a perfectly adequate gamecube-era arena fighter if you’re willing to overlook a lot about what makes a fighting game good and instead focus on the sheer chaotic glee of seeing your favorite big monsters wonkily hitting each other, an exercise that becomes as effortless as breathing to any die-hard fan of the endearingly scrappy source material. it’s not tekken, hell, even when the game is firing on all cylinders and you and a friend are a little tipsy off your favorite substance of choice, it struggles to even hang with a sloppy punch fest like power stone, but that’s kind of inconsequential to me. would i love to see what a team like arc system works could do with a property as legendary and storied as godzilla? to see my beloved video james receive their own artful elevation of my favorite big lizard á la hideaki anno’s shin godzilla? to see biollante perfect parry a cross up from baragon? obviously, but i also think that this game’s janky joyousness, that quick and dirty glorious trashiness, is kind of exactly what the spirit of kaiju and tokusatsu stuff is all about. is it a perfectly balanced test of skill and reflex with near bottomless character customization. no, and i don’t care, man. to a monster freak like me, it’s still food and i’m still starving. does your favorite ultra-polished competitive fighting game have a playable anguirus? i thought so.