But, figuring out how to play it and being able to make it to the end didn't mean it was one of my all-time favorite video games. It served as a nice enough distraction, I found the concept of "Super Godzilla" himself to be really cool, and as a fan, it was an interesting thing to find and play, but the flaws and the lack of true replay value, which was obvious even to an eleven-year old, eventually led to me not playing it for many, many years. In fact, up until I fired it up again to do this review, I can't tell you the last time I played it, but I had remembered liking it fair enough, despite its flaws, and I had even felt that James Rolfe hadn't given it that fair of a shake when he talked about it in the Angry Video Game Nerd episode he did on Godzilla games. However, upon playing it again, while I still have a fair amount of nostalgia for it, I now feel that he didn't go into it enough, as there are way more strikes against it that he never even mentioned: portions of the game are very tedious, the combat system, even when you do get a bit of a handle on it, can be very frustrating to deal with, as the enemy monsters often feel like they have an unfair advantage, and there are a lot of aspects of the game that are so cheap that it makes you realize that they designed it the way they did to try to get the most of a game that's rather short (just six levels, in fact). As a result, childhood memories and nice graphics and sound effects, for the most part, aside, I can ultimately can say that this is not really a good game.
The plot of the game is a very typical Godzilla movie scenario: aliens are attacking the Earth, controlling monsters to do their dirty work, and a small group of people have gained control of Godzilla in order to guide him into defeating the aliens (if you don't press start right away on the title screen, you get an animatic detailing the game's story). While you control Godzilla, it's made clear from the outset that the commands you're giving him are actually coming from a human craft, specifically the Super X-2 (from Godzilla vs. Biollante), that's following him, a go-between that unintentionally takes the notion of controlling a video game character to an almost meta level in some sense. The four members of the group of people controlling Godzilla, who are represented by icons next to the text boxes, are about as bland and inconsequential as 90% of the human casts that you get in the movies. You have an unnamed commander who gives you various orders and the specifics of a given mission (his icon kind of reminds me of a mustached Akira Takarada); Professor Ogata (named after a character from the original movie), who built the Godzilla controller and often comes up with data and carries out research on the monsters' biology, eventually coming up with a way to transform him into Super Godzilla; Taniguchi, who rides in the aircraft from where Godzilla is controlled; and Miss Yano (makes me think of Miki Segusa, the recurring psychic character in the "Heisei" era of Godzilla movies), a researcher who also rides in the aircraft and reports data. Also, the aliens controlling the other monsters are one-dimensional bad guys who are attempting to destroy mankind and take over the Earth for no reason other than because they can. Obviously, deep story and characters weren't high on the game designers' list of priorities but they could have at least taken the opportunity to make the gameplay better.
Said gameplay is broken up into two modes, the first of which is "movement mode." Here, you actually move Godzilla through the stage maps, making your way through various mission objectives and towards the battle with the enemy monsters. In both modes of gameplay, the screen is split horizontally, with the top and bottom serving two different functions. In the case of movement mode, the top half is an animatic of Godzilla moving through the environment in various angles and directions, while the bottom half serves as an area map. Godzilla is indicated on the map by a big blue dot, while the enemy monsters are a reddish-purple, and the map also indicates the position of types of terrain, various hazards, and where items and supply bases can be found. He can move smoothly through paved, urban areas and flat spots in the countryside, but while he can smash his way through buildings and mountaintops that get in his way, it depletes his energy (which, as I said before, sucks), so it's best to find the clearest path possible. There are boundaries where you can't go, as the control waves don't reach that far, and walking through shallow and very deep water really slows you down, adding to the rather tedious nature of this part of the game. Land mines, tanks, and missile launchers also show up on the map when you get within a certain number of steps near them and you take slight damage when they explode on you or fire on you; on the plus side, you can crush the latter two without taking damage. Also, starting with the second level, each one has a mothership spaceship hidden somewhere that, when you find it, you can face it in battle mode and destroy it. While doing so is not required to beat a given level, it is something you should consider, as I'll elaborate on in a bit.
