Godzilla Unleashed

For most people, there’s no need to introduce Godzilla. He’s been around for 55 years and is one of the world’s most famous fictional characters, having starred in nearly 30 movies, often taking extended breaks between them. He has starred in many games over the last 20 years, from “Godzilla: Monster of Monsters” on the NES to “Super Godzilla” on the SNES and now, the recent new series, starting with “Destroy all Monsters Melee” on the Gamecube. That game was soon followed by “Save The Earth”, although that one never reached the Gamecube but now, Godzilla’s back on a Nintendo console starting with his first Wii game. Question is, is it any good? Unfortunately, the answer is no.

The story of the game continues from the first two games. It’s been 20 years since the events of Godzilla: Save the Earth. It begins with a meteor shower colliding with the Earth's surface, which starts to cause climate shifts and earthquakes across the planet, as mysterious crystals begin to emerge from the impact point. The crystals begin to influence the monsters and they start to attack major cities simultaneously. If you’ve ever watched Destroy All Monsters or Final Wars will sound familiar to you as it’s a similar story, just like with the last two games. The story is laced with cut scenes throughout many of the missions. The cutscenes are awful. They consist of still, barely acceptable animated frames with badly dubbed English voices. There is the option to change the language to Japanese with English subtitles but that doesn’t sound much better either. Plus, the subtitles seem to lag behind the voices by a few seconds, which can be annoying at the best of times and unfortunately, leaves the cutscenes feeling rather sloppy and poor.

Another letdown I came across in the game was unfortunately one of the biggest areas, the controls. The game utilizes the Wii Remote & Nunchuck combo, using the Nunchuck to move your character and swing the Wii remote largely for attacks. Motion control isn’t essential here, as some attacks are simply designated to buttons but some require you to swing the Wii remote or Nunchuck while holding down a button(s). While in theory this sounds fine, the execution was poor. The motion controls in the game are shown to be waggle-based and quite poor, even unresponsive at times but fortunately, the game isn’t completely reliant on them for battles so it’s not all bad.

Once you get round the controls though, you come across another problem in the gameplay. Put bluntly, it’s boring, tedious and repetitive. You get several types of missions in the story, like having to destroy a set of crystals or something else, or fight other factions but that’s about it and there are quite a fair number of them. There are four factions in the game, each with their own goals. Your actions as a Monster will impact how other factions perceive the player's character. This is represented through a percentage meter, which can be affected in a number of ways as it’s basically an approval rating among the different factions. E.G. destroying building will give you a lower percentage to the GDF but a higher one to Mutants.

Unleashed retains similar battle mechanics and other features from it’s predecessors, such as beam weapons and rushes but it also introduces several new gameplay elements here and tweaks previous ones. Changes include the health system. Before, it would just be one big health bar. Now it’s been split into several different “pieces” and when you attack, it takes away health from these different “pieces”. You start off with 4 out of the 6 pieces of your health and as you battle, you must perform a move which knocks over your opponent to take away a piece of health or it stay’s stuck. This is frustrating at times, especially when you’re using a monster that isn’t particularly strong, which makes me wonder why they changed it in the first place. There’s also the Energy meter. In the previous games, you’d have a beam weapon which would gradually recharge itself over time. In Unleashed, it no longer charges by itself, which is annoying as you have to keep finding a crystal whenever you need energy. It’s a case of “Don’t fix it if it’s not broken” here, as it’s only made the game more tedious and frustrating.

Among other new additions, The crystals are the biggest addition to the game, as there are several types of crystals. Some are deadly and in missions your objective is to destroy them as they can control monsters or pose a threat to the planet in some way. Destroying some has a positive effect on you. These are smaller crystals found all across the stage and will give you different abilities temporarily depending on the colour. These are called power surges and each one will have a different effect on your monster, such as increased beam damage or increased damage resistance. There is also a side-effect of destroying too many crystals, whether they’re the normal ones you find across the stage that do nothing or health and energy ones. Gradually, destroying them will fill up a meter on the screen that when full, will activate “Critical mass”. In this mode, the monster's power increases, although you’ll have reduced defence. The meter will begin to deplete unless you attack the other character and you’ll return back to normal once the meter is empty and when that happens, you’ll lose a bar of health.

