While regarded by some as Simitar's best transfer job, although personally I would give that title to their Godzilla's Revenge disc, this DVD has not aged well at all. By today's standards, the video quality here is downright poor, while the audio also fails to incite any real praise. This, coupled with the stock selection of extras that are also found on other Godzilla discs from the firm, equates to a DVD that's going to be a hard sell with how far we have come with the format.

Simitar made waves back when this disc was first released due to the fact that it was bringing the "Toho Scope" aspect ratio to US consumers for the first time on a Godzilla title. As time progressed, though, and this became standard on Toho releases, the poor transfer showcased on the DVD quickly started to show its age. The biggest problem with this release is one that's prevalent throughout Simitar's titles, in that the video has been heavily compressed, losing any sense of sharpness the footage might have had while also containing noticeable pixilation and shimmering. In terms of the shape of the print, damage doesn't appear to be that apparent, although there are some large scratches and other distortions during a few of the scene transitions.

In regards to the colors, they are slightly off, but not distractingly so on side one; however, they are simply dreadful on side two where they are often very discolored and give the video a very murky look through many scenes.

As for the aspect ratios, as previously mentioned this disc contains the "Toho Scope" aspect and also a full screen (1.33:1) presentation of the movie. Having both of them on the same DVD does highlight here exactly how much of the picture most viewers were losing before, which becomes painfully obvious for comparisons such as this: 2.35:1 vs. 1.33:1. As for the video track compared to the one on Classic Media's 2007 Invasion of Astro-Monster release, it's not even close as the 2007 version is infinitely better: Simitar vs. Classic Media. The comparison also demonstrates that the widescreen video track here has been very slightly cropped on the sides as well.

This DVD contains three audio tracks in total, two of which are mono and the third of which is a 5.1 surround track, which is only available on side one. In terms of the mono tracks, there are mixed things to state about it. On the widescreen side, it sounds fine, with no real problems to be stated. Unfortunately, the same thing could not be said for the mono track on side two, which has very awkward volume levels that place emphasis on odd sound effects in the track and sometimes distract from the experience. The overall presentation sounds like someone converted the mono track to surround and then reconverted it back to a monaural format, causing for the levels to be all out of whack. As for the 5.1 track, it's a decent attempt, but not all that great. The artificial surround presentation doesn't work all that well here as sound effects often overpower the rest of the audio in the movie in an attempt to give the film some directionality.

Sadly, this disc is devoid of the original Japanese audio, but back when this was released, that was still the norm.

If anyone owns one of the other Godzilla titles from Simitar, than they should be familiar with the extras showcased here as it's the same stock selection. In total, there is a two minute "Artist Gallery" video that shows the creation of the art on the covers, while there is also a trivia game related to the movie that includes short movie clips for each "wrong" or "right" answer selected. All of these features are located on side one.

Bottom line, this release was highly desired back in its day, and still fetches a decent price due to rarity, but from a utility standpoint there really isn't any reason to search this out over the 2007 Classic Media release under the title Invasion of Astro-Monster.

This disc is also featured in the DVD box set: Godzilla.