Editorials
From ‘Rampage’ to ‘Monster Hunter’ – The Evolution of Kaiju Video Games
Whether it’s because of the hours we’ve lost in traffic or an unconscious desire to rebel against the unnatural rat race of modern life, there’s an undeniable catharsis in watching gigantic monsters obliterate a metropolitan area on the big screen. Don’t get me wrong, a real life Kaiju incident would probably be regarded with the same severity as a massive terrorist attack, but fictional casualties are a small price to pay for some monster movie fun.
That’s why it makes sense that video games have been trying to emulate these destructive thrills for decades now, with Kaiju having been present in interactive media ever since it was possible to animate a crude little radioactive dinosaur out of 8-bit pixels. And with modern audiences still hungry for giant monster mayhem, we thought that this might be a good time to look back on the evolution of Kaiju in video games.
While Godzilla games are popular and abundant enough that they warrant their own article, it’s generally accepted that the first interactive kaiju experience was in fact an unlicensed Godzilla title. Released back in 1983 on the Commodore 64, the appropriately named “Godzilla” was a primitive strategy game that put players in the shoes of the military as they attempted to thwart the giant monster’s rampage. While it wasn’t exactly a massive hit (possibly because you couldn’t actually play as everyone’s favorite radioactive lizard), this depiction of the giant monster as a deadly force of nature ended up inspiring several other games, such as the NES’s Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum’s Godzilla: The Atomar Nightmare, and, bizarrely enough, elements of Maxis’ original Sim City.
While Godzilla kept consistently getting new titles both in and outside of Japan (from the obscure MSX exclusive Gojira-Kun to the NES’s popular Godzilla: Monster of Monsters), in 1986 we’d also see the first original Kaiju game in the form of Bally Midway’s Rampage arcade cabinet. Boasting a trio of giant monsters inspired by King Kong, Gojira and, weirdly enough, The Wolfman, Rampage was the first fully-realized monster destruction simulator – which is likely why it was such a huge hit.
It almost feels like a playable parody of Kaiju flicks!
Allowing players to level buildings as they ate humans and competed over a high score (and featuring monstrous graphics that actually looked somewhat like the cover art), it’s no surprise that Rampage would go on to become a successful franchise with over seven titles under its belt. Though these titles never flinched when it came to on-screen destruction, the exaggerated monster designs and a cartoony sense of humor kept these citywide demolition derbies from feeling too serious. The movie-inspired series would also come full circle as it eventually spawned its own big-screen adaptation in the form of the criminally underrated Dwayne Johnson vehicle, 2018’s Rampage movie.
The technical advances of the 90s would eventually lead to more complex and action-packed kaiju games, from the one-on-one claymation duels of Atari’s Primal – which featured clear analogues for characters like Godzilla, King Kong and even Anguirus – to SNK’s surprisingly engaging tokusatsu homage, King of the Monsters. That being said, the real golden age of Kaiju games would arrive with the sixth console generation, when polished 3D movement and more advanced hardware made it possible to really bring those cardboard buildings and rubber suits to life.
There were plenty of officially licensed Godzilla titles during this time, like the fondly-remembered Godzilla: Save the Earth or even the GBA’s Godzilla: Domination (as well as other licensed projects, such as the absurdly named Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie), but this era also gifted us with spirited knock-offs like Incognito Entertainment’s War of the Monsters. During the 2000s, these pseudo-wrestling games actually became more popular than the films that inspired them, introducing a whole new generation to the concept of giant radioactive monsters.
Good times were had by all!
Fortunately, these over-the-top brawlers weren’t the only giant monster games available at the time. We also had kaiju-inspired experiences in the form of more experimental titles like Team Ico’s Shadow of the Colossus and Robot Alchemic Drive. While these games didn’t necessarily borrow the narratives tropes and characters of famous Kaiju flicks, they certainly took inspiration from their sheer sense of scale. Two of the most popular franchises that came from this age of gaming were Capcom’s Monster Hunter (which had plenty of homages to the Kaiju of yore despite its monsters being more similar to animals and dinosaurs than radioactive behemoths) and Sandlot’s Earth Defense Force, which allowed players fight back against gigantic invaders.
With game development becoming more and more expensive, it makes sense that more recent hardware would mostly see new iterations of the previously mentioned franchises. That means titles like 2014’s critically panned Godzilla (which is actually quite fun if you can stomach its overall janky-ness) as well as numerous entries in both Monster Hunter and Earth Defense Force. However, one innovative licensed title came in the form of Granzella Inc’s ambitious crossover City Shrouded in Shadow. While this 2017 oddity remains a Japan exclusive due to character rights, the game flips the destructive catharsis angle on its head by having you play as regular people attempting to survive a giant monster attack, making it the only known instance of a survival horror Kaiju game.
Luckily for Kaiju fans, there are also a handful of new IPs capitalizing on our fascination with monstrous destruction. For retro gaming lovers, there’s 13AM Games’ Dawn of the Monsters, which mixes 2.5D beat ’em-up action with an original roster of unique creatures. Competitive multiplayer afficionados might prefer Passion Republic Game’s online brawler Gigabash, which has players compete to become the king of the titans in fully destructible arenas. Much like other online gaming phenomena, Gigabash has even expanded its collection of monsters to include licensed Godzilla DLC, meaning that you can have a ‘zilla knock-off fight the real thing!
With international internet culture and franchises like Universal’s Monsterverse movies re-popularizing Kaiju media in the west, it stands to reason that what was once a niche genre of gaming has become a staple of the industry. They may have began as licensed tie-ins, but it seems that Kaiju titles have finally found a dedicated audience of their own and will likely continue to allow players to wreak havoc in virtual cities far into the future.