On the map screen, blue squares with a dot in the middle indicate bases where Godzilla's energy can be restored to a certain amount (the top screen animatic of him doing so is akin to the moment in The Return of Godzilla, or Godzilla 1985, when he attacks a nuclear power plant to absorb its energy), whereas yellow ones are where either helpful items or pieces of information can be found. The items vary and either be used on the spot or are carried over into battle mode, and as the game goes on, you'll find yourself roaming the area to grab as many items as you can before the battles (unfortunately, you can only hold four at a time). Items that can be used on the spot consist of a warp item, which transports you to another part of the level (this can be sometimes be a hindrance, though, depending on the level); a capsule that restores some of your energy, not unlike those refueling stations; an invincible item, which makes Godzilla impervious to damage for a short time; and freeze time, which stops the game's timer. Items that you take into battle with are represented by different-colored, atom-like orbs: blue ones restore a good chunk of your health; yellow ones completely restore your health; green ones make Godzilla invulnerable to the enemy monster's attacks for a time; and red ones raise Godzilla's fighting spirit faster, allowing you to utilize more powerful attacks. Going back to spots on the map screen, a couple of stages have orange-colored squares with center dots which indicate important points in their progression, and in the last pair of stages, squares with an "S" in the center indicate where you can find the special energy that will help in turning you into Super Godzilla.
There are a lot of reasons to criticize movement mode, mostly because of how long and tedious it can be. Godzilla has never been known for moving all that fast or agile but, when you have to navigate your way through some rather long stages, plodding through stretches of water that slow you down even more, maneuvering around buildings and mountains to keep from taking unnecessary damage, you can start to get really antsy. Speaking of which, as James Rolfe said, the idea of Godzilla taking damage from causing destruction, one of the things he's best known for, is also ridiculous and is just a means of keeping the player constrained. I can understand taking damage, albeit slightly, from being fired upon, stepping on landmines, and walking through high-tension wires, but getting hurt from tearing down structures and the like is pushing it. Plus, you sometimes have to change Godzilla's direction within only one or two moves along a path, and the control can get stiff enough to where it's a pain to do so. Another aspect that exacerbates the tediousness of this part of the game is how, starting with the second level, you're constantly attacked by alien spaceships that you have to engage in battle mode. They're very easy to take out, as you need only hit them with one shot of Godzilla's atomic blast, and each "fight" with them typically lasts only five or ten seconds tops, but what's annoying is that they happen constantly. If you've ever played an RPG where enemy encounters happen frequently and with no warning or, more specifically, that Jaws game on the NES where you often can't move an inch on the map screen without having to fight off a bunch of attacking sea creatures, then you know what I'm talking about. You'll be trying to make your way through the level to an important objective or to the battle with an enemy monster, when you suddenly get thrown into one of these fights. After only five minutes, maybe less, you'll be so sick of these fights that you'll be actively avoiding any part of the terrain that can really slow you down so you don't have to deal with them as much. The good thing is, like I said before, if you find and destroy the mothership that each level has, the smaller spaceships will stop bugging you, but that only adds to the amount of time you have to spend navigating through each level, which sucks even more because there is a time limit. While the time limits are often lenient enough to where you can do everything that you need to, they still add to the pressure and they're carried over into the battle modes as well, so unless you can find one of the time freeze items, you have to complete every single aspect of a stage in a limited window.
Movement mode may be tedious and slow, but at the very least, it's straightforward, which is more than what you can say for battle mode, as this is unlike any other combat system you're likely to come across and if you don't know what you're doing, you'll die before you realized something went wrong. Again, the screen is split horizontally, with Godzilla and the enemy monster shown in battle up above, while the lower half displays both monsters' energy meters, the attack and item window in the center, and their fighting spirits, represented as two fluctuating bars, on top. The latter are the key to battling, as you have to get Godzilla's fighting spirit as full as possible, punch your opponent, and fall back, which enables you to cycle through the various attacks. You have to advance towards your opponent to raise the fighting spirit but also you have to keep an eye on theirs, because they'll attack at the slightest opportunity when it's high. If you get hit before you can attack, it cancels out the window and usually gives the enemy an opportunity to launch their own attack. If you press down on the control pad, Godzilla goes on the defensive, and if you hold it down, his defensiveness increases in strength. But, while this prevents the enemy from launching an attack, it also causes your fighting spirit to drop, so you have to really strategize. When the attack window comes up, you get the option to use one of four different attacks, depending on how high your fighting spirit is. You can do a tail whip for a little bit of damage, a body slam or a headbutt (whichever Godzilla does is completely random) for more considerable damage, the atomic blast, and, if you raise your fighting spirit into the high range, the hyper atomic blast, which does the most damage. You also sometimes get a question mark box which, if chosen, will make Godzilla execute any attack at random, though this isn't always a good thing, as some of the monsters are invulnerable to certain attacks. Whenever you or the enemy launches an attack, you get some interesting cutscenes of the attacks in action, which are some of the game's most impressive attributes from a graphics standpoint. If you press the L Button, you bring up any items that you acquired in the level, as well as the option to escape if it's clear that you're not going to win and need an opportunity to refuel your energy and pick up some more items.
