Dec 5, 2007

Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash provides the perfect example of a promising game concept failin꧃g to yield a good game. In theory Double Smash sounds like a fantastic fit for the Nintendo DS; control two of your favorite Godzilla universe-based beasties simultaneously in a side-scrolling beat-'em-up. Take to the skies on the upper display as a winged menace such as Mothra, and unleash destruction on the bottom screen as the skyscraper-stomper himself, Godzilla. Toss in a long line-up of playable ferocious favorites - Megalon, King Ghidorah, Battra, Fire Rodan - and single cart co-op play, and we're on this like radioactive sludge on a Tokyo sewer p꧒ipe. So, why is this brimming-with-potential title nearly unplayable?

For starters the visual presentation is weak; it's apparently meant to look stylized and anime, but it comes off too rough around the edges. PC-based Flash games and early GBA titles ꩵhave delivered better graphics. Despite globe-trotting to the world's biggest cities, the action slowly scrolls past bland and repetitive backgrounds; whether you're in Tokyo or Sydney everything looks pretty much the same. And the monsters don't fare much better, as your favorite fire-breathing bad-asses are reduced to ugly, detail-starved smudges.