Smashing kaiju with friends
Atari’s remaster of the 2002 arena fighter has landed, and the Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered review scores add up to a Top Critic Average of 74 on OpenCritic, with 53% of critics recommending it across 31 reviews. That is a good-not-great number, and the reasons behind it are consistent: it is a blast with other people and a thin thing on its own.
The pitch is simple. Per the Steam page, you pick from 12 kaiju, fight across 8 locations (each with day and night variants) and can play local co-op or new online multiplayer. It is $29.99 on Steam in the US.
IGN gave it 7/10 and called it “a delightful throwback to a bygone era of lazy weekends past”. GameSpot also scored it 7/10, saying it is at its best when it recreates smashing kaiju toys together “in short sessions with friends”. Nintendo Life (7/10) credited local and online multiplayer for keeping you around despite a “wafer-thin single-player experience”, and Push Square (7/10) called it a “brief jolt of fun”.
Where critics split
Depth is the fault line. IGN argues the combat is more layered than it first looks, with combos, blocking and per-monster quirks, though it also notes there is no real tutorial and you cannot mix CPU opponents with friends online. GameSpot is blunter: the game is at its worst when it tries to stretch something that “never had much depth to begin with”.
Scores range widely. Cubed3 went to 9/10, calling it a love letter to the franchise that is “even more entertaining when experienced alongside friends”, while TechRaptor gave it 6/10 and Switchaboo 4/10, with Switchaboo finding it “faithfully miserable to play”. The small roster and the unlock-heavy progression come up in several reviews.
We think that spread is the honest story. If you want a sprawling solo campaign, the critics are telling you to look elsewhere. If you want something to throw on for an evening with a few controllers, the consensus is far friendlier.
Who it suits
Our view: this is a weekend game. Buy it for the couch or a Discord call, not for a 30-hour solo run. If co-op and versus nights are your thing, our best co-op games for PC list has plenty of other options to rotate through.
It also fits a pattern we have been seeing with remakes that please the faithful first. Our write-ups of Croc 2’s remake and the 58-scoring Streets of Survival show how much a fan base can colour the praise, and the Godzilla critics are open about that too: Pure Nintendo says fans “will eat it up” but that narrow focus may alienate those with limited interest in the kaiju.
Bottom line: a faithful, fun, shallow brawler that is at its best in short sessions with friends. For Godzilla fans with a few controllers, 74 looks fair.
