Video Game / Godzilla: Unleashed

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Godzilla: Unleashed is a 2007 Fighting Game developed by Pipeworks Software and published by Atari, released for the Wii and PlayStation 2. It is the third mainline game in the Pipeworks ''Godzilla'' Trilogy, and the fourth overall.

20 years after the events of Godzilla: Save the Earth, the Vortaak makes a third attempt to invade Earth, only for their fleet to be thrown awry by a meteor shower that causes the appearance of bizarre crystals that emit a strange radiation which powers monsters up. The crystals' radiation also causes a series of natural (and unnatural) disasters to occur around the world. The Mutant and Vortaak-allied Alien monsters attempt to utilize these crystals to conquer the earth, while the Earth Defender and Global Defense Force factions attempt to destroy them. The crystals are revealed to be created by SpaceGodzilla, who is trying to escape the alternate dimension he was trapped in at the end of Save the Earth.

The Wii version contained novel features such as a lengthy modular story mode with multiple endings, improved destruction physics with buildings, a large character roster, and a Wiimote control system that was met with mixed receptions. The PlayStation 2 version was largely an upgraded port of Save the Earth, featuring the same roster with only a couple of new additions that were moveset clones of existing characters. The Wii version replaced the Rage Mode mechanic with both Power Surges (powerful attacks that could be utilized once per battle) and Critical Mass, where monsters supercharged with crystal radiation would grow in size, turn black and glowing-red, and deal increased damage at the price of decreased defense. The PS2 version instead retained the Rage Mode mechanic (albeit with no Rage Attacks) and rechristened it as Power Surges, while the special one-time attacks are referred to as Surges.

The game was marketed alongside a spinoff title, Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash.

Playable Characters

• Anguirus — Earth Defenders
• Baragon — Earth Defenders
• Battra** — Mutants^note Can change from larva to imago
• Biollante* — Mutants
• Destoroyah — Mutants
• Fire Rodan — Earth Defenders
• Gigan — Aliens^note Wii version uses the Final Wars starting design, while the PlayStation 2 version uses the Showa design
• Godzilla 1954* — Earth Defenders
• Godzilla 1990s (Heisei) — Earth Defenders
• Godzilla 2000 — Earth Defenders
• Jet Jaguar — Global Defense Force
• King Caesar* — Earth Defenders
• King Ghidorah — Aliens
• Kiryu — Global Defense Force
• Krystalak* — Mutants^note An original character created by Pipeworks for the game
• Mecha-King Ghidorah — Global Defense Force
• Mechagodzilla* — Aliens
• Mechagodzilla 2 (Heisei) — Global Defense Force
• Megaguirus — Mutants
• Megalon — Aliens
• M.O.G.U.E.R.A. — Global Defense Force
• Mothra — Earth Defenders^note Can change from larva to imago
• Obsidius — Mutants^note An original character created by Pipeworks for the game, chosen and named by fan-vote.
• Orga — Aliens
• SpaceGodzilla — Mutants
• Titanosaurus* — Mutants
• Varan* — Earth Defenders

Bosses

• Atoragon
• King Ghidorah (Critical Mass)
• Biollante
• SpaceGodzilla
• Player Character (Critical Mass) — Tyrant Ending only

This game contains examples of:

