Atari’s Godzilla: Destroy all Monsters Melee stomps onto Nintendo Gamecube

Atari shipped the biggest fighting game ever, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee for the Nintendo GameCube, to retail stores this week in a worldwide launch of nuclear powered monster mayhem. Based on the classic movie license from Toho Co., Ltd., the monster-on-monster fighting game faithfully recreates the look and feel of the titanic film legends and challenges players to punch, kick, stomp, throw and blast each other in massive, city-wide arenas.

“Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee captures the epic scope and scale that is the hallmark of the landmark movies,” said Jean-Philippe Agati, senior vice president and general manager of Infogrames’ Los Angeles studio. “Godzilla fans will rejoice at the authenticity of the game, made possible by our close relation with Toho. Gamers are in for the ultimate party game – four player slugfests with buildings, gas tankers and cargo ships flying through the air. There’s nothing else like it!”

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is a one-to-four-player fighting game that pits gamers as their favorite giant monster against other escapees from Monster Island. The game was awarded “Runner-up” as the Best Fighting Game of the 2002 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

In addition to the single-player story mode, the game includes four play styles: Versus mode, pitting between one and four players against each other in an epic battle royal;Destruction mode, a timed challenge to see which player can destroy more of a city in a given amount of time; Survival mode, the ultimate test of a player’s skill, pitting him against monster after monster with the score based on the number of enemies defeated before losing a match; and Melee mode; a two-to-four player multiplayer slugfest.

The game features an epic sense of scope and scale, with 10 massive real-world and fantasy fighting arenas, including San Francisco, Tokyo and the notorious Monster Island, that are fully 3D and totally interactive. Players can pick up and throw buildings and landmarks like Big Ben, toss enemies into vast fuel tank farms and stomp on baseball stadiums. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee also features additional hidden, unlockable areas. Each city has been created with amazing attention to detail, including working traffic lights, blinking neon signs and moving cars, buses and tanker trucks.

More than 10 licensed monsters, each carefully modeled from the record-setting movie franchise, appear in the game including Godzilla 90’s, Mechagodzilla, Megalon, Destoroyah, King Ghidorah, Mothera and many more. Each character is equipped with basic fighting maneuvers like kicks, punches, jumps, projectile attacks and blocks. For more hardcore fighting fans, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee includes a robust combo system and special attacks that are unique to each creature’s abilities from the original movies. Power-ups are dropped into the arena by alien ships and hidden within city buildings, providing health and other enhanced abilities.

While the game focuses on arcade fighting, there is also an additional strategic element involving the humans populating the cities. As each monster moves through a city, causing destruction along the way, the human military will attack with tanks, helicopters, hover jets and laser cannons, launching attacks at the monster that is guilty of the most damage. Players can leverage this element to their favor by forcing or throwing opponents into nearby buildings, thus leading the military to attack and wound their enemy.

Developed by Pipeworks Studios, based in Portland, Oregon, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee shipped to most retail stores this week for an estimated retail price of $49.99 and an ESRB rating of ‘T’ for teen.