When I was a kid, there were some games I only knew through magazines. I never played them, but they were all over the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly and Nintendo Power, so I knew everything about them anyway. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee was firmly a “magazine game” when it was released for the GameCube in 2002.
I even had a free poster of it on my wall as a kid, one I kept hung up even after a wave of middling reviews eventually dropped. Historically, games like that aren’t prime candidates for remasters. They’re left to become rare collectibles found at retro game conventions while canon classics receive countless double dips on modern platforms.
So what a delight it is that Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered now exists, in all of its messy glory. Atari’s surprising revival brings back a quintessential magazine game, rescuing it from its cult-classic destiny with a makeover and online multiplayer in tow. Does it finally prove 2002’s unimpressed critics wrong?
It’s still the same messy and shallow fighting game in some ways. But the purpose of a remaster like this shouldn’t be to engineer a redemption arc; all games, even the ones you never experienced beyond their box art, deserve to be preserved and celebrated. Developed by Pipeworks in 2002, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is a 3D brawler where players duke it out with a roster of rubbery kaiju.
It’s a mix between arcade classic Rampage and Super Smash Bros., as you brawl your way through destructible cities using directional attacks. Despite receiving a few strong reviews at release from the likes of Nintendo Power and IGN, it largely earned middling scores from critics who took issue with its lack of depth. History has already repeated itself in 2026: the remaster currently has almost exact same Metacritic score as the original game. (73 for the original, 72 for the remaster.) Having spent hours with the Pipeworks’ faithful remaster, the consistent reaction tracks.
Despite looking shinier, the new version wears all of its predecessor’s warts like a badge of honor. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee remains a gleefully silly button masher that’s built for parties. Even now, there’s plenty of immediate pick-up-and-play fun that comes with stepping into Godzilla or Megalon’s rubber boots and smashing up Tokyo.
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