Godzilla (2014) Video Game [PS3 and PS4]

Godzilla (2014) Video Game

aka Godzilla VS [Japan PS4 Version]

Genre: Fighting / Action | Players: 1 (Offline) or 2 (Online PS4 only) | Developer: Natsume Atari

The opening cinematic of the game teases action, with monsters going head to head, military responses, dramatic camera angles, and, of course, destruction on a grand scale.

The tutorial that follows is presented in a wonderfully apt way, with a grainy B+W hue that's reminiscent of the first Godzilla movie - and with Akira Ifukube's iconic music playing throughout, the tone is set in suitably dramatic fashion. All in all, it reinforces the notion that getting to play as Godzilla is going to be as good as many G fans thought it would be. [1]

But when reality hits, after just a couple of levels, it hits with a kaijū-sized thump. You may even feel your hopes crumble like a tiny model city during a giant creature brawl. I sure did.

Godzilla Singular Point (2021—)

Godzilla Singular Point: Series One (2021)

Dir. Atsushi Takahashi / Episodes: 13

A thirteen episode anime TV series co-produced by studios Bones Inc. and Orange.

Chronologically it was released after Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018) in the Reiwa Era, but it's not connected to any of the feature films.

It begins with talk of a haunted mansion and a possible ghost or vampire, but moves away from that into crazy science - and I do mean crazy. It introduces and explains its concepts well, so it's simple enough to keep up, but it'll require some major acceptance on the part of the viewer. That's if you can actually read what the hell it is that's being presented or said.

Subtitles are sometimes onscreen for a mere fraction of a second and quite often they're white text on a white background, making it almost impossible to read anything without having to pause the episode. That particular issue was solved in the days of silent cinema!

Godzilla: Reiwa Era Films (2016—)

29. Shin Godzilla (2016)

Dirs. Hideaki Anno + Shinji Higuchi

NOTE: numbering continues sequentially from the Millennium Era. For simplicity I've used English titles, but it's always the Japanese language versions of the films that I refer to.

Another hard reset of the franchise, with a new creature design and new origin story behind it.

The majority of the film involves politicians, bureaucrats, military leaders, etc, talking about how to deal with the irradiated daikaijū threat.

It utilises fast cuts to give the impression that things being discussed hurriedly is some kind of compensation for things being uninteresting - but it's really not. The first hour in particular is dense with such dry, ponderous dialogue.

Godzilla, referred to as male more than once in the English subs, is mostly CGI, mo-capped so that it moves kind of like a man in a suit. It gets points for good intentions, but ultimately it's just another CGI creature with zero personality. If I wanted that I'd watch the American films.

Godzilla: Millennium Era Films (2000-04)

23. Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999)

Dir. Takao Okawara

NOTE: numbering continues sequentially from the Heisei Era. I've used English titles, but it's Japanese language versions of the films that I refer to.

Unlike the previous eras, i.e. Shōwa and Heisei, which had their own continuity within their respective timelines, the Millennium era films are mostly standalone stories, functioning as alternative sequels to the original 1954 film. As such, the only Godzilla film one needs to have seen prior to Godzilla 2000: Millennium is the aforementioned 1954 original.

In G 2000 the military want to kill the kaijū with their modern day bad-ass weaponry. Meanwhile, a father and daughter team (Takehiro Murata and Mayu Suzuki) want to study Godzilla. But not just from afar, like storm chasers they dare to get up close and personal as it heavy-foots through the city.

Godzilla: Heisei Era Films (1984-95)

16. The Return of Godzilla (1984)

Dir. Koji Hashimoto

NOTE: numbering continues sequentially from the Shōwa Era. For simplicity's sake I've used English language titles for each of my Godzilla reviews, but it's always the original Japanese language versions of the films that I refer to.

The Heisei Era is almost exclusively a case of Godzilla vs [ANOTHER] kaijū; the exception is the first film, which is a reboot of sorts, being a sequel to the original 1954 film that ignores the other fifteen Shōwa films. It was a deliberate attempt to return the series to its origins. It successfully made Godzilla scary again. No longer something to be mocked, Godzilla is total fucking destruction.

The first proper reveal of the rejuvenated beast is impressive, with newly added facial animatronics that enabled it to have nuances like never before.

Godzilla: Shōwa Era Films (1954-74)

01. Godzilla (1954) 

Dir. Ishirō Honda

NOTE: for simplicity's sake I've used English language titles for each of my Godzilla reviews, but it's always the original Japanese language versions of the films that I refer to.

The monstrous growl that's heard over the film's opening credits foreshadows what's to come, which can be summed up as the Japanese people facing a monstrous terror that the rest of the world has never seen. It begins at sea and then moves inland.

The creature responsible for the inhuman roar — the monarch of kaijū eiga — is a force to be reckoned with, for sure, and is more than just an excuse to have a guy in a rubber suit trash tiny models. You don't need to be a history scholar to pick out the many wartime parallels: nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific, irradiated wells, air raid sirens, and footfalls that sound like distant bombs impacting and exploding are all highlighted.

Terror of Godzilla (1988): Comic Miniseries

Terror of Godzilla (1988)

Author and Illustrator: Kazuhisa Iwata  |  Translators: Mike Richardson / Randy Stradley
Page Count: Approx 30 per issue (176 total)

A six-issue miniseries set thirty years after the first Godzilla film (1954). Japan has been free of kaijū trouble since then, but a natural volcanic eruption in the Pacific Ocean changes that. So put down your coffee cups, JSDF, because it's time to suit up!

The first thing you ought to know is that the English language edition published by Darkhorse is the original manga translated, but it's been coloured.

I'd have preferred it was left as it was originally intended, but in all fairness it's not a bad job and the upside is we get it on better paper stock than Japan did. I'm going to take the optimistic stance and say that things could've been much worse, truly.

Artwork is Tezuka-inspired. Issue one is occasionally gruesome, but subsequent issues are less interesting.