Late in the game, when you have the ability to become Super Godzilla, you become completely invincible to all of the hazards in movement mode, your fighting spirit becomes much stronger and you don't have to worry about losing it when you defend yourself, enemy attacks deal less damage, and you yourself, obviously, deal attacks with much more destructive power. The tail attack now involves it being charged up with energy that you can fling at your enemy in the form of a ball, a far more devastating body ram, a more potent atomic blast, and, craziest of all, the Nova Beam, which Super Godzilla fires out of his stomach and has the image of his face mixed in with it. On top of everything else, Super Godzilla has a much more effective punch, which involves him swinging while his arm is engulfed in energy and it increases your fighting spirit more effectively. Super Godzilla pretty much breaks the penultimate monster battle if you choose to become him there and he's absolutely required in order to defeat the final boss.
However, as cool as Super Godzilla is, when you're not in that form, battle mode, like movement mode, has more cons than it does pros. Not only is the combat system bizarre and takes some time to get used to but it feels like the enemies have an unfair advantage over you, as their fighting spirits fluctuate crazily, while yours gradually builds and is quickly sapped when you take a hit. Moreover, while you have to go in close and punch, they can ram you from afar. The attack window can also royally screw you over, as you have to keep moving back in this small space to cycle through the various moves, giving you only so much time to get to the move you want before you either can't go back any further or the enemy attacks and cancels it out. In the heat of the battle, when you're desperate to get any type of hit in, you can very easily select the attack that certain enemies are immune to, which not only wastes time but often allows them to strike. It also sucks that all Godzilla can do to strike the enemy in the main screen is punch, because that's really limiting, and it's especially annoying when you're fighting the motherships, as they have a tendency to fly just up or below the range of your punch, making you wish you could either kick or do a small tail swipe as well. You'd think that, if you know that a particularly hard battle is coming in the next level, you can prepare in advance by gathering items up in the previous one but, no. The game eliminates any unused items after a stage is over, meaning that you have to restock before every battle, and that's really shitty when you picked up one of the better items in the previous level. Finally, while the cutscenes of the monsters' attacks are well-done and nice to look at, you can't skip them and they very quickly become tedious and repetitive.
Upon defeating an enemy, you get scored based upon how much energy you had left, how much time was left, and how many buildings you destroyed, the latter of which results in points being deducted. Each score is multiplied by ten before tallying and you get an extra continue each time your score reaches 10,000 points. If you get beaten, you get a "GAME OVER" screen, even though you can still retry if you have any continues left, and what's nice is that, when you choose to continue, you go back into the battle and the enemy's health recovers by a hundred, while you're restored to full health. However, this is not a game where zero continues counts as one last life; once you use up continue number one, it's over and you have to start the entire game over. And no, there's no save feature here, so you have to do it all in one playthrough if you want to beat it. Since this game isn't that long, it's not as egregious as being expected to finish that Jurassic Park game for the Super Nintendo in one go but it's still irksome nevertheless.
