Editorials
King of the Consoles: 7 of the Best ‘Godzilla’ Games
Godzilla has managed to remain relevant for 65 years, and not even Matthew Broderick could destroy the giant walking nuke. It’s stomped to a run of more than 30 feature films in that time. Naturally, a giant monster destroying things and battling other giant monsters is well suited to video games, so Godzilla has had quite a few of those to its name too, and with Godzilla: King of the Monsters arriving in cinemas soon, we thought it would be a fine time to list some of the best Godzilla games ever made.
Much like the films, there’s good, bad, and pretty ugly ones over the years (2014’s Godzilla game was certainly all three). The best Godzilla games captured the spirit of the radioactive behemoth to some degree, even if they weren’t exactly ‘great’ games.
So here you go, seven of the best Godzilla games, without a Godzooky in sight.
City Shrouded in Shadow (2017) PS4 -Japan Only
Granzella, created of the extremely undervalued Disaster Report series, survival horror, but against natural disaster rather than monsters or ghosts. Here it took that formula to the next level with City Shrouded in Shadow.
Rather than playing as the monsters, you play as human characters. You must try to escape the carnage caused by the many legendary monsters trashing the place. Godzilla’s roster of behemoths is bolstered by characters from other prominent series including Ultraman and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
To play as a human witnessing the destruction Godzilla is causing firsthand is a fairly unique twist among the Godzilla games made over the years. While the game is a tad clunky, it works well at replicating the peril of escaping city-smashing giants.
Sadly, the game has yet to see the light of day outside Japan. So importing and winging it on the Japanese text is currently your best and only option.
Godzilla: Monster of Monsters (1988) NES, Famicom
Monster of Monsters is debatably the first genuinely good Godzilla game, and while it hasn’t aged too well in gameplay terms, it does still look the business for an 8-bit title.
A 2D side-scroller, Monster of Monsters allowed players to control Godzilla and Mothra as they team up to fight back against alien invaders who have roped a bunch of other Toho monsters into fighting on their behalf, (a surprisingly) common theme in the Godzilla film series. The hub resembles a chess board, which Godzilla and Mothra must clear by finishing their attached levels and defeating the monsters on them.
Godzilla’s name may be on the marquee, but this game featured monsters from a whole host of Japanese sci-fi films, including The Mysterians, Frankenstein Conquers the World, and Space Amoeba.
Godzilla (2014) PS3, PS4
Given this is the newest on this list of the best Godzilla games, surely it’s the ultimate Godzilla game? Alas, it’s a disaster. It looks a generation behind visually speaking, and doesn’t balance the rather treacly combat with fair threats. But importantly, it often feels like a celebration of the franchise and surprisingly true to the battles of the Toho films. You can trash cities and fight monsters as not only Godzilla in several of his designs, but also Rodan, Battra, King Ghidorah, Gian, Mothra, and more.
It also features online multiplayer, which is honestly an absolute hoot.
If you can find it cheap, there’s some joy to it. Unfortunately for those in need of that catharsis, you can’t kick the shit out of Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla.
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (2002) Gamecube, Xbox
Arguably, Pipeworks Software made the best Godzilla games. Destroy All Monsters Melee is often cited as the proof alongside the follow-up Save the Earth.
This was a brawler-style game where you fight other monsters in order to release them from the control of evil alien race the Vortaak. They have enslaved the kaiju in order to take control of Earth. Eleven classic monsters from the Godzilla series were playable including the first-ever monster rival to Godzilla, Anguirus, and Godzilla 2000‘s Orga.
Godzilla: Save the Earth (2004) PS2, Xbox
The follow-up to Destroy All Monsters Melee takes place a couple of years after the events of that game. It builds on all it did right with new modes, and mechanics. It also adds Mothra, Jet Jaguar, and Battra to the roster.
It’s not a huge leap from Destroy All Monsters Melee. It does smooth many of its rougher edges.
Super Godzilla (1993) SNES
As with the 2014 Godzilla game, Super Godzilla had plenty for the hardcore. As a game, it’s a bit less enthralling. You simply aim a dot around a rather basic map, while animated images of Godzilla appear above that reflect your actions. Mercifully when it came to fighting other monsters you get a 2D fighter template.
For the time, the game captured the sound design of the movies. That was pretty much unprecedented at that point. The story is utterly bonkers too. Aliens give powers to monsters and Godzilla having to go on a quest to become strong enough to best the threat of Mecha-King Ghidorah and later, Bagan.
Godzilla: The Series (1999) Gameboy Color
If one good thing came out of 1998’s infamous Godzilla movie, then it was the animated series that followed it. It brought back the redesigned King of the Monsters and let him fight other Kaiju in a largely unrelated plot to the film. It just makes sense really. There’s a licensed video game of course, because it was still the 90s. While basic, this side-scrolling fighter lets you wallop monster and machine alike as Godzilla in portable form.
What do you think are the best Godzilla games? Let us know in the comments!
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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