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Rather than being piloted by human/alien operators like before, all of the Humongous Mecha kaiju were upgraded with their own AI to give them relative freedom of thought. This unfortunately allows the robots to be corrupted by the crystals and even defect from their faction.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • The warship Gotengo is referred to by its English dub name Atoragon. What makes it this trope is that, by this point, recent media had already started referring to the warship by its original name in English.
  • Between Save the Earth and Unleashed, several returning monsters received a name change.
    • Mechagodzilla 3 is now referred to as Kiryu, which is the official name for that specific Mechagodzilla. The Kiryu name was previously only used in the Japanese manual of Save the Earth, where it was listed as "Mechagodzilla 3 (Kiryu)."
    • Rodan is now referred to as Fire Rodan, the official name of the Heisei Rodan's fire-themed form, which matches up with its abilities. In spite of this, Fire Rodan still looks like the Heisei Rodan before becoming Fire Rodan, and the military still refers to it as Rodan.
    • Downplayed with MOGUERA, who was previously listed in Save the Earth as MOGUERA 2, but was always referred to as MOGUERA otherwise.
    • Downplayed with Godzilla 90's, whose name has been changed to the more formal Godzilla 1990s, with no apostrophe. The announcer still refers to it with the informal name Godzilla '90s.
• Adaptational Heroism: The 1954 version of Godzilla was a Tragic Monster who did nothing heroic in his debut movie and spent most of it rampaging around Tokyo, destroying human structures, and even attacking humans several times. Here, though he isn't playable in Story Mode, he is placed on the Earth Defenders side in this game (alongside his 1990s and 2000 versions), meaning he's technically on the heroes' side and fighting to protect the Earth.
• Adaptational Villainy: Three normally neutral monsters are depicted as evil Mutants, seeking tremendous power even if it means destroying the world.
  • Biollante, who was canonically largely passive towards humanity and even fought Godzilla in their defense, is described as seeking to become the world's most powerful monster.
  • Titanosaurus. The only reason it fought Godzilla in Terror of Mechagodzilla was due to being under Mind Control; it was stated to be unusually peaceful for a giant monster when not under anyone's influence. Some fans argued that it should have been an Earth Defender. To be fair, it's stated that it has no special allegiance and is more of a rogue lumped in with the other Mutants, although it isn't passing up the opportunity to get more power to ensure its continued survival.
  • Similarly, while Battra is a defender of the Earth (just not its intelligent inhabitants), here he's a Mutant seeking absolute power and dominion. When you think about it, he's using the power of the crystals infesting the planet to get more power, going against everything he was before!
• Alliance Meter: In Story Mode, the actions you take will influence your monster's standing with the four opposing factions. This is represented with a series of four "affinity meters," which you can check at any time by pausing the game. Helpfully, these meters will also momentarily appear on-screen whenever you do something that pleases/displeases a faction.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Like in previous games, the human/alien militaries will get involved in the fight, and attack the monster doing the most damage to their environment. Unlike in previous games, a Radio Voice will explain the military's every move, from which monster they'll be targeting, to what weapons they'll be bringing out.
• The Bad Guy Wins: If a villainous monster wins, then the ending has them destroying the world (Mutant/Tyrant ending) or helping the Vortaak conquer it (Alien ending).
• Beam-O-War: The "beam fight" mechanic returns, but with a different flavor. The monsters now have to volley a surge of energy back and forth, with increasing speed, until it hits a monster in the face.
• Broad Strokes: The character bios seem to imply that some variation of certain Godzilla movies happened in this universe. Of note, Mecha-King Ghidorah was built after King Ghidorah's loss to an unnamed Earth Defender, SpaceGodzilla attacked Earth once before the trilogy began, and Orga wants revenge after initially losing to Godzilla 2000.
• Climax Boss: Critical Mass King Ghidorah, unless of course you're playing on the Alien side. The Atoragon is also this unless you're allied with the GDF.