From a technical standpoint, Super Godzilla is a well-done game. The graphics are very impressive for the time, looking nice and colorful, with plenty of detail in the environments that you see in the backgrounds of the monster battles, which include the cities of Osaka, the Yokohama district of Tokyo, and Tokyo itself, as well as the terrain around Mt. Fuji and Lake Ashino. You don't see as much of the environments behind Godzilla in the top section of movement mode, and the overall visual scope is a bit limited, but what you do see still looks really nice, and the monsters themselves all look like perfectly realized 16-bit representations of how look in the movies. That said, though, there are some instances where I don't like the way Godzilla looks. They got the familiar form of the "Heisei" design that was being used during this era down pat and there are shots of him that look really cool, but in some cutscenes, like when he shoots his atomic blast or gets hit by an enemy attack, when he's charging right at the camera, and in a shot of him swinging his tail, he sometimes looks a bit dopey to me. However, there's nothing bad that I can say about Super Godzilla himself. The name may sound silly and uncreative when you first hear it but, when you see it, you can easily overlook it, as it just looks, with Godzilla now being all bulked up with muscles and armor, having crazy powerful attacks, horns on his massive shoulders, a crest on his head, and Predator-like mandibles around his mouth. (If you're thinking he looks like SpaceGodzilla, you're not wrong, as that design was heavily inspired by how this looks.) And going back to something I said earlier, the animation is pretty good, with the cutscenes of the monster fights coming off as nicely stylized and cinematic, taking place in rectangular spaces that resemble widescreen. However, I must say that the translators seem to have put about as much as thought and care into the characters' dialogue as they often do when writing an English dub script for one of the movies. You shouldn't expect profound text from something like this anyway but some of it is jaw-droppingly bad, like when, after you defeat King Ghidorah, the alien commander says, "You controlled Godzilla to fight against King Ghidorah. You Earthlings are tougher than we thought," to which your commander responds, "You are the ones who used King Ghidorah to destroy the city!" (They also spelt "ones" as "one's" in the text box.) And in the second level, when you reveal the fake Godzilla to actually be Mechagodzilla, Miss Yano, proving how observant and perceptive she is, says, "Oh! That's Mechagodzilla! The enemy was really Mechagodzilla!"
Stage 1: When you start up the game, you get this zoomed-in mapping of the country of Japan, which is how the other stages begin, and you get a bunch of info from the characters, telling you that you're bringing Godzilla ashore in Osaka. You also get the lowdown on enemies that are lurking in the city (i.e., tanks and missile launchers; are the aliens in control of them too or did these people not bother to tell the armed forces that they're in control of Godzilla?), that crashing through buildings will hurt Godzilla, there are energy refueling stations and items to be found on the map, and that you should head straight for the monster that's on the attack. Beginning the stage proper, you come ashore in Section 1-A of the four parts of this map, with the enemy being in either 1-B or 2-B. It's a very basic stage, as you merely have to find your way to the enemy, while dealing with any hazards that get in your way, as well as healing any damage you take and picking up any items you come across to help you in the coming battle. When you track the enemy down, you find that it's King Ghidorah, who enters the battle by destroying a pagoda with its lightning bolts and coming down to rest in front of you. While this fight may be tricky when you first attempt it, upon getting used to the battle system, Ghidorah is actually pretty easy to defeat. It has 600 health, the same number that you start out with, and its only attacks consist of blasting you with one, two, or all three of its heads, which takes off 50, 60, and 80 hit points respectively. It's pretty vulnerable to your attacks, with the tail whip alone taking off 50 hit points, the body ram/headbutt taking off 65, atomic blast taking off 80, and the hyper atomic blast taking off 100. Ghidorah is also the easiest enemy to approach, punch, and back away from to open the attack window, as it only does one ram at a time, while the later enemies can do multiple ones. If you get really good at it, you can defeat Ghidorah without using items whatsoever, except maybe one energy refuel item for emergencies. When you kill Ghidorah, its middle head comes off and bounces on the ground (something that Godzilla does to it in the movie, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah), and after your performance is scored, it's revealed that alien invaders were controlling the monster and that they have more waiting in the wings. After they leave in their spaceship, Prof. Ogata says that he'll study the severed Ghidorah head to see if he can find something of use.
