I had the opportunity to interview one of the lead designers on the Pipeworks Godzilla games, and he shared a lot of interesting facts about the development of each game, like: -Destroy All Monsters Melee saved Pipeworks from being shut down. They were working on an original Xbox project called Raven and Rex around the time Melee was being made, but the project was canned, and it left Pipeworks in a precarious spot. They finished Melee, it was a hit, and Pipeworks survived. -The final version of Save the Earth was made in five months. Atari wanted a game similar to "GTA," where you went around fighting the military and other monsters. However, it was very boring since the military posed no threat, and they spent over a year working on that version before it was scrapped and restarted development. -No one on the team liked the Wii motion controls. They were forced by Atari to implement them and though they tried to create a reasonable set-up, they could never get the motion controls right. The scope of the adventure mode was pared down because of time and money, plus all the cut-scenes were done by one-artist since the studio they had hired to animate them dropped out to pay disputes.
That's wild! I actually didn'tt know any of that. I was a very active member of the atari forums during Unleashed's development and I remember them making a post about them re-working the motion controls and that was a big deal in the community up to the game's release. "Bro they spent SIX MONTHS fine tuning the motion controls! I was 13 when unleashed came out and I loved it lol.
@@2Lainz maybe you could write a letter to Warner Bros, Toho, Kadokawa Daiei Studio, Pipework, and Nintendo Wii about doing the remake of Godzilla video game trilogy and add more characters in each video game, Mighty Kong, Gamera, Manda, Gorosaurus, Kamagurus, Kumonga, Ebirah, Zone Fighter, Rainbow Mothra, Headorah, Godzilla 98, Legendary Godzilla, and many others in each video games!
Unless your an orga fan.... You can't pick up skyscrapers with one hand like you can on destory all monsters and the rage is worse. Only good thing is there's lots of monsters.
@@jacobclark6002 90’s looked fine in Melee and Save the Earth. But he looks weird as fuck in Unleashed. Melee was the only one who got 2000 decent, looks wise. Although the tail could’ve been slightly longer like 90’s
@@codyerickson3550 I actually liked the changes they made. Real film 90s Godzilla always looked too fat especially his enormous thighs and can honestly say that the slightly slimmer thighs made him look better. 2000 Godzilla was cool because he didn’t seem to have the big ears from the film which I was never a fan of. I was never crazy about the pink spikes but his more lizard like head to me was more preferable than 90s Godzilla cat head so I usually played as 2000.
@@-Jooztin It was a joke. It wasn't because I didn't recognize the game rather when I was younger I enjoyed the game greatly as a kid. But I do remember all the dumb stuff specifically terrible controls but not thinking they were dumb at the time.
If you played the Xbox version of Destroy all Monsters, you actually get both Mecha Godzilla 2 nd 3. Most people don't know that Kiryu's debut in the Pipeworks series was actually from the first game as a secret character if you beat Adventure with Orga on hard. He even has the Absolute Zero Cannon
I remember when I found out that Mechagodzilla 3 (or Kiryu) was in Destroy All Monsters Melee. I had the GameCube version, but at a video store they had the Xbox version so I just looked at the cover, saw Mechagodzilla 3 on there and thought everything I knew was a lie.
Unleashed was definitely the 'Brawl' of the trilogy. Good content and fanservice, but held back by gimmicks and a more casual focus, in this case controls.
Even though Brawl is still held to b alot of ppls favorites and the gimmicks were mostly despised by the competitive community. Sooooooo not a good comparison, even if I knew wht u were gettin at.
@Nobody comments are not funny you troglodyte I mean B movies are kinda garbage and yet alot are still loved. So again, "garbage" doesnt matter as long as its fun. Heavily casualized means more gimmicks and experimentation. Which isnt surprising from Nintendo and tends to b remembered pretty well compared to how kinda bland Smash 4 was.
As long as it doesn't have motion controls for every single move lol. That would be a awesome game and even if it was the exact same game, I'd instantly buy it
Remove the dumb controls and the game is automatically better in my opinion mechanics on ps2 were the same they switched up things. I fucking grinded unleashed harder than saves the earth.
@@yodussb6812 the first one is real good as well, it had the best multiplayer IMO. The third one I never got to play the Wii version the PS2 version was okay
I spent so much time back in the day on the Wii version I mastered the controls. Even when I pop in my copy today I can still play it from muscle memory. They controls definitely take some getting used to but I loved that game and still do. My only gripe is I prefer Classic Gigan.
