Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered Is An Ode To All Flawed Licensed Games

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Remastered after a two-week break! Originally, this newsletter was supposed to be framed around an email interview with Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered developer Pipeworks, but I am still waiting on their responses. I really wanted to get Remastered back on schedule, though, so I’ve decided to write about the remaster in a different way. When Pipeworks’ comments do come through, I’ll publish that as a bonus newsletter!

If you don’t want to miss out on that and future Remastered newsletters as we near the end of 2026, make sure you subscribe for free. Also, consider supporting me on Ko-fi, as I’m really hoping to double down on and continue to build out this newsletter in the new year

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Isn't Perfect, And That's Okay

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered was a wonderful nightcap to a busy month for me. Hot off the heels of defending my thesis and reviewing several games, I was ready to play something feel-good to help me rest and relax. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered did just that. 

This remaster of a 3D kaiju fighting game is not the most deep or competitive game. In fact, maneuvering its hulking monsters can be quite clunky and chaotic as the difficulty ramps up. Despite that, there was something so utterly simple and charming about playing after a rush of modern game reviews and thesis research into the failures of modern live service games. It reminded me of the flawed licensed games of my childhood that I cherish, an ode to a long left-behind era of gaming for me. 

I’ve repeatedly written about how licensed games were a big part of my early gaming years. Games like SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, The Incredibles, and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 might not be genre or industry-defining games, but they were foundational for me. 

I learned to love 3D platformers thanks to Battle for Bikini Bottom. The Incredibles showed me that great movies could be remixed into entertaining video games, and gave me a deeper appreciation for the ones that pulled that feat off. And no shooter game I ever play will live up to all the fond memories I put into Battlefront 2.

Admittedly, my connection to Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee does not go quite as deep. I did not grow up a major Godzilla fan or play this game religiously. That said, I do remember the game being on rotation whenever I’d tag along to playdates between my brother and one of his childhood friends. If we were not playing Mario Kart: Double Dash or Super Smash Bros. Melee, then Destroy All Monsters Melee was being booted up on GameCube.

The fighter essentially takes the bones of a wrestling game and applies it to giant kaiju. You can suplex, stomp, punch, kick, and throw as Godzilla, King Ghidorah, and all sorts of other kaiju from the franchise. The main attraction is an arcade mode with a paper-thin story about fending off an alien invasion that really just serves as an excuse to fight over and over again. Surprisingly few games let you pick up a building and chuck it at your opponent. More should let you do that.

I’ll admit that my memories of playing this game were buried deep within my consciousness for a long time. But with the recent heater that Godzilla media has been on, it all came flooding back once I played the remaster at Summer Game Fest earlier this year. Having now checked out the final release, Pipeworks and Atari did a great job at preserving how this game felt to play.

The whole game has an Unreal Engine 5 visual upgrade, there is stable online play, and the destruction mode’s map is weirdly connected to an online timer, but other than that, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee was mostly left as-is. That means I would still occasionally get mad when the AI spammed some attack combo I could not quickly respond to because of how slow the game was, but it also made me laugh as I repeatedly suplexed Mechagodzilla and then picked up a building and chucked it at the kaiju.

It offers a straightforward kind of satisfaction that can only stem from an early 2000s licensed game, one that cares more about the player’s moment-to-moment enjoyment rather than delivering an overall genre-defining game. That was incredibly refreshing after a crowded two months of game releases, and during the lull before GTA 6 potentially sets a new standard for AAA titles. 

My willingness to be so accepting of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered, flaws and all, made me reassess how I look back on licensed games. When I really think about many of the foundational licensed games I referenced earlier, they all have issues.

Battle for Bikini Bottom’s controls aren’t nearly as fluid as a game like Super Mario 64, and its levels are wildly inconsistent in the quality of their design. The Incredibles had levels starring Dash that I simply could not beat as a kid. I'll even admit that Battlefront 2’s campaign drops in quality in its second half after a very strong start. 

Despite all of their flaws, I hold nostalgia and love for those games that I simply do not for better games that I have more recently reviewed. Despite that, I also now recognize that my childhood classics are not infallible (something that retro licensed game remasters’ critical reception often reminds us of). 

Even though the release of a game like Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered has the potential to shatter some childhood memories, I instead choose to use it as a reminder that there have always been developers who have punched above their weight and created ambitious games within licensed product constraints.