Stage 2: Now, it's off to the area around Mt. Fuji, where a monster is attacking a military base. Said monster is identified as Godzilla, even though he's still under the control of the characters (if you've watched the classic Godzilla movies, you should already know where this is going). The fight that you're heading towards ultimately takes place in Section 2-A but that's inaccessible from where you begin in 1-A, so you have to make your way to 1-B, go up to 2-B, then turn left and make your way to 2-A. On the way, you get ambushed by a UFO, one of an endless stream that will continually attack you until you find and destroy the mothership. Fortunately, said mothership can be found along the path you need to take and once it's down, you can concentrate on the task at hand without worrying about any more distractions (speaking of the motherships, you sometimes get the option while fighting them to use a physical attack, but it's not worth it, as it just dodges everything but an atomic blast). In addition, the enemy monster will warp all over the place until you take out the mothership, so in this first instance, doing so is vital to completing the stage. In any case, once you reach the enemy monster, the battle starts with the curious sight of Godzilla facing down his exact double. However, when you go in and land a single punch, the doppelganger instantly loses all his health and reveals himself to actually be Mechagodzilla. What's interesting here is that, in the game's Japanese version, you face the "Heisei" version of Mechagodzilla, from the movie, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, which came out in Japan the same year as this game, but in the US version, it's the original version from the 70's movies (however, the Heisei version still emits the original hissing screech). This change was supposedly done because it was deemed that the Showa Mechagodzilla was more familiar to people U.S., as Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II hadn't been released here yet (and wouldn't be until 1999), but then again, neither had Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah or Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth and monsters from both of those films are featured here.
The game lures you into a bit of a false sense of security with how relatively easy King Ghidorah was, as Mechagodzilla is a much tougher opponent. While he doesn't have as much health as what you start out with (550 hit points), he has a big advantage in that he can use his force field to deflect your normal atomic blast and then fire a missile from his torso in response, which takes off 50 hit points. His ultimate attack are his laser eye beams, which take off 70, and he can inflict 50 damage with his finger missiles. In addition, on the battlefield, he can ram into you three times in a row, an attack that takes off 30 hit points itself. While hyper atomic blast does really damage him, taking off 80 hit points, it's best to be more methodical and wear him down with a series of tail whips (30) and body rams and headbutts (50). During this battle, it's also best to avoid the random, question mark option in the attack window, as odds are you'll end up using regular atomic blast. You may also want to max out your items before going into battle, as you'll likely need them, as well as prepare to retreat and refuel if you have to, and then, just keep defending yourself and attacking until you finally blow Mechagodzilla to bits. Following the battle, Prof. Ogata tries to contact you to tell you that he's found a difference between King Ghidorah's cells and those of the other monsters, but before he can tell, his signal suddenly dies, leading into your main mission in the next stage.
Stage 3: The aliens have captured the professor and are holding somewhere in the vicinity of Lake Ashino. The first order of business here is to find and rescue him but this can take a while, as there are many bases, marked on the map as orange-colored squares with dots in the center, he could possibly be at and all of the others are fake ones loaded with dynamite that blow up on you when you reach them. The game randomizes which base the professor is being held at in each playthrough, and even though you can get an idea of where to look for him when you reach an information spot in Section 2-B, you still have a large area to search through, with six sections altogether, and there are many areas that are blockaded by extreme high voltage. Inevitably, you have to tear down the electrical towers to cut off a flow of energy to get to something but this, of course, takes away some of your health, and you can also hurt yourself by accidentally walking through the voltage. To make that latter part a tiny bit more difficult, even though Godzilla backs away upon being shocked, he'll walk right back into the voltage if you don't change his direction as soon as the animatic of him doing so is finished. And, like before, you're constantly have to deal with those spaceships, which are especially annoying here because you have to make your way through water, which slows you down and leaves you open to multiple encounters. The mothership is located off the beaten path, in Section 1-A, and you start in 1-B, so you have to make your way to the opposite end of the screen from your starting point, get around a line of mountains and hills, and head down into the center of 1-A, either maneuvering around some voltage or tearing down the towers to get to the ship faster. In any case, once you've found the professor, who explains that he was kidnapped because the aliens wanted his information on Godzilla's cells, Biollante appears in Lake Ashino, specifically in Section 3-A, so you have to make your way over there to confront her (even though they mistakenly refer to her as a male in the dialogue).