I remember Unleashed being one of my favorite games ever, I was just severely disappointed that their were more monsters in the wii version than the ps2 version
My friends Dad when growing up worked at Pipeworks on the Godzilla games. I forget exactly what his role was, but it was something art related because he'd have clay models of Godzilla and other characters when I was at his house. On top of that, we got to play development builds of games on unreleased hardware at the time. Looking back being as into gaming as I am now, I really didn't appreciate just how special that sort of access was at the time.
Kinda made it sound like the true version of Godzilla unleashed was only available on wii(until the end), which sucks because I Loved the game growing up with on ps2. ps I don't remember any of those bugs, could be due to memory or perhaps it was just the wii port being buggy itself. Pps the frame rate wasn't really an issue, its an old console what do you expect? Really should've emulated the ps2 version instead
The PS2 version and the Wii version are not the same game. The ps2 version doesn't have any of the new monsters or mechanical changes. The ps2 version of Unleashed is Save the Earth with different stages, the story from unleashed, no rage, an extra Mothra (Battra) and an extra Orga (Obsidious) - they're clones with almost no differences in their movesets. The Wii version of the game was the definitive Godzilla Unleashed, the ps2 version was a strange afterthought.
In destroy all monsters melee you never went over the not full power attacks. Mecha-king ghidorah has stun missiles, Destoroyah has a magnet bomb, Godzilla has firebombs, The mechagodzillas have missiles, and I’m not gonna name them all but everyone has one. Also Mothra is an ability so you could’ve mentioned that. I’ve been working on the different campaign difficulties to get all the time slots this past week. Some of these things could just be Xbox version add-ons though, like Mechagodzilla 3(Kiryu). Overall though good video and it’s nice to see another actual Godzilla fan and not just someone talking about how it’s a big monster game.
Honestly Unleashed is my favorite. The controls were janky but not that bad once you got used to them. The story mode was baller since you could defeat the monster that had the crystals power or destroy the crystal itself to win. Even then some monsters had sorta unique dialogue as you played through. It’s definitely worth the play time.
i tried to make the best of it as a kid because of how good the roster was. but i really just could not vibe with those controls. don't know why they thought motion controls was the way to go with that one, at least give me the option of playing with a gamecube controller
There's a guy on reddit who has several thousand hours clocked in playing Melee and made a pretty official tier list, but when asked to make a tier list of Save the Earth he said "the game is broken and unbalanced. It isn't good.".
@@sonofaballer96 You can probably find the reddit post if you type in "godzilla destroy all monsters melee tier list". His main argument (at this point, he has over 10,000 hours in the game) is that blocks worked better in Melee and the beam clashes became an easy way to harass and drain the enemy's energy when you have a guaranteed way to deplete all of their energy. The other criticism was that the game gave too much of an advantage to being "downed" because you can use a "recovery" attack that breaks all forms of blockings. Essentially, it became strategically advantageous to get knocked over.
@@bloopboop9320 Yeah, not a fan of constantly getting knocked down by wake up attacks. I imagine it's a constant pinball of wake up attacks when players play (minus the ones you can jump over it). If Save The Earth had the same combat as DAMM, then it could've easily been the best. DAMM feels small, but it's satisfying to play. STE is bigger, but it has more jank. Hopefully the overhaul mod can feel like DAMM. Overall STE is still fine, it just didn't need to fix what's not broken.
@@ShiftyGuy777 that was one of his major complaints, actually. Knocking over an opponent was treated as a bad thing. However, having played the game for a while as a kid, i feel like avoiding knock down attacks was pretty easy. If you run through a bunch of buildings or hop over short buildings, the rolling enemy cant follow you and the attack can be avoided. However, i do agree that it slows down the combat significantly and feels a bit unfair.
Hey guys, sorry for the delay in upload. I kind of waffled on the idea of this one for too long and wasn't really sure what I was going to go with. I'm not really sure of the quality here though. Any feedback is much appreciated. Thanks.
You know that this game was on PS2 also right?? A lot of the gameplay mechanics from the Wii were different in that version too. For example you could actually use buttons, block (both ways), and I personally didn't run into any glitches. I've owned the game for about 12 years now and can say that it is one of the best games I've ever played. Or maybe it's just my nostalgia lol. But I highly recommend you play the PS2 version.
I play Unleashed all the time at my job with GameTruck! I had it as a kid too so it was a heavy nostalgia trip. I’ve learned from recent experience the motion controls work a lot better if you position your forearms on your knees while kitting down and only moving your wrists. I believe that when people try to flail the remote around the game gets confused on where the controller is so if you limit the movement to small ones the game responds a lot better. 👍
I genuinely got good at Unleashed. It was one of my favorite games growing up! I remember the controls being not that great, but once you’ve adjusted to it, it isn’t that bad. Biolante was super OP though.
