As the sequel to 2002's Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, Godzilla: Save the Earth offers the obligatory increase in playable characters and maps, yet doesn't do much to improve the core gameplay experience. You still get to pick from among a wide selection of favorite monsters from the Godzilla universe and duke it out with as many as 4 total players, but with clunky controls and slow, plodding action, this is one fight you'll want to skip.

Godzilla: Save the Earth is at its heart a blend of fighting and wrestling. There are a total of 18 monsters to play as, the majority of which need to be unlocked, that include King Ghidorah and Jet Jaguar along with several forms of Godzilla himself. Then once you pick a character, you're dropped into a fairly large 3D city and pitted against another monster (or several, depending on the mode you're playing). Every character has their own distinct moves, from kicks, punches and tail swipes to missiles and energy beams, but overall the total number of fighting maneuvers you can pull off is very limited. Because of this, the fighting engine isn't very robust and the gameplay feels shallow.

Much of the strategy in the game thus comes from knowing how to navigate around the city and taking advantage of power-ups that are scattered around. At any point, you can choose to disengage from the enemy and roam around the city. You can pick up health packs, energy packs (that charge up the energy meter and allow you to do special moves), an AirStrike power-up that calls in a bomber, and lastly a Rage power-up. Rage is akin to GameBreaker in the NBA Street games in that it can really turn the tide of the match. All attacks become stronger, and you also can execute a powerful super move unique to each character.

When you first hear of Godzilla and think of huge beasts battling it out, it sounds pretty cool. But in actuality, the dreadful, sluggish pace of the action really drags it down. It's not that there's slowdown or framerate issues, but the monsters themselves just have slow animation. Controlling these giant beasts as they lumber around the screen is a very clunky experience. You might argue that they move slowly because they're so huge. Fine, a little reality is nice (keeping in mind that we're talking about dinosaur-like beasts that eat helicopters in modern Tokyo). But explain this: how can they jump into the air so quickly then? It's amusing and flat-out startling the first time you push the jump button. They spring into the air with agility not unlike those of athletic NBA players. If the actual fighting had that same fluidity, the pacing and excitement of the game would have increased tenfold.

That's not the only idiosyncrasy in the animation. Whenever you push a button to pick up an enemy for a throw, the enemy turns stiff and magnetically gets drawn into your hands. Then, once hoisted into the air, the enemy loses all animation and turns as still as stone. Not very great animation, but it sure is unintentionally funny.

Another big issue I have with the game is that the player never actually feels the power of being a giant monster that can tear apart the city with his hands. With all the fighting between the creatures, the city is at the mercy of the monsters. All the buildings are destructible, and most can even be picked up and thrown at enemies. But upon its destruction, every single building quietly collapses into rubble with the same exact animation. Jumping into the water triggers only small splashes and ripples. When Godzilla pounces into the ocean, I expect a tsunami to erupt and flood the city. If I play a Godzilla game, I expect to feel like Godzilla. Instead, we only have weak effects that don't come anywhere close to conveying the sheer size of these monsters.

The visuals in the game are lackluster as a whole, though I did like the character models. Monsters have detailed scaly skin, and the robots have shiny metal armor. Audio is dreadfully average, with B-movie music and weak sound effects. The Godzilla roar and similar roars from the other characters could have been much improved to be more fleshed out and frightening.

The single player mode in this game is largely an afterthought. The only reason you'll be playing it is to unlock extra characters and maps. Campaign mode is simply a series of 1-on-1 fights with a couple challenges thrown in. These challenges are trivial mini-games such as bowling by throwing boulders at enemies or protecting a skyscraper by blasting UFOs. There's also a survival mode and the opportunity to play the challenges separately, but really, these are all filler for Melee mode, which is the main mode of the game.

Melee allows up to four players to battle in a variety of cities, including real ones like LA and Seattle. Four-player was the highlight of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, and that's the case here. So if you have a couple friends over, there are a few hours of fun to be had with the game trying out all of the characters. Even so, after a while the repetitiveness of the game starts sinking in, and you'll want to move onto something else. Xbox Live play is also a feature and the game plays smoothly online with up to four player support, although the last time I checked, a whopping 2 people were playing online. It probably wasn't such a good idea to release this game the same exact day as Halo 2.

I am disappointed with Godzilla: Save the Earth because the game could have been really awesome and Pipeworks Software should have done a lot more with the license. The main focus of improvement should be on quickening the pace of the action and on giving the player a true experience of what it would be like to be Godzilla. This means more extravagant effects and a bigger scale of destruction. Even if it's over-the-top, it would at least be better than its current state. Godzilla: Save the Earth has a lot of potential that can hopefully be fulfilled in its sequel. As it is though, you're better off celebrating Godzilla's 50th anniversary this year by revisiting his classic movies rather than playing this game.