Godzilla 2 - War of The Monsters (NES)

Today I’m looking at asymmetric strategy game starring Godzilla! It’s Toho’s Godzilla 2 – War of The Monsters (1991).

Quite nice title screen. It’s as if taken from cockpit’s view. Sadly, this is not aircraft simulator. I believe I have better chance to fight Godzilla in aircraft simulator gameplay than strategy game although I don’t have much experience in aircraft simulator. My late father has. He played that kind of game a lot around 90s. Anyway, what’s the purpose of making this game? Real Godzilla fans be like “I don’t want to battle my idol” then there’s me who think “Is it possible to fight Godzilla with military vehicles that are just mere cannon fodder for the giant monster?”. Isn’t he practically invincible against conventional weapon? Given that I haven’t watched any Godzilla movie. I do have sliver memory about that Godzilla movie that’s made by American that Real Godzilla fans don’t like. I know song made by Jamiroquai “Deeper underground” as OST on that movie. The music clip is pretty badblood.       

 

Right after the title screen, the game presents you with these missions. Level select right of the bat, sounds pretty generous. There are 12 missions in total. I won’t play all of them obviously. Let’s start with mission #1: Resurrection of Godzilla.         

 

We have some simple mission briefing. Godzilla appears. That’s fine. But why Baragon too? The game lies from the start. So, my lose condition is Nuclear Power Plant destroyed. I got you.

 

At the starting turn, the game kindly set up my units and Godzilla on the map. Godzilla is freaking far away and I don’t think we have to hurry fighting him. We have to concentrate on the power plant.

You use D-pad to move the cursor. Pressing either “A” or “B” button on a tile that is neither occupied by unit nor important building, will bring the menu. While on the menu, pressing “A” button to confirm and pressing ”B” button to cancel. “List” contains every unit on the map including Godzilla himself. “Move to” will make the cursor move on to unit that you select. “Scientist” is basically in-game hint. “Music” for music setting turn on/off. “Stats” to see stats of unit that you want to see. Lastly “End Turn” to end your turn and pass it to enemy.  

 

To move the unit is as basic as you can get. Select the unit with “A” button and select “move” then you can drag it to position that you want. Funny thing is the moving unit happens in real time. So, you have to drag the unit through tile by tile. You can’t simply point the destination where you want the unit to go. This real time moving can be problem if you accidentally move the unit back and forth which waste its movement. The thing that’s more baffling is I can’t move this fighter plane through my own ground unit. It’s flying unit for Mork’s sake! It’s supposed to be able to fly through ground unit!

 

I check all of allied air bases and they provide nothing. Then I check this army base. It can produce Radar Car and Trailer. I reckon, they’re not combat unit but I order their build anyway. Producing unit takes 1 turn before the unit actually appears. Naturally, you have to mind the order of the production queue.   

 

On the north of army base there’s laboratory that can produce Destroyer 5? I don’t know what’s that but I want it here! 

 

This army base that is quite close to the power plant can build Atomic Bomb. Sure. Build that!

Let’s what these nerds scientists have to say to help me in this battle.

 

Dr. Serizawa says that I have to activate the destroyer unit in water. Is it destroyer ship then? Hold on! You’re not Dr. Serizawa. You’re Superman! Please! Help me fight Godzilla, Mr. Clark Kent! :C

 

Dr. Wagner is basically Albert Einstein. No wonder, he knows things about Atomic Bomb.

 

Lastly, Dr. Dicken can’t help me for some reason. Sure. Enjoy your time with caged rabbits and Godzilla action figure there.

 

Aw sog! Baragon appears from south. During test run I was too focused on the big giant lizard who can only move 2 tiles per turn, on the north. But this time I knew Baragon will appear there. I have a handful number of units to deal with Baragon

 

After couple of turns trailer arrive near atomic bomb and I can tell it to load the darn bomb. It can move on its own but only for 2 tiles per turn. Probably some soldiers push the atomic bomb. Poor gits. Hey. Where’s the Baragon goes? I guess I can focus on Godzilla then. 