@@2Lainz I see. If that game had more time to be finished, it would've potentially been the best Godzilla game ever. I wish Pipeworks got to improve with a 4th game instead of that PS4 game crap.
There’s something I’ve always adored about these games, and it’s that they match the wrestling style antics of the original showa fights. None of this realistic slow ass monsters hitting each other and pulling some Kamehameha v Galick Gun beam struggles every now and then, I want to see them RKO and drop-kick each other dammit! We need another brawler like these games, I loved Godzilla versus but it isn’t what I’m looking for when I think of fighting games set in the Godzilla franchise.
I remember Unleashed being a lot better that you’re playing it down for. I don’t remember the controls being all that bad either. You still had your standard punch and kick attacks, swinging the remote just did the same thing that moving the stick did. It and destroy all monsters will always be my favorites.
Super late but this video just popped up: i recently played the wii version and it really is not bad. A few hiccups here and there if you are moving fast but other than that not bad.
Playing the Wii version of Unleashed is like an arm workout. It doesn't feel as smooth to me, some monsters do the opposite move that I wanted :( it feels very inconsistent at times
Awesome retrospective! Cool to see all the footage and features years later. Save the Earth was great, but Melee will always be my favorite due to the absurd launch distances and shorter matches from the reduced health pools. Fights could drag on forever in StE. Sucks we both had to suffer Unleashed to play as our favorite Biollante!
godzilla unleashed had huge potential,but it fell short especially when you take in consideration that the WII version ended up with more monsters(since as far as i remember biollante and titanasauras weren't in the ps2 version) the crystal mechanic was also glitched or something in ps2(if i remember right) i couldn't use it despite pressing the right buttons to use it
The Mechagodzilla thing is interesting.2 was used for the Gamecube version in our version, but in the Japanese version he was replaced with Kiryu. They replaced him because Godzilla against Mechagodzilla wasn't released outside in the US yet. In the Xbox version, they included both (and everytime I went to see my cousin I played as Kiryu when we'd play...cause I had the Gamecube version)
If we had save the earth with the unleashed monster roster and a more complex story mode ( as well as fleshing out the other modes a little more) it would be just about my dream Godzilla game
Godzilla save the earth was my favorite game as a kid. I put hundreds of hours in that game. Not sure what I was accomplishing but I had sooo much fun lol
It's weird, I have a lot of memories of playing a Godzilla fighting game as a kid and thought both Destroy all Monsters and Save the Earth were the same since they're so similar. Guess I played them both, lots of good memories.
Destroy All Monsters Melee was a party game man. That's where the game really shined. I had the game and used to play it all the time with my friends over. The questionable design decisions made more sense in the chaos of a full four player battle royale with four monsters on the screen. It was just crazy fun that way.
Same. I use to play Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee and it was great. Not sure if I played Godzilla Save The Earth. It's possibly I use to play that one. Never played Unleashed.
I really liked the factions in Unleashed, but yeah, they need a cleaner game, factions with better versions of the Unleashed maps, maps from Save the Earth, fixed up mini-games from Save the Earth, more choices in the story mode like convincing your allies to stop attacking, say, GDF forces like Moguera and call the fight off, co-op in the story mode, and have open worlds with different areas to travel to.
I liked unleashed because of the big roster compared to the other games, the fact that you can move while firing your beam (which is something I always wanted in the games), the camera angles when you're moving around whenever you're not fighting, it actually made you feel like you were the monster, and the mechanics felt less traditional arcade fighter style which I didn't really like
Destroy all monsters on GameCube was the cream of the crop to me. Uppercuts, tail attacks, throws, dropkicks, stomps, overhead attacks, better energy system, power-ups, sweeps, great music, ran smooth, guest appearances of Mothra as a support power up, Hedorah was in the game as a background character slowing monster regen when near, awesome combos off of the green city boundaries, Orga was awesome, cities having night and day, and I swear the characters looked better and ran smoother than the game that followed it. Lots of great memories in that game thanks for the vid
Imma gush about the cool parts of Unleashed that didn't get mentioned in the video: The big gimmick for Unleashed was having the monsters reach Critical Mass by destroying crystals scattered across the environment. All the monsters got bigger and got thier own "Burning Godzilla" form that dealt more damage before slowly draining. One of the boss battles had the Aliens keep King Ghidorah in that form while tasking the player and two companions to kick the crap out of him. For all the stories but Mutants, the last mission had you and one representative from the other factions duking it out with another monster from yours showing for each one you take out. The final boss turns out to be Space Godzilla who emerges from a giant crater in the center of the map. Who you helped and hurt in each game would effect how you stand with that monsters faction, making them more prone to attack or ignore you. You could play as Gigan and end up having the EDF and Defenders just destroying the map all round. The powerups of the game had to be collected by defeating the monsters they were effecting during select missions. Collecting all the powerups regardless of Faction would end your story and put you in the Mutants last mission: give you permanent critical mass, everyone hating you, and a 1v8 to prevent you from being the dominat life form. The monsters got cryptic hints on how to unlock them in the form of screenshots showing what faction to play and what to do to get the chance to fight them. Biolatte was easiest by destroying a vine covered building in Tokeyo and hinted in the cutscene that plays the first time you go there. Varan the hardest as the stage he hides on also needs to be unlocked when the aliens invade. (Destroying the mothership is agony to attempt due to bad controls.) Seattle was covered in health draing lava. Any monster able to fly above it/Obsidius who was immune, had an easy time just heavy slamming opponents that followed them into it. The crystals and alien invasion at the same time was a coincidence. Space Godzilla just happened to ram into them on his way to Earth and damaged thier mother ship when they were about to attack.