That being said, I’m still waiting on a next-gen Ultraman game…
The problem with filming sequels back-to-back is that, unless you can afford expensive reshoots, there’s no easy way to adjust course in between movies if fans react badly to where the story is headed. That’s why it’s important to have a complete narrative thought out well in advance lest you accidentally kill a budding franchise.
However, this isn’t always the case. Every once in a while, it seems like the cinema gods smile upon certain chaotic productions and gift moviegoers with complete franchises that feel like more than the sum of their hastily produced parts. Ted Nicolaou’s Bloodlust: Subspecies III is precisely one of these miraculous pictures, with the raw talents of the artists involved (as well as the continued support from Romania) turning the feature into an effective conclusion for a series that kind of made things up as the filmmakers went along.
That’s why I’d like to invite my fellow readers to join me on this third part of our journey through the Subspecies franchise as we look into Bloodlust and talk about how it remains a surprisingly satisfying finale to the original trilogy.
A Trilogy Planned on the Fly
Released only a year after Bloodstone found plenty of success in rental stores and mail-in VHS catalogues worldwide, 1994’s Bloodlust was produced at the same time as its predecessor in (mostly) the same locations and with the same team. This means that the movie benefited from all the same upgrades as Bloodstone, with the crew now being more experienced with the ins and outs of surviving a low-budget Romanian production and the cast really settling into their characters.
At this point, everything from location scouting to the makeup process had been streamlined, with Wayne Toth and Norman Cabrera, the main duo behind special effects, even switching out time-consuming prosthetics for latex gloves in order to speed up Anders Hove’s monstrous transformation. The titular “subspecies” demons were also once again relegated to a mere cameo appearance due to the laborious puppetry required to bring them to life.
The only real hiccup came from the fact that actress Denice Duff had replaced the first film’s Michelle (Laura Mae Tate) and was immediately expected to portray the character as both an innocent victim in part II and as a secondary villain in part III. According to behind-the-scenes interviews, the hectic production schedule that blended two different movies meant that Duff would often find herself having to alternate between two incredibly different versions of Michelle during the same shooting day – though it’s obvious that she’s having more fun with Bloodlust’s more traditionally vampiric version of her character.
In the finished film, we pick things up immediately where the previous entry left off as Rebecca (Melanie Shatner) is forced to leave her vampire sister Michelle (Duff) behind in the dungeons of Castle Vladislav due to the rising sun. This allows Mummy (Pamela Gordon) to use Michelle’s blood to revive the vicious Radu (Hove) so that he may continue his quest for the coveted Bloodstone – a magical artifact that perpetually drips the Blood of Saints.
Meanwhile, the dreamy US embassy agent Mel (Kevin Blair) agrees to help Rebecca plan a rescue mission, though they’re unaware that Radu has become infatuated with Michelle during his attempts to guide her growing bloodlust. This all culminates in a climactic confrontation meant to tie up all of the series’ loose ends in one of Full Moon Pictures’ most ambitious productions.
The Evolution of Radu
Like its predecessor, Bloodlust: Subspecies III was also warmly received by fans who argued that the series was an even bigger success than Full Moon’s other major horror franchise, Puppet Master. This praise wasn’t unanimous, however, as 1994 had seen the rise of a more modern breed of sexy vampire popularized by Anne Rice, with old-school Nosferatu like Radu being viewed as obsolete when compared to the likes of Lestat and Gary Oldman’s take on Dracula.
In a way, one might argue that Nicolaou’s film is something of a swan song for the classic vampire story, as Bloodlust combines all of the traditional elements we tend to associate with these tales into a single tragic yarn that ties a neat little bow on Radu’s story as well as the old-fashioned monster movies that he represents. The finale remains shocking despite the fact that this is the third time we see Radu get brutally killed onscreen, with the brief tease that he may one day return feeling more like a nod towards the nature of evil rather than sequel bait.
The film dabbles a bit in gothic romance and even explores the inherent power fantasy behind transforming into an immortal creature of the night, but the filmmakers never lose sight of Radu as a demonic force even when he’s willing to betray his beloved Mummy for Michelle’s sake. In fact, his twisted “love” for his fledgling makes him even creepier as we get the feeling that his passion comes from a dark and disturbing place.
Anders Hove is at his absolute best in this film, with the effects department boosting his moments of what the younger generation would call “aura farming” whenever Radu emerges from shadows like a 90s version of Count Orlok. There are even a couple of surprisingly effective jump-scares here, which is why I’d argue that Bloodlust cements Radu as one of the most memorable cinematic vampires of all time despite his humble origins.
Subspecies Saves Its Best For Last
Nicolaou and Vlad Panescu also saved the best for “last” (more on that in a bit) regarding the film’s visuals, with the cinematography and overall atmosphere of Bloodlust absolutely surpassing what we saw in the previous films. Everything feels appropriately climactic this time around (including the wonderful soundtrack that was co-composed alongside an authentic Romanian orchestra), and I appreciate how this is the fastest-paced entry in the trilogy since the film doesn’t need to waste time setting anything up.
Bloodlust still suffers from some of the same low-budget blemishes as its predecessors, but there’s so much creative passion here that no amount of wonky effects work or stilted dialogue can get in the way of appreciating the flick’s gothic grandeur. That’s why it’s not surprising that the movie’s definitive(-ish) ending would later be retconned as fans begged for more Radu.
Of course, the next entry in this series would be a different kind of vampiric endeavor altogether, with the filmmakers attempting to engage with the same trends that ultimately killed Radu and his antiquated kin. That, however, is a story for another time. For now, I’ll merely insist that Bloodlust: Subspecies III remains a highlight of Full Moon’s expansive catalogue and is definitely worth seeking out today.
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