 

Some nameless factory on the north part is destroyed by Godzilla! But there’s so little I can do about it. Charging head on will only result in useless loss. I will keep this clumpy defensive formation until Godzilla is within 2 cells of any my unit. But I will protect this airbase on the west though.  

Turn 6…

 

Finally, they’re done making the Destroyer. It suspiciously looks like atomic bomb to me. I also acquire radar car. It looks cute.

 

Sniper_negativevocalization02.wav. Baragon reappears and he proceed to destroy that airbase. What’s the deal with Baragon? He’s chameleon or something?

Godzilla is too close to our group. Time for the first battle and let’s how the battle plays like.

 

I have to choose what the tank attack with: either gun or cannon. I kind of regret to use cannon because the projectile look like wet noodle. There’s also this mysterious slot. The result is 2 blue hearts and a red shield. Is it good outcome? The cannon hits the Godzilla though but he immediately retaliates with the iconic atomic breath!

 

Now is the attacker plane’s turn. What’s attacker plane? Turns out it’s A-10 Thunderbolt II that I fancy. I tell the pilot to turn the bomb and it misses! Dude! Godzilla is that big. How can you miss bombing him? Soldier_jeers06.wav

 

This missile launcher truck does better than that attacker plane. It reminds me of that truck that launches missile in Armor Alley.

I kind of satisfied with how my units doing, I guess? They manage to reduce Godzilla Lifepoint to 60 from 80. This unit stats list is pretty easy to understand. Left number is the current number while right number is the max number or initial number. I can assume that we have to reduce Godzilla’s LP to zero, to defeat him. But not all of our attack reduces LP. Sometimes, it reduces DP that I think it stands for Defense point. Then there’s MP which is movement point that determines how many tiles per turn that Godzilla can move. I think I miss something important on this stats list. Of, course! Where the heck is stats that represents attack power? I know each unit has more than 1 attack but even so the developer should tell us how powerful each of their attack somewhere. The attack power information is not even enlisted in battle screen! I just assume the attacks are sorted in power in ascending order from top to bottom.

 

Apparently, Godzilla is bored throwing his atomic breath. Now he attempts something different but I’m not sure what’s this. It looks like Ermac’s Soul Ball from Mortal Kombat 3.

 

Welp. There goes one of our attacker planes but it did crappy job. Here’s the basic thing in any turn-based strategy game. Whether you like it or not. You have to sacrifice your unit to weaken enemy (especially boss unit) before go for finishing attack, right? However, I’m not sure how to implement that basic strategy in this game. Other than defense power and current lifepoint, there’s not much thing to differentiate my units. Maybe, tank is more durable than missile launcher and missile launcher has bigger attack power than tank. I’m not sure. Sometime tank becomes dying with just only 1 attack from the giant G. But again, that’s pretty commendable survivability if compared to something in the move. I though missile launcher is indirect combat unit which can attack without being adjacent to the target but nope! So, there’s no efficient and strategic way to fight Godzilla other than surround him with all you got. I mean I know the game gives me hint to use atomic bomb to lure Godzilla and use Destroyer (with vague function) to defeat him. So, what’s the point of these combat units that I have? Then there’s no way to repair my units so I don’t have something to mitigate error. I wish these useless base buildings can repair units when I put them on it. Kind of like in Command & Conquer Generals where you can send your combat units to production building to heal them. On the other hand, Godzilla recovers some of his health every turn! Developer can argue “Kaiju is nigh invincible and player can outnumber him. So, the health regeneration is justifiable”. Yeah, but it’s still unfair! Furthermore, the dumb battle slot doesn’t do me a favor most of the time.    

 

Baragon disappeared again. Turns out, radar car can reveal his invisibility with “search” command. However, I’m not sure about the range of the search. 3 or 4 tiles radius, maybe?   

 

As I order fighter plane to attack Godzilla, I notice one of the slot outcomes is JP. What “Jurassic Park” has something to do with this?  

 

Finally, Godzilla explodes. Eat dirt, giant bastard! Soldier_taunts13.wav

 

So, we can focus on Baragon. But that giant bastard annihilates my A-10 Thunderbolt II! I can’t blame the Kaiju but I want to blame Toho instead. Why you make my favorite aircraft so weak? I hate you.