@@2Lainz Sorry haft to disagree with ya. But I don't mind Godzilla Unleashed. Infact, my 71nyear old Grand Dad mastered the controls and my 8 & 14 year old cousins did too. So, try to explain that.
People are allowed to like bad things. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Find literally any review of the game - they will complain about bad controls. The controls are bad. EXPLAIN THAT!
@@2Lainz Got me there. I do wish the game was better polished. It would had made the best game ever if there was no glitches and more acceptible motion controls. Or they could have gaven the option to use the Wii Classic Controller and Gamecube Controller. And that the Ps2 version was just the Wii game with the controls. It would also be cool if you play a faction monster but can allign yourself with another to get a different ending. I also wish there was more monsters. Like 48 at least. But hey, can't be pickey.
That stack of movies reminds me, I really gotta upgrade my collection. Most of my copies are still on VHS. I gotta complete my Gamera trilogy too. I still don't have Iris.
Mothra was in Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, just not as a playable monsters. She only appeared if you pick up a purple Mothra AirStrike power-up. Once pick-up she will help whoever summons her so if you were the ones to pick-up she will appeared to help zap your opponent. After several zaps she will disappeared. Think of her (in Super Smash Bros. term) as more of an assist trophy in the game.
I remember playing with my brother (he chose 2000's and I chose mecha ghidorah) and we always beat the crap out of each other trying to get that power up
Godzilla Unleashed, Godzilla:STW, DBZ:BT2&3, MK: Armageddon & Deception were the fighters I grew up with on my PS2. God I miss the PS2.. every single one I bought 2 years ago has either had the eye go out in like two days or it just stops working
There is a Japan release only game called: City Shrouded in Shadow. In the game you are a helpless human trying to survive a kaiju attack. The game included the Godzilla, Gamera, and Ultraman franchise all in one.
Man, I loved playing Unleashed as a kid. Also I'm really glad this video was made by a genuine Godzilla fan! I was so ready to sit through a lot of stupid observations from someone who knows nothing about the series, and was pleasantly surprised to see the kinds of things I noticed! Great job!
Unleashed wii would of been so good on the switch because of optional motion controls instead of forced shit gimmics (as you said gimicks is the reason the game kinda failed)
In StE, Megaguirus and Mothra do not consume stamina while taking altitude and move at considerably faster pace than heavies like Ghidorah and MG flying. Great for punishing burrowing monsters (just have to avoid their dolphin jump attacks), but otherwise very dangerous to be used against anyone with reliable long range attack.
Had a buddy over and introduced him to Godzilla. We found my old Wii and played some Godzilla Unleashed. It is insane how unfinished the game is, Destroyah's horn katana is super spammable and it's way too easy to stun-lock or get stun-locked. Played Destroy All Monsters Melee and found that it's way more polished and actually feels like a game. I want to see a polished Godzilla fighting game with a huge roster of chaaracters and more polish than Save the Earth. It's more than doable. We could have different eras of Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, Ghidorah, Mothra, Rodan, then have fan favorite monsters, one off characters, new Legendary monsters like Kong & MUTOs, etc. Somebody please just make this a reality already.
The reason some attacks do less damage is that there was a resistance/neutral/vulnerable type system in place for the attacks. Hell, some enemies could get healed by your energy attack. One of the devs tried coming out with Kaiju Kombat but failed... he decided that the long jump animation from Unleashed was best(should have stuck with StE). They got bogged down with too many custom characters from the forums and some other BS happened and they gave up.
