Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered
Review
Less was More
by Alex Moretti
reviewed on PC
Camera issues return
What I loved about the original Gamecube version of Destroy All Monsters Melee was that if you were far enough towards the edge of the map while a power up spawned close to the other end, the camera wouldn't expand out far enough, creating an invisible barrier that kept your opponent from being able to reach it.
While I loved this in the original, it was a novelty. In 2026, it kind of feels dated. I would have appreciated it if there were some customisation options that let you pick between the classic gameplay and a newer mode without those camera restrictions. While on the subject, the game could have used more customisation options in other areas, such as being able to control how many power-ups you want to spawn per round and which power-ups appear more often.
One thing that was updated was the way in which you unlock characters. In the original game, apart from the standard fighting, you also had an adventure mode which you had to complete multiple times to unlock all the combatants. Here Adventure mode returns, however you also have modes called Adventure Gauntlet and Adventure Challenge. Adventure Gauntlet features a set of three other monsters fighting with and against you to see who comes out on top, and Adventure Challenge mode which is an endurance mode that does not save your progress and won’t give you any continues.
Unlockable characters
On top of this the way in which you unlock monsters is also different. Once you complete a fight in any of the Adventure modes you will receive research points. By combining these research points with other objectives, you can unlock certain monsters. I liked this as it felt new, but I still would have liked it if you could unlock them all like in the original game. What the developers could have done was made it so that you could unlock the other Kaiju just by fighting, but encourage you to complete other activities to unlock them faster.
This remaster also presents a level up system. Each Kaiju can increase their HP or other stats that can help them in fights. However these upgraded stats are restricted to the singleplayer mode and can't be used during online play - which makes sense.
Satisfying remake
I had a lot of fun with this brawler, while it is by no means a masterpiece, the 16 hours that I spent trying to unlock everything and playing against fellow kaiju fanatics online did manage to satisfy me a lot more than what I thought a remake of a game of this calibre would provide.
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8.3
fun score
Pros
Completing additional activities to unlock monsters is fun
Cons
Same camera issues as the 2002 version