Turn 14…

 

Baragon tries to become invisible again but radar car reveals him immediately. But what the hell? Baragon last position is the south of attacker plane but now he’s in the south of reserved tank! He can move diagonally? That’s cheating! >:(

 

Finally, Baragon is pushing up the daisies. Demoman_taunts08.wav

 

Demoman_specialcompleted-assistedkill01.wav. We finish the mission with huge success! We don’t even need the Destroyer bomb and atomic bomb. Although to be fair, we surrounded the giant G and he couldn’t walk up to atomic bomb as the professor intended. Although those 2 men gives us thumb up, they look sad. Maybe, they’re still sad over their deceased comrades on the battle. We will build monument to honor the deceased ones. Don’t you worry!

 

The real reward of winning the battle is this victory screen where Godzilla sulking and while carrying white flag. I feel bad. But I heard that this Kaiju destroyed IJN Takao in Godzilla Minus One movie, so he deserves all the humiliation and wound from that battle. Suck it, giant sogging git!

 

I could just end the playthrough with that satisfying success but I choose to play more for you, reader. Mission 6 called New Allies. I was hoping Ultraman, Gamera, Power Rangers, Voltron, or Dino Mech Gaiking come to help us but no. The allies are only Mothra.

Unlike in first mission, we don’t start with combat units already deployed. I have to issue order to build them first on some of bases. Meanwhile Godzilla is already in sea on northwest of the map.

 

Clark Kent Dr. Serizawa suggests that I order radar car to do search on the south of air base 1 to find Mothra eggs. Thankfully, the air base has name on it so you can’t mix it with other air base. While other professor can’t give me any hint. Demoman_jeers01

 

Suddenly Rodan appears from volcano! No one tells me there will be Rodan in this mission. Scout_sf13_magic_reac03.wav.

 

Then Hedorah and Baragon also appear. We’re totally outnumbered! Heavy_sf13_magic_reac02.wav

 

Rodan destroy a bridge! Not that I want my tanks to get across this river anyway. But he’s close enough to our force. Prepare to attack! Soldier_battlecry05.wav

 

My fighter plane can’t hit Rodan? Isn’t fighter plane supposed to be good at air-to-air combat? Fine. I have anti air gun unit in this mission. It should be excellent at shooting air target, including Rodan.

 

At turn 10, Mothra butterfly and Mothra caterpillar arrive! We may have better chance to win here.

 

I got this new combat unit called Maser that can shoot beam but it misses Rodan. Why this Rodan so agile! I swear to Gork if anti air unit can’t hit Rodan, I will quit this mission.

 

Even anti air gun can’t hit Rodan. I can’t believe this! Soldier_jeers02.wav

 

On the bright side, Baragon can’t hit any of my air units. By air units, I mean including this weird flying craft that look like hovercraft. With name Super X2, I expect it’s stronger than any of conventional planes that I have.

 

Not even Mothra can hit Rodan! I quit! >_< #

I push my luck very hard here. I jump into final mission: The Conclusive Battle. But I’m very pessimistic to win this mission. Just maybe, if we don’t have to fight Rodan, we can win this mission.

 

I notice there’s aerospace center in this mission. Once I click on it, this screen appears. The scientist wants me to transport 3 parts of SY-3 from army base to here. This SY-3 better be super miraculous weapon against Godzilla and Co.

 

Meanwhile Clark Kent Dr. Serizawa says something obvious. Thanks, captain obvious. While Albert Einstein Dr. Wagner suggests me to search for Mothra eggs near the aerospace center. Lastly, Dr. Dicken is as useless as ever.

 

Once again, we’re outnumbered. They have all Kaiju in mission 6 plus Ghidorah and an UFO. Somehow the flying saucer is so eager to move forward even though it’s the weakest unit on their side. Meanwhile we only have these 5 combat units. Moreover, I have to build them first before deployed. This is so unfair!

As for the so-called super weapon. As you can see, the third part is on halfway to the aerospace center. The first and second part are already delivered. Thanks to trailer, we almost deliver all of the parts for the super weapon. This better be very worthed it.

Remember about the Mothra egg is supposed to be near the aerospace center? Well, that’s kind of misinformation. You see an empty space surround the trees? That’s where the hidden Mothra egg.