When it comes to the Godzilla series, there is never a short supply of characters. Over the different films, Godzilla has come across many different monsters, allowing Pipeworks and Atari access to many different characters, almost all of them with their own abilities. For the Wii version of Godzilla Unleashed, there are 26 different characters available, 7 exclusives over the PS2 edition. The cast is ranged from series regulars like Mothra and Rodan (Fire Rodan in the game) to cult favourites such as Baragon and King Caeser. The roster is generally solid but despite the wide range there are still a couple of clone characters in the game, such as Mecha-King Ghidorah and that there are 3 different Godzilla’s, with little difference between them, which makes you wonder why they were all added in the first place. Another new feature in the game is that the monsters are split into 4 groups, Earth Defenders, Global Defence Force (GDF), Aliens and Mutants. This affects the story mode as playing with different groups can unlock multiple endings for the game, which adds some needed replay value.

The variety in cities has also dropped in this game, as in previous games, there were often more than 1 stage based on a city but that’s been dropped in this game, instead focusing on just one arena for the whole city, which is another disappointment. In the game, you get 9 different areas to battle in, Osaka, Tokyo, Seattle, San Francisco, New York, London, Sidney, the Vortaak Mothership and Monster Island, all having been altered due to the effect of the Crystals in the game.
Fortunately, , there are a decent amount of unlockables available if you happen to like the game through the store, where you can unlock Characters, Environments, Artwork, videos and also game hints. While this is fine, you have to earn store points by playing through the story mode and the game’s repetitive, boring gameplay will make this feel like a chore, so you won’t be driven very easily to unlock everything. However, as with the previous games in the series, Pipeworks have included cheat codes in the game. While most of them are simple things, such as removing the HUD display or extra store points, there is a code to unlock everything in the shop at once so you don’t have to go through the boring story mode and, to be honest, I can’t see many people playing through the game for long periods of time so I see thus as a good thing.

Onto the presentation aspects, this is one of the game’s weakest aspects, as the graphics can be a mixed bag. The home menu’s, while being pointer-based and can also be navigated using a D-pad, they have a mechanical look to them which, while it isn’t particularly appealing, it gets the job done. On a technical aspect, the game supports Widescreen and runs at a resolution of 480p. However, the graphics are nothing to be proud of. The textures used aren’t very pleasing and look rubbish. They get the job done though, just. The Monster models are a mixed bag. While some characters like Gigan and the Mechagodzillas look decent, others like Biollante are just bad, looking recognizable but ugly.

There is also the option for multiplayer in the game labelled under Brawl but what you’ll find is rather stale and wouldn’t have been anything particularly new if you’ve played the previous games if it weren’t for option to create your own multiplayer modes which makes things all the more interesting. In all fairness, I’d actually say it’s a step back after Save the Earth, which had more variety and even some minigames which went well with the game. All modes are available for 4 players and they are offline only, no online modes here unfortunately.

Pipeworks have set up 4 default modes here. First off is the standard Versus match where your simply battling a friend or the computer where the aim is to be the first to win two rounds by knocking out all your opponents. There is another mode very similar to versus called “Last Man Standing”. The only differences here are that it’s only one round and there’s an increased time limit. Next, we have the Classic Melee mode. In this game, you don’t win by simply knocking out your opponent. Rather, you earn points through skill, by knocking down you opponents and combo moves, as well as knocking them out. While on paper this is an interesting, I often found it difficult to earn points through combos even when I was performing them due to the controls. Finally, we have my personal favourite, Classic destruction. In this mode, you’re doing what Giant monsters do best, destroying cities. It’s basically a race to see who can cause the most destruction within the time limit, with bigger buildings and objects earning you more points.

With a few friends, this can be quite fun but, like the other modes, it won’t keep you interested for long periods of time but in short bursts can be fun. The problem with the multiplayer is that Pieworks don’t really anything new here outside Classic Melee, making it feel quite average and repetitive. This really isn’t that fun unless you’re playing with friends but even then it’s still boring and it doesn’t help that the motion controls are unresponsive.

