'Go-Zirr-a!!!'

That's right, boys and girls - all your favorite monsters from Monster Island are here: Rodan, Anguirus, Mecha-King, Ghidorah, Godzilla of the 90's, Hedorah, Gigan, Megalon, Destroyah, Mecha-Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Godzilla 2000. They're all here to fight it out and tear up everything from San Francisco and Los Angeles, to Tokyo and Monster Island in the process!

While the city detail is not very high, the cities do look fairly realistic. Appropriate landmarks being included in the areas help to reinforce this effect. The monsters themselves look pretty good, and have recognizable sounds that will bring back memories of the old cult Godzilla movies. (So where are the two Lilliputian Asian women???!)

As for the music, there's tension-building 'march' like music that is basically always playing, usually taking a backseat to the sound effects and action during the actual fights. Fitting, I suppose, but not what I would call inspired...

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is a fighting game at heart (hence the 'Melee' part), that takes place within a well defined 'ring' which is surrounded by some sort of 'force field' that keeps the destruction confined to a certain area. Considering the theme and the scale of the monsters, it's along the lines of a 3D Rampage, or SCEA's War Of The Monsters.

In addition to normal punches, kicks and throws, each monster has a long-range attack, plus you can pick up buildings and throw them at your opponents. Feeling a bit beat up half way through a fight? Need to do a bit more damage to 'catch up'? Enter a slew of power-ups to save the day. You can pick up some extra health, power up with a rage pick-up, or even call in Mothra for an air strike! The idea is really cool, although the size of each arena is a bit limiting.

The biggest drawback to Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is the control scheme. Many things just seem a bit awkward. It does get better with practice, but it seems that Godzilla could have been much better if the control scheme had been more intuitive.

There are several modes of play in Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee. The A.I. enemies are pretty rough - especially when you get to about the third round and the enemies begin making use of the Power-Ups.

There are three difficulty settings to choose from: Easy, Medium, and Difficult - but I find that even Easy is pretty hard by the third round. It seems that you really have to get good at using the control scheme, which is awkward at best!

I suggest a lot of practice on Easy until you're quite good. Or find a friend who'll take it easy on you for a while and play in a two-player mode.

As I said earlier, the biggest drawback to Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is the control scheme. I hate it when someone refers to a control scheme as being 'intuitive' or not; You're pushing buttons, not throwing punches, so it's not going to be 'intuitive'. However, it's easy to see that some control schemes are easier than others.

My main gripes here are that the movement is too dynamic. The camera rotates to keep the monsters on the sides of the screen. As the camera dynamically rotates, the analog stick tracks this motion, so that when attempting to continue traveling in the same direction, you have to change the direction you're pushing as the camera is changing direction as well. The camera also attempts to stay as tight in on the characters as possible the whole time, putting power-ups out of the camera's view when you're trying to run away from your enemy and towards the power-up. This makes for some difficult maneuvering: you're basically fighting the camera to run off in some direction, while doing so without the benefit of seeing your intended destination. This is more than a little detracting from the gameplay.

There is a Gallery of Godzilla (and friends) art that might make this game a little more attractive to big fans of the genre, but the images are locked at the beginning of the game, so you'll actually have to do well in the game to see them. If you absolutely have to collect everything that has the Godzilla name on it, you have to get this title. Anyone else would be well advised to rent it first before making any hasty decisions.