed plot summary of what happens in the ride. Note that because I only saw the ride once, and the narration was in Korean—a language I do not speak, there is a chance that some of this information is mildly wrong:
Aboard a HEAV the riders enter the Hollow Earth through Monarch Outpost 42. After entering, the HEAV observes Crystal Crawlers and Warbats in the Hollow Earth. Riders also witness Doug relaxing, but not before things go amiss. A volcano erupts, possibly because of the Crystal Crawlers, and this causes a huge explosion. Doug is hit by volcanic rocks, but manages to scamper away.
After this, the Hollow Earth mega fauna go ballistic. A swarm of Warbats rampage. Kong appears and begins to fight multiple of them in succession. The fights are similar to those in Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), with Kong grappling them and pushing them against the ground. At one point, Suko joins the fray as well, although it’s more of Suko assisting Kong than directly engaging.
Interestingly, Scylla appears, though not on any of the screens. It appears as a large animatronic with large red glowing eyes. Right after Scylla, there’s a screen with giant termites, although I could not make out what they were.
We follow Kong deeper into the Hollow Earth where we eventually encounter Shimo. Skar King does not appear, and evidently Shimo is going berserk though acting of its own free will. Axe in hand, Kong fights Shimo and does decently. Most of the fight is pushing and shoving each other around. At one point Kong and Shimo tumble through a portal that leads from the Hollow Earth to the planet surface. I assume that it’s a city in South Korea, perhaps Incheon, but it was also just non-descript enough so as to make the ride accessible as possible to any viewer.
From here, Shimo gains the upper hand until Godzilla appears. Godzilla repeats what he did in Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) and charges up Kong’s axe. Very interestingly, because this is Godzilla Evolved, the axe is charged with pink energy, rather than the standard blue that was shown at the end of the 2021 film. Kong uses the axe not to slay Shimo, but rather push it back into the Hollow Earth. The ride ends there, with Shimo presumably being calmed down after running berserk and being beaten by Kong.
Thoughts on the ride
Overall, it’s a very simple, monsters run amok story is good enough for a theme park attraction. Fans will be happy to get a bit of extended action with familiar faces like Kong and Suko as well as some fanservice with Doug and Scylla.
Despite this, there are some negatives. I cannot understand why the Crystal Crawlers were barely seen after so much build-up. Perhaps they will appear in Godzilla X Kong: Supernova (2027), and this was a tease for them? I could also understand Legendary or whoever signed off on this not wanting to include some super-powerful special monster in a one-off ride that most people would be unable to attend and therefore feel left out. Strange choice, but fine.
Godzilla got the short end of the stick. I don’t fully agree with the notion that the Monsterverse films lean too heavily towards Kong. However, Godzilla doesn’t appear until the last few moments of the ride. I can understand the world-building reasons why Godzilla doesn’t enter the Hollow Earth, but it feels like something could have been done better to integrate him into the ride earlier. However, as I write this, I’m reminded that for this ride gives Kong the main billing so this shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.
We can concoct all sorts of Monsterverse conspiracy theories that would make Bernie proud as to why Godzilla gets second billing. For example, perhaps Lotte World or the theme park only has the rights to Godzilla for a short time. I think though its the simple fact is Godzilla might be less popular than Kong in Korea. During my entire trip of Korea, despite seeing lots of imported Japanese anime and character goods, I did not see a single Godzilla product in any shop or toy store.
Shimo is the last major monster of the ride and she was cool. I’ve always liked Shimo, though it felt like in her debut film she served second-fiddle to the film’s actual antagonist, Skar King. It’s nice to see her as a separate entity, divorced from enslavement of her oppressor, and have her go at it with Kong a bit more. I’m disappointed that for the ride Shimo instantly is reduced to a raging beast with the only reason being the rest of the Hollow Earth is going nuts. Kong and Shimo seem more on equal footing than they did in the movie, so that adds a little bit of flare to the whole spectacle.
It does feel like the best parts of the ride were unrelated to the big fight though. I’ve heard from other fans that would like a monster-themed documentary going over the daily lives of monsters. While I would not like that, it occurred to me that the best parts of the ride were essentially that; watching Doug waltz around for a bit, and seeing Kong explore the Hollow Earth with Warbats flying around from a unique perspective was really cool. However, I concede that for a ride they want to make things as exciting as possible, so the brisk action-packed brawl was needed.
