GODZILLA: UNLEASHED IN NYC

Atari Unveils it’s New Godzilla Game at New York Comic Con 2007 Author: John “Dutch” DeSentis Source: Atari, Inc. Special Thanks to Jeremiah Cohn and Alissa Bell of Atari, Greg Cordaro, Kevin Frederick

A SciFi JAPAN EXCLUSIVE

The grand entrance to NY Comic Con. Photo by John DeSentis.

This past weekend at New York Comic Con, Godzilla fans jam packed the Classic Media booth for chances to win great raffle prizes, find out the skinny on the new Godzilla DVDs and– most of all– be witness to an early demonstration that Atari was so kind to put together for their upcoming game for Nintendo Wii, GODZILLA: UNLEASHED. The demonstrations were held throughout all three days that the show was going on. At the helm of the demonstrations was Atari representative Jeremiah Cohn. He greeted fans enthusiastically and answered any and all questions that were thrown at him and there were plenty as the demos were highly attended. The footage that was shown was indeed in early and rough form. Much of the artwork, designs, and overall look to the game are still being finalized.

GODZILLA: UNLEASHED Demo Video, courtesy of Atari, Inc.

So just what is the word on GODZILLA: UNLEASHED? Well according to Jeremiah Cohn, the monster models, graphical effects, and fighting systems are being completely re-worked from Atari`s previous Godzilla titles GODZILLA: DESTROY ALL MONSTERS MELEE (2002) and GODZILLA: SAVE THE EARTH (2004) to take full advantage of the new Wii controllers and technology. They haven’t revealed much about the fighting system yet, but there will be a wide variety of attacks and each monster will move and fight in a unique way. That said, the game will still be easy to pick up and play and the fighting will be very intuitive. New features will include: Wii motion controlled beam and breath weapons, Wii motion controlled tail movements, layered actions which will allow monsters to walk, jump, punch, kick and use breath weapons all at the same time, a new grappling system, plus many more new fighting mechanics and features!

Atari representative Jeremiah Cohn gives the fans what they want; a look at the new Godzilla game. Photo by John DeSentis.

As for the selection of monster characters featured in the game, at this point Atari has revealed Godzilla 2000, Kiryu [aka: Mechagodzilla 2003], FINAL WARS style Gigan, and Megalon. There will be at least 16 different monsters total. “Specifically, the developers are working very hard to make sure each monster is unique and has its own attack, movements, and abilities. There will be flying monsters, burrowing monsters, and monsters that come in many shapes and sizes” said Jeremiah Cohn. One news item of particular interest to fans will be that two of the monsters are going to be completely new creatures created by Pipeworks and approved by Toho. Despite the fact that the game is not due out until the holidays this year, Atari is very happy with how fans have been responding to the early demos. Commented Cohn; “It’s really exciting to see how pumped up everyone is about this game already. We hope to keep building excitement over the year until launch!” When asked about the possibility of Atari pursuing more Godzilla related gaming in the future if the current one is a success, Cohn added; “That is definitely a possibility.”