For the customizable multiplayer modes, there’s a fair amount of options available. You are given 4 types of settings to customize here, each with different settings such as number of Respawns or the amount of Military presence in your game. The Biggest problem I had with this mode was that there wasn’t enough. What if you liked the game and wanted to have the respawns setting at 5? Or if you wanted the rounds to be strictly about how many you win and have no time limit? I‘m not saying the feature’s bad, it just feels like it could have used that little bit more depth and more customization to it, as what we’re left with feels slightly shallow.

Overall, I wanted to like this game, I did but Pipeworks and Atari didn’t take a step forward with Unleashed, they took a step backwards from Save the Earth, which is really disappointing. Unless you’re a collector or really Die-Hard fan of the series, I’d avoid this, even if you can find it cheap. Simply not worth the money

3/10

Sega Superstars Tennis Wii Review

It's not uncommon for big companies like Nintendo or Capcom to do crossovers with their various series, uniting them in one big game and now it's Sega's turn with Sega Superstars Tennis, the Sequel to Sega Superstars for the PS2 and a potential new series for Sega. Problem is, with Superstars Tennis, it's not as good as crossovers like the Super Smash Bros series or Capcom Vs. That doesn't mean you won't have fun with this or that it's a bad game, Sega Superstars Tennis just feels lacking and shallow.

The Gameplay is quite good with some decent courts, good background music, responsive controls and a generally nice feel but it needs more depth to it. The controls are quite good, particularly with 3 choices to suit your need. There are also Special shots available which is indicated by a shining star beneath you. While I can see why they were added, they seem to have an effect on play but I feel that it was an unnecessary feature. For the controls, there's the Wii Sports style controls where the computer moves for you and you just swing, the Wii Remote and nunchuck controls, which lets you move around the court with the nunchuck and hit the ball with the Wii remote. Finally there's the NES Style controls where you hold the controller horizontally and use the buttons to hit the ball. The Motion controls for the game, they’re just not that good. It’s not that they’re completely bad, they need refining.

The main game offers 4 Modes here. First you have the Superstar Mode, the main mode of the game where you will be spending most of your time. In here, you have different activities such as Tournaments and Missions for each different franchise. By completing these sections or finishing a certain percentage of them, you will unlock other sections for more franchises. Playing through Superstar mode is a must if you wish to unlock the remaining content throughout the game such as new mini-games, new courts, new characters and new music so you need to go through this to make the most of what the game has to offer. Unfortunately, this can feel slightly repetitive over time as there isn’t a huge deal of variation between the different missions on each area, which is disappointing,

The Second mode of the game is Exhibition mode. This is also where you can choose Multiplayer with up to 4 people. You can choose the Singles and Doubles here and play with computer players as well. Multiplayer is, put simply, quite dull. The controls aren’t very good and but easy to get the hang of and can lead to long, boring matches. Another down point in the game that is really disappointing here is the lack of Online Mode. While a lack of online multiplayer is always a down point, the Wii version loses more marks seeing how this is included in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, with the team officially stating that they dropped online here to work on the controls, which they messed up.
The Third Mode is a tournament mode. In case you don't know, Tournament Mode allows the player to play in a series of matches against opponents chosen at random by the computer in an arena also chosen at random.
The Final Mode is Mini-games. There are several minigames available, based on Sega games such as a House of the Dead game, a Space Harrier game, a Puyo Puyo game, and a Virtua Cop game. The Minigames can be quite fun but they won’t keep you around for long. These 3 modes will also occasionally appear in the Superstars mode on each area.


The Game's presentation is one of the stronger points with the title as there are plenty of Sega Franchises here, from their mascot Sonic to their lesser known franchises, such as the long dormant Alex Kidd series. There are plenty of unlockables here and the Opening FMV is very nice. The Graphics from the game are generally quite nice and colorful but they need to be polished up a bit more as there is something lacking in them. This is most notable when doing a Special shot as it feels like they were left out until the end.

The Soundtrack is pretty good with music from the different Sega games that's nice to listen to. Each court has its own selection that you can pick at the beginning of a match. The Only problem with the sound is the sound effects, which weren't done very well.

Overall, the game has its problems, you can’t deny that, but if you’re able to look past them, you can find a decent game at the core. As it stands though, this is the inferior version of the game with the bad controls and lack of online. If you have am Xbox 360 or PS3, pick that up instead. You’ll be a lot happier.