Before you face Biollante, though, you better make sure that your health is as close to being topped out as possible and that have plenty of items, as she is really difficult to defeat. When she first emerges from the lake, she has two of her tendrils out in front of her and you have to destroy them before you can reach her. They take about five to seven punches to destroy and, while they're in play, Biollante can use them to whip you, which takes off 60 hit points. However, getting rid of them is the easy part, because once they're gone, she starts making use of her acid sap, which she shoots out of her mouth. That attack absolutely fucks you up, as it takes off a whopping 130 hit points! In addition, she's not hurt by the body ram attack and instead, rams you in response, which inflicts 80 points of damage. It's also best to avoid the random attack generator choice in that regard, as body ramming often comes up there. On top of all that, she's really good at defending herself and coming in for a strike when you least expect. She has 700 hit points in total and your best bet against her is the hyper atomic blast, which takes off 75, as the normal one only does 50 and the tail whip a pathetic 20. And finally, she sometimes sinks beneath the water and pops back up at some random spot. While this gives you an opportunity to raise your fighting spirit by walking all the way to the right side of the screen, Biollante can very easily strike you from under the water, as well as when she surfaces, and cancel out the attack window instantly. In short, this is a long and grueling battle, so you better strap yourself in and prepare to retreat and refuel at least once. After she's been beaten, Prof. Ogata says that he was working on a way to fuse King Ghidorah's cells with Godzilla to increase his power and he then does so in an animatic, increasing your maximum health to 700.
Stage 4: The next stage takes place in the Yokohama district of Tokyo and, at eight sections, this is the largest one yet. The first order of business is to reach and defeat Battra, who's wreaking havoc in the bay area. He's in 4-B and you begin in 1-A, so you already have a long walk ahead of you, and that's compounded by the fact that there's no straight path you can take without having to maneuver around buildings and slog through water. The best path to take is head down from where you start, plow through one lone building sticking out from the bottom of a mass of them, make your way up through the path beyond it, which leads into Section 2-A, continue to the right and head down, following the path over to 1-B, and then use that path to make your way up to 4-B. Another incentive for taking this route is that the mothership is found on the right side of 1-B, and there are a bevy of items found in the lower right part of 1-A that makes your trek to Battra just a tad bit easier.
Regarding Battra, he's more of a pest than a real threat (although I have lost to him), as he only has 550 hit points and his attacks, which consist of shooting you with his eye beams and divebombing you, only cause 50 and 70 damage (it's weird that the physical attack hurts more). What makes him annoying is that, because of his speed and agility, hyper atomic blast is the only thing you can hit him with, as he dodges everything else. In other words, you have to keep your fighting spirit as fast as possible, which isn't easy, given how Battra rams into you every chance he gets and flies up and out of the screen, only to get a cheap shot on you when you least expect it. Because of that, it's best to try to find one or more of the item that makes your fighting spirit easier to raise before heading into this fight; otherwise, there's no real strategy other than to be patient and wear him down. You're not done once you kill Battra, though, because you learn that there's a cocoon housing another one over at Yamashita Park, which is in 4-A. Even though that's right across the way, you still have to go through water, including a path of deep water, to get there, and if you take too long (i.e., if the timer reaches under 350), the larva will turn into another adult Battra and you have to go through the same fight all over again. This Battra has 50 hit points less than the first one but it's still irritating and I've never been able to make it over there in time (yeah, that last image is taken from a playthrough on YouTube rather than one I did). In fact, I didn't think it was possible until I read that it is, so it shows that I just suck.
Stage 5: King Ghidorah is back, having been revived by the aliens as Mecha-King Ghidorah, and is on the attack in Tokyo. You have two ways to go about battling him, both of which will affect how the final stage plays out: you can either head straight for Mecha Ghidorah, who's attacking in Section 4-B, or you can collect three items marked by an "S" on the map that will turn Godzilla into Super Godzilla. Going the latter route will make the ensuing battle easier but will also leave you in quite the pickle for the first part of the final stage, which I'll get into. Also, you're on a time crunch here, as you can't allow the destruction of Tokyo to exceed 50% (you're updated on that every 5% of damage) and the "S" items are scattered far off the beaten path, with two of them being in spots in the far left sections of 2-A and 4-A. Plus, 4-B itself is so full of buildings that you have no choice but to plow through some in order to reach Mecha Ghidorah. Even more annoying on the game designers' part is that they put the mothership out in the water on the far left side of Section 1-A, whereas you start near the middle of 1-B, meaning you really have to go out of your way to reach it, and as if that weren't enough, there's a lot of deep water around it as well. Because of how much time reaching, never mind destroying, the ship takes, it's actually better to just deal with the irritating spaceships and concentrate on taking whichever route you decided in order to reach Ghidorah.