Yeah, Destroy all Monsters had three types of damage: blunt, edged, and energy/projectile, and monsters were weak, neutral, or resistant against each of them (no healing in that one). Save the Earth involved many more damage types (like fire, radiation, ice, concussive, "alien", electric, etc), and introduced some kaiju healing from certain types of damage (which led to some comically lopsided matchups).
This monsterverse is missing something, another Kaiju and that missing Kaiju is Gamera. I know, I know Gamera is owned by another Japanese studio I'm confident that if Toho and this other studio came to a contractual agreement both parties will be at the table eating good. Toys, games, posters, t-shirts, product ads and more they will clean up big time.
I can't believe you didn't mention Save The Earth's two BEST mini games! The two on-rails obstacle course/boss battles with Godzilla fighting Ebirah under water, and Mogura fighting Space Godzilla across the stars! I played those two mini games as a kid until I all but mastered them!
Godzilla Unleashed was in PS2 too, and it was one of my favorite games. The controls were the same than Godzilla Save the Earth, so it was better because of the story mode and the new characters. Yeah im 1 year late, sorry.
I owned both the PS2 and Wii versions of Unleashed and the weirdest glitch I encountered was enemy Anguirus' head suddenly turning upside-down for around 9 seconds...
I remember tuning into the Godzilla Save the Earth website when it was up. There were many more monsters that were supposed to be in it. When I got my copy it was a let down. I was expecting 30+ monsters.
I remember getting Godzilla Unleashed for PS2, I was so excited to play with all the monsters (esp Biollante, also my favorite). Then I start the game, only to find out that the PS2 version only had a fraction of the monsters compared to the WII version, and my beloved Biollante was not available. Such a confusing and sad day that was.
Despite all of its flaws the PS2 version of Godzilla Unleashed is the reason I got into Godzilla in the first place back when I was like 8 or something To this day I love movies like that such a simple premise of two Monsters fighting can be unbelievably enjoyable
I grew up with the PS2 version because I didn't know the version I was watching on RU-vid was the Wii version. Even tho I knew something was off, I had the time if my life with it. I'm kinda glad I didn't have to deal with the Wii controls but I'd still like to try it.
I remember having destroy all monster melee and unleashed. As a kid, I remember loving unleashed but I honestly forgot it had motion controls. Have always wanted to go back to it but now, maybe not.
Over 1,000 people are working on an amazing mod for save the earth called Godzilla Save the Earth Melee. It’s gonna be save the earth, but with better graphics, new music, bigger stages, (possibly) new characters, and (hopefully) more!!! I’m super excited for it to get done, and when it releases, it’ll basically be the best Godzilla game ever made.
in my Childhood i played so much Save The Earth on Ps2. And i remember when i got my hands on Unleashed Ps2 i was so happy. But after some time i found out that i liked Save The Earth Game better. I have had so much fun with that gmes while growing up. And i would always love a Save The Earth 2 / Remastered . A similiar Godzilla fighting game just with up to date graphics and mechanics etc
Did you know that Godzilla 1998 was considered for Godzilla Unleashed? They were gonna add him, but the comments about him were negative so they didn't add him
Destroy All Monsters: Melee was the best. It felt fluent and fast, yet still retained the feeling of weight on the monsters. I played Unleashed on the Wii, and it was just horrid. The stages look awful and the atmosphere is saturated and ugly without fail no matter the selection. I can say that the roster of monsters is impressive though, but they all felt very bad to control due to the wii remote gimmick. I'd have much rather used a gamecube controller, but the game is still boring and sluggish to play even if it had good controls. I do not own Save The Earth, but to me, from watching a lot of footage, it looks like a mix between Melee and Unleashed (which makes sense). It has the slower combat of Unleashed (though not quite as slow), more monsters than Melee, and the sound effects that were later reused in Unleashed. The stages look inferior to Melee to me, plus the story's more convoluted objectives seem to hurt the game more than help it. I was a fan of Melee's arcade style where monster fights could be fast and dominating, and there were no side objectives like collecting G cells, these objectives become tedious and hurt replay value. Ultimately, the combat in Melee is just the most fun and engaging. Melee also lends itself to combos more than the other games, moves have less lag so you can act sooner to catch your opponent in the air, hit them against the green barrier, or stomp on them when they land. The game's music is phenomenal despite the small number of tracks, and the overall aesthetic of the game is really strong. It gives off a scary, hellish look that I just think suits the godzilla monsters so well in a brutal fighting game.