  • To a lesser extent, the unlockable monsters have their own hidden boss missions that must be unlocked in a certain way and are centered around defeating them in a straight 1v1. Biollante in particular often winds up with her own boss mission simply titled "Biollante" (though getting the mission without reaching certain requirements will not unlock her).
• Convection, Schmonvection: Monsters don't take damage from the heat of the volcanic Seattle stage. They only lose health if they're in the lava itself, though Rodan (in the PlayStation 2 version) and Obsidius are immune as well.
• Darker and Edgier: While Unleashed doesn't completely abandon the campy tone of the previous games, there's a far more apocalyptic feel to the levels on account of the disasters going on, ranging from Sydney being frozen over to London floating in the middle of outer space. The game abandons the Excuse Plot of the predecessors for a real story where it's made very clear that the world will end if you fail. You can even take over the planet yourself by beating the game as a kaiju from the Alien faction, or straight up destroying it by beating it as a Mutant.
• Double Unlock:
  • The Wii version starts with eight monsters, with eighteen to unlock by spending in-game points earned through completing missions. While you can get King Caesar and Mothra as soon as you have enough points to do so, the remaining sixteen unlockable monsters have at least two steps to unlocking them.
    • The most basic version of this is to simply purchase a faction from the shop, and then pay separately for each monster within that faction; the Earth Defenders are the only faction that don't need to be purchased as a pack first. This alone is enough to be able to purchase five monsters: Jet Jaguar, Mechagodzilla 2, and MOGUERA for the GDF; and Mechagodzilla and Orga for the Aliens (in their case, rounding out the entire faction).
    • Furthermore, the Mutant faction can only be purchased after completing Story Mode once. However, this won't be enough to purchase any of them separately...
    • Eight monsters (Baragon and Varan for the Earth Defenders, Mecha-King Ghidorah for the GDF, and Biollante, Krystalak, Megaguirus, Obsidius and Titanosaurus for the Mutants) require a certain level in Story Mode to be cleared with a particular faction, all while meeting a special requirement. Succeeding will unlock a secret level (which, for a few cases, won't be immediately selectable) where the monster in question has to be defeated before it can be added to the shop.
    • The Mothership stage has a similar requirement, as it requires in-story actions (shooting down the Mothership in a particular level and then selecting it as the next stage choice) to be made available for purchase.
    • Godzilla 1954, Godzilla 1990s and SpaceGodzilla all have unique requirements that need to be met before they can be added to the shop.
  • The PlayStation 2 version starts with eight monsters, with twelve to unlock. The three unlockables that are part of the Earth Defender faction can be purchased as soon as you have enough points to get them, but you'll need to purchase a pack for each of the non-Earth Defender factions before paying extra to unlock each monster within each pack. Most glaringly, Orga is the only unlockable Alien, and you'll still need to buy the Alien pack before buying Orga separately.
    • As in the Wii version, you'll need to beat Story Mode before you'll even get to purchase the Mutant pack.
• Face–Heel Turn: Collecting all of the Power Surge crystals as an Earth Defender or Global Defense Force monster results in them being corrupted by their power and turning on their former allies to take over the world for themselves.
• Faction-Specific Endings: Completing the story mode results in a different ending depending on which faction your monster comes from:
  • Earth Defenders and Global Defense Force: The world is saved as your monster is hailed as a hero.
  • Aliens: Vorticia laughs in triumph as the Vortaak and your monster take over the world.
  • Mutants: crystals overrun the Earth as the player's monster takes over the world.
  • Tyrant (Getting all the Power Surge crystals as a non-Mutant): your monster gets corrupted by the crystals and overruns the world with them, similar to the Mutants' ending. If you were part of the Earth Defenders or the GDF, Kenji Miku bemoans that you were humanity's only hope.
• Final Boss: SpaceGodzilla is this in the regular ending. In the Tyrant ending, however, you're the final boss, with a number of monsters, including your once-allies, rushing to stop you.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • While your actions in the story mode can influence how each faction will treat you throughout, the ending is solely determined by your monster's starting faction (with one exception). Thus, it's entirely possible to spend the entire campaign helping the Earth Defenders and Global Defense Force while playing as an Alien or Mutant, only to suddenly revert back to being evil and taking over by the end.