6/10

Omega Five Review

Hudson Soft is known to have a history of collaborating with other companies in their video games. They’ve gone from major companies like Nintendo and Sega to smaller groups like Atari and even Disney. For Omega Five though, they’ve teamed up with Natsume, a developer best known for their Harvest Moon series to create a side-scrolling SHMUP for the XBLA. Question is, does it deliver? The simple answer is, yes, mostly. The game takes an unusual approach to the genre, but not completely unheard of. Instead of controlling a spaceship, you control a large character that scrolls down the screen, in similar fashion to Lords of Thunder, another Hudson game of old.

The controls for the main game are pretty simple, although strangely for an XBLA game, they don’t require the use of the A, B, X or Y buttons. The player controls the character by using the left joystick or d-pad and uses the main weapon with the right joystick. This is all simple enough. Then, you have the characters special abilities. These are all different between each character and are used by pressing the shoulder buttons and triggers.

In the game, you have two main modes for single player, arcade and challenge mode. The Arcade mode is the main game, where you go through all the levels until you die or run out of continues, while the challenge mode allows to play levels which you’ve beaten in the Arcade mode. The Gameplay itself is pretty good, although it can feel slightly slow at times. There is also a 2 player co-op mode, which can be quite fun with friends but ultimately doesn’t add that much to the game. Initially, you start off with two characters but you can unlock two more later in the game.

The game utilizes a points-scoring system, where you destroy the enemies and earn points. Simple enough but there’s more to it. Natsume have created a system where you can earn bonuses by destroying or attacking enough enemies without stopping for more than a few seconds. This will build up your “Bonus Gauge” and depending on how full the bar is, this can range from doubling your points when you kill the enemies from x2 all the way to x10.Enemies, when destroyed will also release pink chips. These pink chips will build up another gauge, your Weapons gauge, giving you at a maximum of 3 “ultimate bursts” at a time. These ultimate bursts are just another name for smart bombs and play-out like they usually do.

The game features a power-up system for your characters weapons. Each character has 3 different weapons, which can be found throughout the level in a metal box container. Just shoot it and it’ll open. These weapons can be levelled up if you find another container with the same weapon, grab it and you’ll upgrade your weapon by another level. Weapons can be levelled up from the initial level 1 up to level 3. While it’s a good idea, it feels slightly lacking, underdeveloped if you will and could use some improvement.

Difficulty levels aren’t particularly hard but the game can be quite challenging at certain times. Your health is measured by a health bar at the bottom of the screen and health packs are available throughout levels in the same metal boxes as the weapons upgrades. If you die at any point in the game, you’re given continues, or credits as they’re called here. At first, you only get a set number of continues but if you play the game for enough hours, you can then earn unlimited credits. Using a credit will reset your score however and your weapon will revert to its level 1 stage. While this is understandable, it’s not always fair to the player it can leave you at a disadvantage as it can leave fighting some difficult enemies with a basic weapon. It does feel like they should have taken a different approach.

The game has no real story to it. All that we know is that the 4 playable characters in the game are known as a group called the “Omega Five”, with the 5th member being part of one character’s moveset. SHMUP’s aren’t known for story-telling so this is understandable, although it does leave the presentation felling slightly short. However, the presentation is made up for with decent looking menus and a detailed tutorial to the game. Graphically, the game looks amazing. The game runs in HD at 720p and you can tell. It is visually very impressive for an XBLA title. The levels look very good, enemy design work well, only real issue is the main characters. The designs aren’t too bad; it’s just that they’re not very distinctive. However, this isn’t much of a detractor though.

In the audio department, the game uses the talents of Natsume’s Hiroyuki Iwatsuki for the soundtrack. The soundtrack works quite well, it’s nothing hugely special but it does the job fairly well. Other aspects like character voices aren’t exactly great, sometimes sounding like mumbles but they work, just.

Something that might be a turn-off to some gamers is that Omega Five only has 4 levels. The game does however, include Online Leaderboards to boost replay value and, for challenge mode Leaderboards, it also allows gamers to upload video replay’s of their level run for others to watch, which is a pretty nice addition.

Overall, Omega Five is a great, addictive game that is worth the cost, but it needs a few tweaks here and there and a little more substance to make it an amazing one. Considering it’s an XBLA release though, this is more understandable and at 800 Points, (£7.50), it’s a good deal and comes highly recommended.

8/10