Is Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered a 3D fighting game I’d recommend over, say, Tekken 8 or the upcoming Virtua Fighter revival? Probably not. Can I recommend it as a silly love letter to classic Godzilla, that can also make for a fun party game and might remind someone of a fond gaming memory all but forgotten? I definitely can.

What's Old Is News

BioWare closure, Indie World, Persona 1 Remake leak, and more

• EA shut down BioWare and canceled the next Mass Effect game, which we’ve since learned was going to be titled Mass Effect Universe. It’s a truly unthinkable and devastating loss for the video game industry, as countless game developers and the games they made have been inspired by the likes of Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins, and Mass Effect 2.
  • Bloomberg reports that EA is choosing to develop Star Wars Battlefront 3 rather than Mass Effect Universe. For GameSpot, I wrote about how Star Wars Battlefront 3 remains a cursed project. 
• Thief: The Dark Project Remastered got a December 3 release date.
• Nintendo held a new Indie World presentation that highlighted some great-looking retro-inspired games that are coming to Nintendo Switch 2:
  • Witchbrook, a new co-op life sim clearly inspired by Harry Potter and Stardew Valley, got a January 28, 2027 release date. 
  • The former Celeste developers at Extremely OK Games revealed City of None, a retro platformer where each of the game’s five sectors has a detailed yet different Game Boy Color-like aesthetic. It’ll be released for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 next year.
  • Tenjutsu, a new roguelike action game from a former Dead Cells developer, showed off some new gameplay and got a 2027 release window.
  • Threads of Time, a new indie RPG clearly inspired by the HD-2D aesthetic of games like Final Fantasy Resonance, got a summer 2027 release window.
  • Petal Runner, an iam8bit-published adventure game inspired by series like Pokémon and WarioWare, got a March 8, 2027 release date. 
  • Bao Bao’s Cozy Cleaning Services is giving Pixel Washer some competition after its shadow drop on Nintendo Switch during the Indie World showcase.
  • Everything is Crab’s Nintendo Switch 2 console port got a January 26, 2027 release date.
• Tribute Games and Dotemu revealed a roguelite Castle Doom mode for the upcoming Marvel Cosmic Invasion: The Siege of Castle Doom expansion.
• Nintendo has established November 1 as Pikmin Day, when it can celebrate that whole franchise. No new game or remake announcements this year, but it is definitely a date to keep an eye on. 
• Footage of a Persona 1 Remake has leaked. Atlus had yet to officially announce this project, as its focus is currently on Persona 4 Revival and Persona 6.
• Skyblivion, a volunteer-driven total conversion mode project trying to recreate Oblivion in Skyrim’s game engine, is now dealing with a lawsuit from a former volunteer.
• Star Wars: Fate of the Galaxy, a fan-made Star Wars Space Combat game made in FreeSpace 2’s Open-Source engine, was finally released in October after over 20 years of development.
• Ubisoft said it’s not currently working on any other Assassin’s Creed remakes in the wake of Black Flag Resynced, but is open to the idea in the future.
• Celeste and Towerfall, two of the best indie platformers ever made, were delisted from Xbox due to the BDS boycott.
• Shrek 2 Remastered was officially announced, and it is out on November 10. 
• Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure: Arcade is a new game that aims to turn the classic 80s movie into an arcade-style beat ‘em up. A crowdfunding campaign on BackerKit is planned for next February.

In addition to Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered, I can finally talk about some of the other games that I have played over the past two months.

Phantom Blade Zero: This action game has already been a massive success, selling over 4 million copies. I understand the hype, as it’s a truly thrilling action game that tries its hardest to make you feel like a badass. Not all the boss fights are created equally, and I never got invested in the story, but this is an easy recommendation for action game fans. You should check out my full review of the game on Respec!

Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember: For But Why Tho? I went to Orange County in October to preview some new Koei Tecmo games. While I’m not typically a Soulslike fan, I enjoyed my time with Wo Long 2, as I think games like Onimusha: Way of the Sword and Phantom Blade Zero are endearing me to the faster-paced, Bloodborne and Sekiro-like strain of Soulslikes. I also checked out some of Attack on Titan 3, which I did not enjoy quite as much.

Faraway: A simple meditative puzzle game about forming constellations, Faraway is the kind of title that shows how much you can strip away from a game’s presentation and still make something great. It is simple, yet so fun and endlessly replayable. Do not let this one fly under your radar.

That's all for Remastered this week. I plan to get this newsletter back on its regular cadence, so look forward to one next Thursday. Subscribe so you don't miss that, and consider supporting me on Ko-fi.