Metacritic Games

Godzilla: Unleashed (Wii)

Godzilla: Unleashed is a fighting game on a giant scale. The game stars the legendary Godzilla and a slew of the most renowned monsters of all-time. Gamers are challenged to ultimately save the planet from mayhem and destruction. Set in urban arenas, Godzilla: Unleashed's interactive 3D cityscapes, big destructible buildings, soaring skyscrapers and towering alien formations provide the backdrop to epic worldwide destruction. Players claw, kick, stomp, throw and blast their way through the streets of major world cities in order to claim the ultimate, beastly title: King of the Monsters. In addition to a fully reinvented combat system, Godzilla: Unleashed features an innovative non-linear storyline which allows players to influence how the story unfolds through their choices within battles. [Atari]

Atari
Fighting, Action
Players: 4
E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older)
Developer: Pipeworks Software
Released December 5, 2007

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

44 / 100

Critic Reviews

80 Play Magazine
Still: warts and all, this is among the best fighters for the system. [Dec 2007, p.82]
65 Console Gameworld
It may retain a few redeeming qualities, but all in all Godzilla: Unleashed is a step backward for Pipeworks' Godzilla series.
62 Cheat Code Central
If you're a fan of Godzilla, you'll find a lot to enjoy with this game once you get beyond the flawed and unresponsive controls.
61 Game Chronicles
Sadly enough these great features cannot save you from a horrendous storyline, generic sounds, and iffy controls.
55 Nintendo Power
Though Godzilla Unleashed is fairly accessible, even casual gamers may wonder why their creatures don't always do what they want. [Holiday 22007, p.82]
50 Games Radar
Between these random inadequacies and the shabby controls, there's just not enough reason for non-hardcore Godzilla fans to bother with this. Too bad. The King of the Monsters deserves better.
50 GameSpy
Character choices aside, if you can get past the occasionally spotty controls and the somewhat sluggish combat, you'll have a decent time with this game, especially if you grew up watching Godzilla and King Ghidorah duke it out on Saturday afternoon TV. Just don't set your expectations too high.
50 GameTrailers
With sluggish combat, muddy visuals simply, and almost no impact, city-destroying giant monsters have never been so easy to ignore.
50 Zentendo
There are plenty of great ideas to be found, though not a whole lot of polish or execution.
49 IGN
Godzilla fans deserve better than this. Unleashed isn't pretty, isn't compelling, and isn't nearly as fun as stepping into the skin of giant monsters should be. Everything about this game is phoned in.
45 Games Master UK
Dodgy monster beat-'em-up that doesn't get anything right. [Mar 2008, p.79]
45 Worth Playing
The game does an excellent job of being pretty, but pretty will only carry you so far in life, especially in an industry where pragmatism (read: gameplay) is king.
45 NGamer UK
The source material deserves far better than this. [Apr 2008, p.73]
45 Digital Entertainment News
If you really like Godzilla and have a Wii, then you might want to consider waiting for the price to drop before picking this up. Even then, think twice. Your money might be better spent filling out your Godzilla DVD collection.
42 Game Almighty
I love these monsters, I loved them growing up, we all did. So it becomes a downer to see them transplanted into such drab renditions of themselves. If making a bunch of kids happy with some slap happy antics on a Wii is what this game was aiming for, then it has been accomplished.
40 NintendoWorldReport
Ultimately, Godzilla: Unleashed is just awful. Even the biggest Godzilla fans among us should not have to suffer through this piece of trash.
40 1UP
Unleashed isn't completely without merit -- it just falls far below any reasonable standard for fighting, wrestling, or monster games.
40 Game Informer
The motion controls are complete slop. [Dec 2007, p.146]
40 GameZone
This is a really bad game, and made even worse by taking such a cool license and dragging it across a desert of poor controls and ineffective ideas.
40 Gamestyle
We long for a good Godzilla game, but this isn’t it.
40 Boomtown
Avoid Unleashed like you’d avoid Godzilla himself.
40 Nintendojo
Godzilla Unleashed does too many things poorly to be recommended to anyone but the most diehard of Godzilla fans, who will be attracted to some of the game's attempted fan service, like the impressive roster of monsters.
35 GameSpot
Unleashed is the worst thing to happen to Godzilla since getting killed by Mothra's babies.
30 VideoGamer
Just a shoddily put together game that will fail to excite even the most hardcore monster fans. Avoid this at all costs.
27 DailyGame
After about three levels I couldn't take it anymore and put the controller down.
25 The Wiire
I think the developers missed a great opportunity to insert humor into the game with drastic overacting and exaggeration in the script. Instead of embracing the poor acting and making it a genuine part of the game, Pipeworks just replaced poor acting with poor dialogue and voice-overs.
20 Video Game Talk
Godzilla Unleashed is a bad game. There’s really no way around saying it.
20 EuroGamer
A terrible mess.
16 GameShark
Simply put, Godzilla Unleashed is a horrible game—all 17 painful stages.
14 GamingExcellence
I plan to sink my copy into a bucket of concrete and plunge it into the deepest part of the ocean, after dropping it in a vat of carbolic acid.

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