REVIEW: ‘Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered’ Is Retro Through And Through

At its core, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered is another instance of publishers capitalizing on nostalgia for the 2000s era of video games. Kaiju fondly remember their childhoods crashing Godzilla and Rodan into each other on the PlayStation 2 – and the remaster delivers on that. But memories are often rose colored. A game from 2002 that commits to staying a game from 2002 is going to play like a game from 2002. 

As the title suggests, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered puts players in the costumes of some of Toho’s most iconic kaiju and lets them battle each other in city-sized arenas. Each monster has moves and powers in line with their film appearances that they can unleash on other monsters and the arena itself. When not smashing each other’s faces, players can put a monster into destruction mode, which focuses on destroying the arena for points. 

Apropos of anything else, having easy access to a nearly 25-year-old licensed game at all is a positive. While games using licensed IP have always been in the medium’s DNA, the early 2000s mark a shift in quality that millennials fondly remember. Of course, licenses expire, and those games can become lost to time and financial speculators. When a game like Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered opens up the chance to play on modern hardware, everyone wins. 

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered lives on nostalgia.

That said, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered isn’t exactly the same game from 2002. Instead of porting the game to current platforms, Pipeworks Studios (the same studio behind the original) has effectively remade the game in Unreal Engine 5.

The effort shows all over Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered. UI, especially in battle, is far more modern and clean. Visuals are consistent in a way that simply upscaling a game cannot maintain. The models of Godzilla and the other kaiju are very appealing, looking like highly detailed figures. Arenas contain various districts of buildings, vehicles, and even weather and time-of-day modes that don’t struggle to render. 

However, there is a case to be made that despite the use of the word “remaster,” this Godzilla game is more of a remake than the original.  This is not necessarily a dealbreaker by any reasonable metric, but it should be taken into consideration for purists. If you’re the kind of person who has issues with tweaks to rereleases in games, something will almost certainly not be satisfying. 

Not for lack of trying on the part of Pipeworks Studios and Atari. Despite the blurring of lines between remaster and remake, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered firmly commits to the former in practice. Gameplay options and mechanics work very hard to invoke the feeling of playing in your childhood living room. 

Arena fighters trend more casual than a traditional fighting game, and Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered is no different. The kaiju all have movesets and combos you can learn if you want to put your mind to it, but simple buttons for swinging with your hands (or the closest approximation), kicking, or using specific appendages are usually enough. It isn’t too difficult to move around the arena and put a lot of pressure on an opposing monster until the battle is over. 

No matter the actual mode being played, all there is to do in Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered is be a monster and smash up some stuff. Sometimes it’s another monster, and sometimes it’s the environment. Doing so is plenty satisfying for an evening with friends or a couple of rounds on a Steam Deck during downtime. Especially given the reasonable $30 price tag – the Nintendo Switch 2 version is $40 – that’s not bad. 

Yet, that really is it. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered harkens back to a different time. In 2002, being a game that a kid played for a couple of hours before bed was more than enough. Now, kids that same age have far deeper and more content-dense options. Not even Godzilla super fans are likely going to log hundreds of hours in-game, despite the polish.

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters doesn’t offer much for players looking for anything new in the franchise beyond the 2002 release. 

There isn’t much new for those fans either. Outside of switching out the Mechagodzilla being used, there are no new monsters. A new gallery mode has entries that have to be unlocked, which is a nice-to-have but is only so compelling on its own. Given the work to recreate this game, it’s a little disappointing to not have anything from the rest of Godzilla‘s history that came after 2002 make an appearance. 

Online play does give some extra legs for those who don’t have folks who can come over to play. There likely will not be a robust scene that forms, though. Arena fighters are often radioactive to hardcore fighting game players. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered doesn’t have the options to fine-tune the experience for that crowd, even if they wanted to try. 

They really don’t make them like this anymore, though. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered is unashamedly retro. For Godzilla fans, especially now adult millennials, this remaster ticks all the right boxes. It’s incredibly satisfying to pick a favorite monster and tear through some buildings on the way to slap another monster. At the same time, that dedication to preserving those memories comes at a cost. That dichotomy may become far more common as more and more ’00s games make their way back to modern-day. 

Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered releases November 3rd, 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and Steam.