  • In the mission description for "Flight of the Atoragon," Admiral Gyozen is considered a rogue and unstable by the GDF. Yet after destroying the Atoragon and killing Gyozen, you still get a 10% deduction from the GDF alliance meter.
• General Ripper: Admiral Gyozen, who hates all of the non-GDF monsters. This stems from having captained the Atoragon for years, facing Godzilla numerous times, and losing each time. Despite being inactive for ten years at the start of the story, Gyozen uses his position on the GDF's council to sway the GDF into recommissioning the Atoragon to combat the monsters. It is later revealed that while he does hate the monsters, he's become increasingly irrational due to the presence of the crystals.
• Ignored Epiphany: Admiral Gyozen eventually realizes that his animosity towards the monsters is being amplified by the crystals, with him even bringing one on-board the Atoragon. However, he eventually comes to the conclusion that the only ways he can restore his honor are to kill all of the monsters, or die trying.
• Implementing the Incomplete: Due to being a last-minute addition to the Wii roster, Godzilla 1954 is a Head Swap Moveset Clone of Godzilla 1990s, has buggy intro and victory cinematics, and only makes a quiet growl when the roar button is pressed.
• Kill It with Ice: In a reference to Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, if a Critical Mass monster is frozen, they will instantly be forced out of their current state.
• Mêlée à Trois: The Story Mode gets in on this with four sides all opposing each other: Earth Defenders, Global Defense Force, Aliens, and Mutants. The sides differ on how they deal with the crystals that arrived from a meteorite and start royally screwing up the Earth, sent by SpaceGodzilla.
• Natural Disaster Cascade: Many of the cities are affected by the crystals in some... bizarre ways.
  • San Francisco: Shattered by earthquakes.
  • Sydney: Currently under a freak blizzard, the sea freezing over.
  • Osaka: Osaka is relatively intact, but the city is shrouded by toxic chemical gas.
  • Tokyo: Tokyo is partially submerged under massive tsunamis, and a permanent storm falls.
  • Seattle: Mt. Rainer has erupted, causing the entire city to become volcanic.
  • London: A chunk of the city quite literally breaks from the earth and hangs high in the sky.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Any monster in the Mutants faction, with their ending leading to the extinction of humanity and likely most other life on the planet.
• Pet the Dog: Any kaiju or mecha who makes a point to protect the humans and minimize damage to the cities will be rewarded by the military pitching in to help them.
• Power-Up: The Power Surge crystals, which give the afflicted monster a special benefit when destroyed. Several missions involve confronting a monster under the control of five of these crystals, and the player must choose between taking down the monster (and getting the surge for themselves) or destroying the crystals; the latter is favored by Earth Defenders while the former is favored by Aliens. Normally they only last for 30 seconds or so, but they can be ended early to unleash a big shockwave.
  • Fire: A red/orange flaming crystal, increases melee damage. Unlike the other Surges, this doesn't end with a shockwave, but instead automatically causes the monster to unleash an incredibly powerful flamethrower for a few seconds.
  • Electrical: A yellow crystal crackling with electricity, increases beam/weapon damage and energy regeneration.
  • Speed: A white crystal shining like a rainbow, increases movement and attack speed as well as jump height.
  • Crystal: A purple crystal, severely reduces all damage taken and increases Critical Mass growth.
  • Radiation: A green crystal, increases health and energy regeneration while impairing others' nearby.
  • Shield: A blue metallic crystal, reduces damage taken from melee attacks and also prevents grabs, but slows down the monster.
  • Darkness: A black crystal surrounded by darkness, blocks all ranged weapons (including the military).
• Power at a Price: Reaching Critical Mass increases the strength of your attacks, but it also decreases your defense. In addition, you lose a health cell after Critical Mass ends.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Unleashed's main gimmick, Critical Mass, turns the monster black with glowing red markings while doubling their height and attack strength for the duration of the transformation. It's associated with the Mutant faction due to being obtained by absorbing the crystals' radiation; if the player gets the Tyrant ending, their kaiju is permanently locked into it, betrays their chosen faction, and destroys human civilization.
