Rodan was planned
for a 1991 release on the Nintendo Entertainment
System (NES). The game was under development,
internally, at Toho. The title was also rumored
to be exclusive to the US market, although the
legitimacy of this claim is unknown.
In 1990, advertisements for the game began to
surface. Toho started packaging a full page promo
for their upcoming titles with Godzilla
Monster of Monsters (1989). The ad showed
off the 1989 Godzilla game for the NES, Circus
Caper (1989) for the NES, Godzilla
(1990) for the Game Boy, Times of Lore
(1990) for the NES [a port of the 1988 Commadore
64 game] and Rodan. The game included the caption:
"A giant flying reptile assaults the earth! Rodan, Godzilla's arch enemy! Now an exciting NEW game!"
For whatever reason,
the Rodan portion of the advert dubs the
title character as "Godzilla's arch enemy",
despite the fact that they had only engaged in
combat once at this point in time and had much
more frequently been showcased as allies.
Meanwhile, magazines in 1990 started to take
notice of Toho's next project for the NES. Nintendo
Power's 16th issue made mention of the title
in their Game and Watch section. The magazine
stated that Rodan was a "sort of sequel
to [Toho's] NES Godzilla game." Gamepro,
in their September issue, also made mention of
Rodan by citing the title as "a sequel
to Godzilla [Monster of Monsters]."
A short while later, the game was swept into
obscurity only to resurface in 1991 as Godzilla
2: War of the Monsters, according to Nintendo
Power. Exactly how much was changed when the title
took a new name is not entirely known; however,
the game shares very little in common with Godzilla
Monster of Monsters (1989), beyond the
cast of monsters. Reportedly, though, the reason
for the change in direction was that Toho felt
the Rodan name wouldn't sell as well as another
Godzilla game.
|