Author: Game Infliction

As the king of the monsters celebrates its 69th birthday, we take a look at every time Godzilla ever made an appearance in a game, from humble beginnings on the Commodore C64 in the early Eighties to the pinnacle of monster mayhem, Destroy All Monsters Melee on the Nintendo 64. How many do you remember?

Godzilla

C64, 1983

Completely unrelated to Toho, Godzilla on Commodore 64 is a well thought-out strategy game where Godzilla is attacking from the ocean, and you have to stop him before he destroys Tokyo. Use a nuke to destroy him, but not when he’s too close to the city.

Godzilla & the Martians

ZX Spectrum, 1984

Beyond the title, this game doesn’t seem to have any relation to Godzilla. The instruction manual says, “The Martians have invaded, destroying the molecular structure of Earth’s atmosphere to make it compatible with their own planet. “The girl of your dreams” is trapped at the top of a building site but for the moment protected from the evil invaders by a friendly dinosaur!” Sounds like a Mario clone!

Godzilla vs. 3 Major Monsters

MSX, 1984

This was the first official Godzilla game and is a single-screen action game (because the MSX had problems scrolling screens) where Godzilla breathes fire at Megalon, Kumonga, and King Ghidora. Calling Kumonga a major monster is a stretch.

Fierce Dragon Godzilla: Metropolis Destruction

FM-7 and PC X-1, 1985

Godzilla stomps through the forest in this action game, crushing tanks and destroying soldiers. The more damage he does, the more points.

Gojira-kun

MSX, 1985

Play as an adorable baby Godzilla in this cute puzzle-platformer, which later ended up becoming the Game Boy Godzilla game from 1990.

The Movie Monster Game

C64 & Apple II, 1986

Developed by Epyx, not only did this include Godzilla, it had (unsurprisingly) other movie monsters too, including Mothra and Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. It had famous landmarks for them to destroy too, from London’s Big Ben to the Eiffel Tower and more.

Monster’s Fair

MSX, 1986

Play as Mothra in this Commando-like, as well as Gezora (Space Amoeba), Hedorah, Minilla, and Godzilla.

Godzilla: Monster of Monsters

Famicom 1988/NES, 1989

Developed by Compile, which also made Puyo Puyo, you play as Godzilla or Mothra in this side-scrolling beat-’em-up.

Godzilla

Game Boy, 1990

This was based on Gojira-kun from 1986, but in this version you can’t use Godzilla’s atomic breath, probably because it’s a port of the Famicom game where you play as Minilla.

Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters

NES, 1992

Play as the military in this turn-based strategy game, which looks a little like Advance Wars.

Godzilla

PC-98, 1993

This one-on-one fighting game for the PC Engine had a great orchestral soundtrack.

Godzilla

Arcade, 1993

Side-scrolling action game. Godzilla warms up by stomping on tanks across the city before going one-on-one with other monsters.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Game Boy, 1993

Another side-scrolling beat-’em-up in which Godzilla destroy fighter jets and battles other monsters.

Godzilla: Battle Legends

Turbo Duo, 1993

The CD version of Godzilla for PC-98

Super Godzilla

SNES, 1994

A follow-up to Godzilla on Famicom, the screen is split into two, showing Godzilla’s location in one and what’s he’s doing in the other.

Godzilla: Monster War

Super Famicom, 1994

Another one-on-one fighting game, with eight monsters to fighter with.

Godzilla: The Atomar Nightmare

ZX Spectrum, 1995

A simple-looking, unlicensed Godzilla strategy game.

Godzilla: Heart-Pounding Monster Island

Sega Pico, 1995

A very different Godzilla game that features Chibi versions of the monsters. Click on them in different scenes to watch things happen.

Godzilla: Archipelago Shock

Saturn, 1995

Monsters invade an isometric city with players controlling the Japanese defense force.

Godzilla: Giant Monster March

Game Gear, 1995

Play as Godzilla or G-Force in another Advance Wars-like tactics game.

Godzilla Movie Studio Tour

PC, 1998

An interactive tour of Toho Studios.

Godzilla Online

PC, 1998

Launching alongside the movie, this online-only MMO was exclusive to the gaming service, GameStorm.

Godzilla Trading Battle

PlayStation, 1998

This Pokemon-like included one of the largest collections of Toho monsters ever.

Godzilla Generations

Dreamcast, 1998

Play as monsters whose goal is to destroy cities in this Dreamcast launch game.

Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact

Dreamcast, 1999

A sequel to Godzilla Generations, IGN scored Maximum Impact 2.5 out of 10, saying “One of the worst Dreamcast games ever released gets a sequel.”

Godzilla: The Series

Game Boy Color, 1999

Based on the animated series, play as Godzilla in a side-scroller that IGN scored 6/10.

Godzilla: The Series – Monster Wars

Game Boy Color, 1999

Despite the subtitle Monster Wars, there’s only one monster in the game! It’s much the same as Godzilla ’98 and scored 5/10 on IGN.

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee

Gamecube, 2002/Xbox, 2003

This four-player brawler was the peak of Godzilla games, scoring 8.5 on IGN and described as “without a doubt the best Godzilla game to date.”

Godzilla Domination

GBA, 2002

Developed by Wayforward, which recently worked on Advance Wars 1+2 Rebootcamp, this companion game to Destroy All Monsters Melee had nice pixel art but “very little substance beyond the pretty looks”, according to IGN’s review, which scored it 5.5/10.

