Twenty-four years after it first let players hurl skyscrapers at each other on the GameCube, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is back. Atari and Pipeworks Studios, the team that built the 2002 original, have released Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered today, November 3, on PlayStation 5 and PC, with Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2 versions also part of the launch line-up. It is the same arena brawler at heart, rebuilt with new visuals, a friendlier unlock system and something the original never had: online multiplayer.
What the remaster actually changes
Destroy All Monsters Melee was never a traditional one-on-one fighter. It drops giant monsters into fully destructible arenas, and the city itself is part of your moveset: buildings crumble under body slams, landmarks can be picked up and thrown, and the military chips in from the sidelines. Atari describes the remaster's visuals as rebuilt from the ground up rather than simply upscaled, and the store screenshots bear that out, with modern lighting, dense debris and dust effects, and city blocks that look far more detailed than the blocky skylines of 2002.
The quality-of-life changes matter just as much. In the original, monsters and stages were unlocked in a fixed order by grinding through the single-player mode. The remaster lets you choose what to unlock and in what order, covering monsters, stages and gallery items. Each kaiju also gets its own single-player campaign, so there is a reason to learn more than one character beyond versus play.
Twelve monsters, twelve playstyles
The roster is the classic twelve. There are two Godzillas, the balanced Heisei version and the faster but slightly frailer Godzilla 2000. Alongside them are King Ghidorah, Mecha-King Ghidorah, Anguirus, Megalon, Gigan, Destoroyah, Rodan, Mechagodzilla, Kiryu and Orga. Every monster has its own moveset, built around melee strings, ranged energy attacks and a Rage Mode special.
The differences are bigger than in most fighters. A guide to the roster published on the PlayStation Blog ahead of launch spells them out. King Ghidorah is a slow, armless zoner who controls space with beams but struggles up close. Rodan is the fastest monster in the game and the easiest to knock out. Megalon can tunnel underground to dodge attacks and pop up for a grab. Gigan teleports and rushes down with his hooked claws. Destoroyah hits like a truck but moves like one too. Orga is the strongest grappler on the list, with long arms and a paralysing spit. Energy management ties it all together: flight, shields and the heaviest beams all drain the same meter, and a monster that burns through it carelessly is left exposed.
Eight arenas, day and night
The game has eight locations, each with day and night variations. Several are recreations of real-world cities, and they are joined by Monster Island and the alien Mothership. As before, the arenas are not just backdrops. Buildings can be used as cover, as weapons and as obstacles, so knowing a stage's layout counts for as much as knowing your monster's moves.
Local and online multiplayer
Local versus play returns, and it is still the heart of the game: the original became a sleepover favourite because anyone could pick it up and start throwing tankers within minutes. The remaster adds online multiplayer for the first time, which should give this version a much longer life than a straight port would have had. Atari has not announced ranked modes or tournament features, so for now online play is about matchmaking with friends and strangers rather than a competitive ladder.
PC requirements
The PC version is on Steam, and its listed requirements are higher than you might expect for a remaster of a 2002 game, particularly the memory:
- Minimum: Windows 10 64-bit, Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 1650 (4 GB VRAM), DirectX 12, 8 GB storage
- Recommended: Windows 11 64-bit, Intel Core i7-10700K or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, 32 GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 1070 / GTX 1080 (8 GB VRAM), DirectX 12, 8 GB storage
At 8 GB, the install is small, which suits a game built around quick matches.
Part of a busy year for Atari
The Godzilla remaster is the latest in a run of revivals from Atari, which has spent the past few years buying up and re-releasing older games. Thief: The Dark Project Remastered, made with Nightdive Studios, is next on its schedule and launches on December 3. For Pipeworks, this is a return to its own work: the studio made the original Destroy All Monsters Melee and its sequels, Godzilla: Save the Earth and Godzilla: Unleashed. Fans who have waited years for a modern way to play the series without original hardware now have one.