The ride did have one major problem in my opinion. The last section of the ride is really bad and honestly feels like a design mistake. Once Kong and Shimo reenter the surface world, the ride pulls up to a hallway with two large screens to the left and right of the HEAV. There’s blank space, the exit, in front of this, leading to a break in immersion. If I remember correctly, Godzilla appeared on the left screen, while Kong and Shimo appeared on the right. During the climax, I was maddeningly torn between paying attention to both. It’s a shame. The rest of the ride did a relatively decent job at maintaining immersion and not making it hard to understand what was going on. It didn’t ruin the ride for me, but it put a damper on the entire experience.
What about continuity? I don’t usually care about this, but I know others do. Is this “cannon”? I don’t know, I can’t give you a definitive answer. It feels like the type of thing that if you, or Monsterverse creatives, want to include on the “official” timeline you absolutely can. There seems to be attempts maintain some sense of continuity as a follow-up to Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. Godzilla is in his evolved state, and Kong has his metal tooth. Suko and Kong seem to already know each other. While he does not have his B.E.A.S.T. Glove, there’s a specific reference on one of the posters to address this, saying the B.E.A.S.T. Glove is inactive.
The only major thing that contradicts previous films is the brief appearance of Scylla. However, this can very easily be handwaved as “oh there is another one” in the same way there are multiple MUTOs or Mothras. It’s not a big deal and I appreciate the ride’s commitment to trying to stay consistent with the main continuity. Lastly, I’d like to discuss what happens after the ride, as despite it being over, the were a few small things that caught my attention.
Post ride
Once you disembark from the HEAV/ride and grab your belongings, you walk towards the exit. Before the exit is a large statue of Kong where you’re meant to pose and take pictures with. It’s cool and a nice post-ride experience, although I really do wish it was Godzilla.
Right after Kong, there’s the proper exit into Lotte World. The exit leads right into a Kong X Godzilla the Ride gift shop. I admit I’m an avid collector of Godzilla and Monsterverse merchandise. However, nothing really looked appealing to me. Most of it was stationary or metal badges. They felt a bit generic and too similar to a lot of other recent Monsterverse and Godzilla merch that is being pumped out in Japan. The best things for sale were a few cute t-shirts, but I already have enough of those. The gift shop also had generic monkey plushes for sale, clearly just thrown in to increase the amount of goods in the store. While I wasn’t expecting a super-exclusive Crystal Crawlers Bandai figure, I was disappointed by the offerings.
Adjacent to the gift shop were two confection stands: Titan Snacks and B.E.A.S.T. Station. Titan Snacks instantly caught my attention, though perhaps for the wrong reasons.
At Titan Snacks, there were two new Godzilla designs! I saw them at a confection stand that was outside the ride. I was only able to get a photo of one, but it’s very interesting! It appears to be an enhanced version of Godzilla Evolved? It was a bold choice to give Godzilla three fingers on each hand. Likewise, I’m surprised that they removed Godzilla’s thagomizer. I was a fan of Godzilla evolved sleek, shark-like spines, so it was a bold choice to revert to more basic and larger spines. To be serious, yes, they used AI for this.
I’m also going to be fair to the ride: as far as I could tell, nothing in the actual ride was AI-generated. However, what is especially bizarre is that the B.E.A.S.T. Station had no AI-generated imagery. It’s also noticeable that the Titan Snack booth very clearly avoided using any Monsterverse terminology while the other Kong-themed stand did not. Examples included a Mire Squid on a stick. My assumption here is that perhaps Lotte World had images and content for Kong they could use and not Godzilla. Not the end of the world, and it was clearly just a quick-fix, most likely unrelated to the ride. It doesn’t affect my opinions of the ride, but it was an interesting addendum to the whole experience. It adds to my theory that perhaps Godzilla may not always be part of the ride, but Kong could be, and this is part of future proofing it against that scenario.
Final thoughts
Overall, the ride, and the preceding build up, was a lot of fun. A lot of effort went into the façade of the Monarch base. It felt like it properly acclimated people who were unfamiliar with the source material to the Monsterverse and also provided easter eggs for die-hard fans. The ride was an enjoyable spectacle that provided another glimpse into the Hollow Earth and subsequently delivered with action. Still, some of the placement of the screens during the ride prevented me from loving it. Also, the gift shop and what came after it were underwhelming.
If you’re visiting South Korea, I honestly recommend prioritizing the sights and tastes of Seoul. The Kong X Godzilla Ride is fun if you’re visiting Lotte World, but it’s nothing any fan of Godzilla or the Monsterverse needs to lose sleep over missing. I do appreciate the effort that went into it, and the Monsterverse expanding into theme park rides is something that I hope to see more of in the future.