Godzilla: Save the Earth

PS2/Xbox, 2004

Boasting almost identical gameplay to Destroy All Monsters Melee, the PS2 and Xbox version scored 6.5 because it was essentially the same game.

Godzilla Unleashed

Wii/PS2, 2007

Play as 23 of Toho’s biggest monsters in a story-driven brawler that, unfortunately, wasn’t that good, scoring just 4.9.

Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash

DS, 2007

Scoring 3/10, IGN said Double Smash “looks terrible and reduces the King of the Monsters to a mush of no-texture polygons, then puts him in a tedious series of punching planes and kicking boats.”

Godzilla: Strike Zone

mobile 2014

Based on the 2014 Godzilla movie, you play as a soldier parachuting into San Francisco in this survival horror game.

Godzilla Smash 3

mobile, 2014

Scenes of Godzilla play out while you play this match-three game.

Godzilla

PS4/PS3, 2015

Developed by Natsume, this was another monster free-for-all brawler that scored 4.5/10 and had a destruction mode similar to Godzilla Generations.

Shin Godzilla

PSVR demo, 2016

Play a civilian caught in the middle of Godzilla’s rampage in this PlayStation VR demo.

Godzilla: Defense Force

mobile, 2019

Collect kaiju and defend your city in this base defense game for mobile, which has a 4.8 rating on the App Store.

Godzilla Battle Line

mobile, 2021

Build a team of the strongest monsters from the Toho universe before pitting them against a rival in frantic, three-minute real-time battles.

Godzilla Destruction

mobile, 2021

Raze cities to the ground in this mobile game, which was discontinued in 2022.

Today at BlizzCon, Blizzard announced that the upcoming tenth, eleventh, and twelfth expansions to its ongoing popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, all three of which will be contained in a larger narrative called World of Warcraft: The Worldsoul Saga. The first of these will be entitled World of Warcraft: The War Within, and it’s coming next year.

During the keynote, Blizzard brought out WoW legend Chris Metzen, who recently returned as executive creative director of the Warcraft franchise, to announce the update. He called the expansion “the culmination of the first 20 years of our storytelling” that will “vector us into the next 20 years of adventure.” And boy, did what he announce sound massive, with Metzen unveiling an almost MCU-like setup for the coming years of World of Warcraft.

The tenth expansion and the first in the Worldsoul Saga, The War Within, will send adventurers inside Azerioth, to subterranean kingdoms, where Nerubians and an Allied race called the Earthen Dwarves await. We got the most details on The War Within, such as the promised return of former talking knife Xal’atath, new zones like Azj-kahet, Isle of Dorn, The Ringing Deeps, and Hallowfall, a new treasure hunting adventure activity called Delves, a community feature called War Bands, and new dungeons and raids.

The other two expansions had fewer details, but that’s fine for now as they’re both farther off. Expansion 11 is entitled simply World of Warcraft: Midnight, and will take place in Azeroth’s “Old World” in Quel’thalas, where Void forces have invaded and are trying to destroy the Sunwell and plunge the world into darkness. And the third part of the Worldsoul Saga, and WoW’s 12th expansion, will be called World of Warcraft: The Last Titan. It also takes place in the Old World, but in Northrend, previously the staging ground for Wrath of the Lich King. In this expansion, the titans return to Azeroth, and players “uncover a vast conspiracy” about the Titans and their intentions.

There are more details expected later at BlizzCon, but we did get one more taste of what’s to come in a gorgeous new cinematic featuring Anduin and Thrall discussing recent visions and a strange voice calling to them, before finally addressing the literal giant sword in the room: yes, the giant sword that Sargeras plunged into Azeroth at the end of the Legion expansion is finally getting dealt with. Anduin and Thrall note that the sword was clearly aimed at something…hinting at the adventure to come.

The current expansion, Dragonflight, has been met with enthusiasm from the community, especially in its new dragonriding mount system. Our own reviewer gave the expansion a 7/10 at its initial launch, calling it “a sharply-written and breathtaking experience for the first few dozen hours, but suffers from somewhat threadbare endgame options.” Notably, subsequent patches since have expanded that endgame. Patch 10.2, Guardians of the Emerald Dream, is planned to drop next week and will include a new raid, a new zone, and numerous new quests, items, events, and other updates.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Today at Blizzcon, Blizzard teased an upcoming expansion to Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, which will include a brand new, never-seen-before in Diablo class. It’s coming in late 2024.

We didn’t get too many details about Vessel of Hatred beyond that, though we did learn it will take place in Diablo 2 region Nahantu, and will concern the fate of Mephisto and his plans for Sanctuary.

There will be no salvation in the light.

The #VesselofHatred expansion comes to #DiabloIV in late 2024 🐺 pic.twitter.com/OQQ3ZZU9HU

— Diablo (@Diablo) November 3, 2023

Diablo 4 has been on a roll lately, with a successful season of vampire-themed content in Season of Blood. We’ve loved the game since launch, giving it a 9/10 and calling it a “stunning sequel with near perfect endgame and progression design that makes it absolutely excruciating to put down.” Its most recent patch, 1.2.1, made respecs a lot easier for players. Meanwhile, players are still hard at work trying to solve the mystery of the game’s secret Cow Level.

Developing…