UFO decides to pick a fight with the Super X2 aircraft. The special thing about this super aircraft is its 3rd weapon: Reflector. It only available when the aircraft is attacked. It can reflect enemy’s beam attack such as from Godzilla or UFO! I don’t think it’s perfect counter weapon as Super X2 still takes damage but it deals awesome amount of damage. Or so what FAQ made by White_Ghost said.

I look up about the battle slot. According to FAQ made by Raidenovitch, blue icon is benefit for player’s unit while red icon is benefit for enemy’s unit. Heart icon is for attack power increase. Shield icon is for defense power increase. Crosshair icon is for accuracy increase. That last one, I can figure it out myself from the beginning because crosshair icon is accuracy symbol in many video games. However, I’m bit baffled with heart icon as attack power symbol. It should be icon of explosion or something. Then there’s the JP icon. Apparently, it’s overall stats (attack power, defense power, and accuracy) increase for player’s unit. Probably, JP is to represents Japan Self Defense Force or something. Then it should be JF! Lastly there’s red skull icon. it’s overall stats (attack power, defense power, and accuracy) increase for enemy’s unit. You really don’t want that skull icon to appear. But the thing is: even if you know all of these icons mean, you can’t control the slot outcome because these slot roulettes move way too fast that I can assume they’re nigh pure random. For all I know, with this knowledge about the icons you can tell whether you do good or you are screwed up. No other benefit that you can have from the knowledge.  

 

Maser unit is dying when fighting UFO. FAQ made by White_Ghost says that Maser can do extreme damage to monster and sometime kill Rodan in one shot. Note: sometime! Apparently, in my playthrough back then that sometime didn’t happen. EVER! I don’t blame White_Ghost. I just angry to this video game and Toho who made it.

Eventually, we delivered the last part of SY-3 to the aerospace center. But I have to wait it to be constructed first before we can see the result! I really really hope this sogging SY-3 is really worth the effort.  

 

They finish construct the SY-3 in 3 turns right when my force is reduced to 25%! So SY-3 has very high defense power but its life point is already reduced by half when fighting UFO! Not even one of the Kaiju. Also, as you can see the battle slot yields beneficial results to our side and SY-3 still takes horrible damage. A guy in aerospace control says: “SY-3 is miraculous weapon”. I usually don’t say this but I have to. That’s TOTAL BULLCRAP! It’s not superbly stronger than any of my aircraft unit and it takes 6-8 turns in total to obtain it. I’m very disappointed to this so-called miraculous weapon.   

 

There the UFO is defeated by SY-3. That lefts 5 Kaiju come at us while I have no other combat unit other than the miraculously stupid weapon. Mothra(s) better get here soon.

 

Rodan attacks radar car and he miss! Even more shocking fact is: radar car has machine gun and it manages to deal some damage to Rodan! Not by much but I really appreciate this one brave radar car.    

 

Mothra(s) arrive! I order the butterfly to unleash his iconic powder attack on Ghidorah. It deals tremendous damage. It reduces Ghidora LP and DP by 95%...then Mothra dies. You can say it’s my fault to not see deep into Mothra’s lore to know that the powder attack costs his life. But why there’s no in-game detailed explanation about what each attack does? Information about attack is very important besides complete list of stats. 

 

So, our remaining combat units are Mothra caterpillar and SY-3 that’s almost dead. Another shocking news! Trailer also has machine gun and it damages Rodan as retaliation. By the way, why Mothra butterfly that can be considered the strongest units has ability to suicide attack? Sounds wasteful. Heck! Why we don’t have plane that have ability to suicide attack? If the game implement that, we have new layer of strategy which appropriates with “sacrificing unit to weaken enemy before finishing attack” tactic. Moreover, there’s no point of keeping unit with low health because as far as I know there’s no way to recover LP in this game. Don’t give me reply “We can’t have suicide attack. It’s awful and stupid”. Japanese pilots at World War 2 did that. Worms have suicide weapons. Heck! Even Ufthak Blackhawk in Brutal Kunnin’ novel, sacrifices ship to ram giant demon into volcano after eject his seat. You think Ork is not smart enough, huh? I mean majority of Ork is slugga boyz that wave their slugga and choppa like you think. But when it comes to Nob and Warboss, they’re smart and cunning git.         