Again, if you decided to become Super Godzilla, the battle with Mecha-King Ghidorah is quite easy, as it basically can't touch you since the potency of its attacks are reduced by 30 hit points or, in the case of its ultimate attack, by half; however, if you decided to fight as normal Godzilla, you better max out your health and grab as many items as you can, because this is the toughest enemy yet. While all of your attacks effective on it, Mecha Ghidorah not only has a hundred more hit points of maximum energy than you do but none of your attacks do that much damage, with the hyper atomic blast only scoring 80 hit points, while the tail whip, body ram, and normal atomic blast only do 35, 50, and 60 respectively. By contrast, its attacks are devastating. Like in the first fight, it mainly fires on you from one, two, or all three of its heads but in this instance, a single head shot does 65 damage and it only increases by ten with each additional head. Like Mechagodzilla, its onscreen hit is a triple ram, which builds up over time and takes of 25 hit points itself, but its worst attack by far is the taser, where it shoots out these electrical grips that clamp onto and electrocute Godzilla. This attack takes off a vital 160 hit points, making Biollante's acid sap attack look like nothing, so when you see that fighting spirit rise rapidly, you'd better either retreat or defend yourself as quick as you can. On top of all that, Mecha Ghidorah is equipped with a special sensor that allows it to detect when you're going to attack, allowing it to rush you and cancel the attack window in an instant. This basically forces you to go with whatever attack comes up first, as Mecha Ghidorah isn't likely to give you an opportunity to choose another one. All you can do here is try to keep calm, retreat and refuel when necessary, and gradually wear Mecha Ghidorah down.
Stage 6: Upon defeating Mecha-King Ghidorah, a bizarre, grotesque mass floats down from the top of the screen, which the aliens identify as their ultimate weapon, Bagan. The creature then gives a demonstration of its power by completely leveling Tokyo in a single attack and with that, the aliens send it to destroy the Diet Building, where the characters' headquarters is stationed. This is where the previous battle comes into play, because if you fought Mecha Ghidorah as regular Godzilla, you can head down to Section 3-B, towards an orange-marked building on the map, where Prof. Ogata will transform you into Super Godzilla. With that, you can then head down to 1-B and fight Bagan. However, if you've already fought as Super Godzilla, the power will wear off afterward and you'll have to stall for time until the Super X-2 arrives with more of the energy. While you can find an invincibility item where you start in 4-B, as well as other items along the way, holding out against Bagan until the craft arrives is really, really hard. When you begin the battle, Bagan evolves from the mass of bio-energy into a horned, demonic monstrosity (that I'm sure had to have inspired the design for Destoroyah later on) that is barely even fazed by Godzilla's attacks, with the hyper atomic blast only doing 30 damage; on the flip side, his weakest attack does 130 damage and it only escalates worse from there. Even his onscreen ram fucks you up, as it takes off 100 hit points itself. Because he does so much damage, it's better to just wait on the far left side of the screen until the Super X-2 arrives, as engaging Bagan will only get you killed fast. Once you become Super Godzilla, the fight becomes doable, albeit still long, as Bagan has 900 hit points and your super attacks, while more effective than normal, only gradually wear him down (the tail attack does 50, the body ram 70, the atomic blast 80, and the nova beam 100). It's best to use the super punch against Bagan every chance you get in order to quickly raise your fighting spirit, as well as deal just that little extra bit of damage, and it makes it easier to go for the powerful nova beam. Bagan attacks with a slash that does 70 damage, a rain down of energy diamonds that causes 90, plasma mouth beam that scores 100, and his onscreen ram does 50 itself, so you still have to take the fight seriously, even if you are Super Godzilla. While it is a good idea to go into the fight with at least one item, all you really have to do is keep at it and, eventually, you'll wear Bagan down and defeat him.
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