• Remember the New Guy?: The monster biographies in the manual describe the Showa Mechagodzilla as the Vortaak's original invasion weapon and the basis of the Mechagodzilla 2 built by the GDF, quietly retconning Mechagodzilla 2's final boss status in Destroy All Monsters Melee and explaining how the game's Mechagodzilla 2 has the finger missiles.
• Rock Monster: Obsidius is a vaguely saurian monster made of Living Lava, spawned when one of SpaceGodzilla's crystals plunged into a volcano.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Critical Mass doubles the character's height and attack strength, and turns them Red and Black and Evil All Over. Getting all the Power Surges in Story mode results in the Tyrant ending, regardless of allegiance, where the player monster stays in Critical Mass.
• Tempting Fate: In the Aliens and Mutants opening of Story Mode, Vorticia is seen presiding over a new invasion fleet and boasting Nothing Can Stop Us Now!, only for her fleet to be hit by an asteroid.
• Tin-Can Robot: The original Mechagodzilla appears as a fighter in all its '70s robot aesthetic, most notably an incredibly stiff and clunky way of moving. It’s no less dangerous than any other monster however, easily being able to hold its own in a fight despite how outdated it's become beside newer Mechagodzillas.
• Unconventional Alignment: The monsters are divided into four factions: the good-aligned Earth Defenders and Global Defense Force, and the evil-aligned Aliens and Mutants.
  • The Earth Defenders generally consist of natural monsters concerned with destroying the crystals to save the environment, and as such are mainly opposed to the Mutants but don't go out of their way to avoid destroying human buildings should they get in their way — except King Caesar and Mothra, whose bios and backstories mention them as going out of their way to protect humans.
  • The Global Defense Force generally consist of human-aligned mechs and cyborgs, and aims to protect mankind first and foremost. As such they are mainly opposed to the Aliens... though they'll go after any monster who isn't careful around human structures.
  • The Aliens generally consist of extraterrestrial monsters seeking to use the crystals to conquer the Earth in the name of the Vortaak, and go out of their way to destroy human structures and military vehicles.
  • The Mutants simply want absolute power and seek to harvest the power surges and crystal energy for themselves, destroying anything and everything in their path. Unlike the other factions this isn't a true "faction," as Mutants are all too willing to attack each other if it means more power; it's more just a categorization than anything.
• Version-Exclusive Content:
  • The Wii version has Krystalak, Biollante, Titanosaurus, King Caesar, Varan, the Showa Mechagodzilla, and Godzilla 1954 as exclusive monsters.
  • Battra is the sole monster who is unavailable in the Wii version, being exclusive to the PS2.
  • Several monsters have completely different designs between the two versions (graphical power and new models notwithstanding), owed in large part to most of the PS2 monsters' models simply reusing their Save the Earth models.
    • For Gigan, the Wii gets the Millennium incarnation and the PS2 gets the Showa incarnation.
    • King Ghidorah has a Heisei/Millennium hybrid design on the Wii, while having a mostly-Heisei design on the PS2. This also applies to the organic portions of Mecha-King Ghidorah.
    • Godzilla 1990s uses a generic, green-skinned Heisei design on the Wii, while mostly being based on his Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla design on the PS2.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: As with past games, the military will attack the monster doing the most damage to the environment. Due to the corrupting influence of the crystals, they will also prioritize monsters under the effects of a Power Surge or Critical Mass.
• Villain Team-Up: The Vortaak have united plenty of old foes together to help in their invasion of Earth. Mainstays like King Ghidorah and Gigan are obligatory, but Orga has been brought back to life to fight again, the first Mechagodzilla was rebuilt to bolster their forces, and Megalon was loaned to them by the Seatopians for another go at wiping humanity out.
• Zerg Rush: What the mission that leads to the Tyrant ending amounts to: your monster has acquired all of the power crystals, and has become irredeemably corrupt and the strongest thing on the planet, resulting in them staying in a permanent state of Critical Mass. The other Kaiju, even your former allies, take note of this and come in droves to try and stop you. You must defeat everyone who arrives to oppose you.