 

I guess I owe you to show the Mothra caterpillar. His attacks are bull which I assume headbutt, bite, and thread which fire web. Mothra can’t hit Rodan with bull and bit because Rodan is flying and can’t be hit with Mothra’s melee attack, which makes sense. Only thread can hit Rodan. If you’re lucky that is.

 

With all of our unit and Mothra’s egg destroyed, we lose. It can’t be helped! We’re totally outnumbered. We need at least 2 dozen of combat units ready to deploy. Not these units with measly numbers. Moreover, I have to order their construction first. Scratch that! We need an entire family of Ultraman to win this mission! What this defense force thinking? They’re barely prepared to face The Conclusive Battle. The SY-3 does nothing amazing. On the other hand, I’m impressed with trailer and radar car that can hold up for quite long time (about 6 turns or so) when I thought they don’t have any combat capability at all. That’s it! I’m done! 

 

Toho’s Godzilla 2 – War of the Monsters (1991) is super hard and unfair strategy game. When you thought Fire Emblem or XCOM is difficulty strategy game, here comes Godzilla 2 that I assume is the true “Dark Soul” of strategy game. I can’t complaint about how accurate the lore or anything about the Kaiju because Toho made the franchise and I believe they keep things true to the canon. But obviously I complaint about the gameplay. They got the basic wrong. Air unit that can’t pass ground unit. No detailed info on units. Every combat unit only attack at adjacent space. No way to recover your loss, except Kaiju that can regenerate LP per turn. Units that aren’t prepared first. Enemy always has boss units at their disposal. Miraculous weapon that sucks. Lastly the stupid slot with totally random outcome. Every unit can counter infinitely which probably more beneficial to the monsters since they get surrounded more often than player’s units. Lots of arduous trials and error to understand the game.

Take a look at Heroes of Might and Magic 3 for example. Every combat aspect in that game, is either controllable or predictable. Keeping your troop morale high is important because you deny lose turn and there’s a chance your troop get extra turn. Same goes to high luck, you deny your troop does less damage there’s a chance your troop does extra damage. You can see the detailed data about your troops and units. Also, you can recover your troop health or number and Hero’s mana. Or in War 2410 where unit in rougher terrain gets bigger damage reduction. Easy to understand and control.

Back to Godzilla 2, it’s hot mess of jankiness and randomness. Perhaps, Toho intend to make the game impossible to win (excluding the first mission) because Kaiju are their pride or whatnot. But, come on! As player, I want to win. Everyone that play game want to win. Maybe not those who are fake pro-player that deliberately lose because they’re told to by developer. Otherwise, they don’t get pay. Despite all of those negative comments, I have some complimentary. The game use mission select is quite generous of them. So, you don’t have to finish the mission in order. Mothra allies are good idea of reinforcement. The idea of delivering parts to build strong unit later on, is quite interesting. The enemy AI is quite soft on you. All of them can rush on you but they choose not to. Count it as blessing. From my playthrough, I witness Godzilla like to bumble around the most. He’s more interested on razing buildings than attacking my force. Good for him. Speaking of the Giant G, I like the victory screen. He looks funny and bit adorable. The attack selection is solid concept although more info on it, is very important to have. I think the machine gun is more focus on damaging Defense power rather than Lifepoint, though I’m not sure. Damaging DP first is neat idea since Monsters can regenerate LP but not defense power. With that, we can apply the “weaken enemy first before finishing attack” tactic. Although it’s still random what things get affected by any of attack. Although I’m pretty sure that bomb attack can reduce target’s movement capability. Asking hints from scientist also solid idea. The music is great and engaging. I like the battle OST the most. The graphic is fairly good.

 

It’s not advisable to play Godzilla 2 – War of the Monsters (1991) beyond first mission. It’s the easiest mission but probably the fairest in term of difficulty. The only reward for completing the mission is the victory screen which is satisfying enough to me. Where else you can see Godzilla commits surrender while holding white flag? It’s quite sight to behold.