©Atari ©Pipeworks
As we loom ever closer to the November 3rd, 2026, release of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered, the remaster of the iconic GameCube and Xbox game that captured all of our hearts in the early 2000s, fans now have the opportunity to play a demo of the game. Available on Steam, the demo was launched on October 15th and will only be available until October 27th. I myself grew up playing the original game on my Xbox as a kid and booting it up once again as an adult was certainly surreal. I have been excited for this game’s release ever since it was announced, and I am happy to give my first impressions of the demo and give fans a clearer picture of what is to come!
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered sports a brand new cinematic intro, similar to the original game but nonetheless makes it its own. This intro features many of the playable monsters and gives each a proper chance to shine in the spotlight, particularly Mechagodzilla III and Destoroyah. Find it linked here!
Here, find some screenshots of the new menus and character select screens. Right now, only Godzilla, Gigan, and King Ghidorah are playable, and for each one the player can view a description of the monster, their nickname, and what faction they belong to, “Earth Defenders” or “Alien Invaders.” You can also view full move lists and combos with inputs by navigating the interface. All these changes and extra details are great to see and will make things easier for players to learn the game.
Nonetheless, as to gameplay, the game is plenty of fun even when you don’t really know what you are doing. Pressing buttons and charging your beam feels great! The question many will probably ask is if the gameplay has large differences from the original. My answer is pretty much no, but one thing I would like to say is that this game feels a bit clunkier than the original. That is not a bad thing. The original was very fun and arcade-like, but this game’s clunkiness serves the purpose of controlling giant kaiju. It is more immersive, in that sense, especially when you are going around destroying buildings.
Do the combos lean towards a more competitive edge not seen before? I personally do not think so. The combos are button combinations and do not involve difficult motion inputs or canceling like a standard fighting game combo. The expanding on combos and providing a list of moves to the player serves more to creating a more fluid fighting experience with more individual player variety and expression. It is overall a good gameplay add-on, albeit I am sure there will be some optimal jank that gets exploited later down the line for comedic effect.
The current game modes available right now in the demo are destruction, practice, custom battle (either destruction or versus), and online. In destruction mode, you only have one city option, Seattle, But in custom battle mode, while still in Seattle, you have multiple options to change the fighting zone and the ambience. The zones available are Stadium, Space Needle and Complete. The ambiences available are Clear, Hazy, Overcast, and Moonlit. Game modes that are unavailable currently but will be in the full game are Adventure and Survival.
There also seems to be multiple gameplay aspects that are in addition, such as a character XP system where your monster can level up, “Research Points,” and finding hidden Gallery Coins to unlock “Sightings.” Also, when the fight begins and the monster is being introduced, a banner appears under them with their name and nicknames. A really cool change that I enjoy a lot, check out the screenshots below! Loading screens are also updated, featuring multiple new graphics and trivia about aspects of the game. See screenshots!
Finally, graphically, this game looks great and has many higher tier graphical options for those playing on PC with higher end rig. However, the system requirements are not all that rigorous, and a mid level or moderate computer system can easily run it. The recommended minimum requirements per Steam are as follows:
“Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64-bit, Windows 11 preferred
PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
MEMORY: 16 GB RAM
GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GTX 1060 6 GB / AMD RX 580 8 GB, DirectX 12 / Shader Model 6 capable”
The demo itself is also only a 2.1 GB download, so fans can quickly play the game without worrying about space or a long download.
Overall, first impressions are very positive. The remaster is very close to the original, but does what a remaster should do, and adds a ton of things to make accessibility and interface more polished and modern. I look forward to the game’s full release to dive more into these new additions.
It is great that Pipeworks and Atari came together to release an accessible demo of the game on Steam to give players the chance to try out the game and see what they have been cooking. Things are looking great as we move towards the November 3rd release (Godzilla day!), and who would be more fitting to challenge GTA VI this month than the King of the Monsters?!
