Kaiju Wars: Godzilla just wants to be loved!

Foolish Mortal Games’ new monster battler pits you and your hapless military against giant, unstoppable beasts. Can Major Danger and kaiju scientist Dr. Wagner help you out? Or are they responsible? Ooooohhhh…

From the dawn of computers, all I’ve ever really wanted to do with them is allow me, by day a normal human, to by night become a giant monster and destroy Tokyo. Crush, Crumble & Chomp was a day 1 purchase for me back in the day, and for my money, nobody has done the whole guy in a rubber monster suit inspired game better.

I’m sitting here looking right now at my copy of Super Godzilla for the SNES. I played and enjoyed KingsIsle’s Rise & Destroy, about which little is left on the web. Sort of a reverse tower defense game, that one. I understand giant monsters.

Kaiju Wars flips that script around a little. You don’t play the monster — instead, you play the newly installed mayor of a coastal town that is being beset by giant monsters, called “kaiju”. After Pacific Rim made the Japanese term for “strange beasts” go global, I guess that’s what they are now.

Aiding you is the military, led by Major Danger, and a scientist who knows way more about the kaiju attacks than she lets on, Dr. Wagner. Each map has at least one kaiju, civilian structures that produce money, science structures that produce, well, science, army bases that produce infantry, tanks, missiles and so on, and airfields that produce aircraft. Some maps require you to build the bases before you can produce anything to fight the kaiju.

The game plays out like any tactical strategy game (this game reminded me of another tactical strategy game, Subset Games’ Into the Breach, in many ways). You spend the early turns building up infrastructure and units, working to place them in the kaiju’s path. You can click on the monster to see where they plan to head, but they love going after the lookout towers and military bases providing your security.

Each unit has four stats — ground damage, air damage, speed and counter. Some units have special abilities, such as tanks, which slow the kaiju when stepped on. Don’t worry — crushed tanks, smashed bombers, and squished infantry retreat to the nearest appropriate base and can be repaired somehow and sent right back into battle. This is a cool way to get your units ahead of the beast by putting them in crush position, then respawning them at a better situated base for cheap.

As long as security stays strong, Dr. Wagner’s whereabouts won’t be known, and the kaiju will just attack targets of opportunity. If the kaiju destroys all the security buildings, though, the kaiju will suddenly know the doctor’s location, and will head for her by the shortest route possible. Knowing for certain where the monster will go makes it easier to place units in position, and so you’ll want to have the good doctor wait until the last moment before making her escape to a different lab. If you’ve built your bases properly, she’ll be able to get to a new lab and continue her research without missing a beat.

Working against her is the “Black Ops” division, which, for some reason, is helping the kaiju by playing Black Ops cards that can heal the monster, decrease the security, or other vile and nasty stuff. Early on, the same two Black Ops cards (including that “Heal 8” one) come up again and again, but as missions are completed, Black Ops gets some cards that aren’t quite as deadly.

Dr. Wagner and Major Danger have Project cards for you — each turn, allowing you to instantly deploy units, build bases for free, or even just get free cash and science. These often allow you to respond better to unexpected monster movement.

The randomness in Black Ops and Project cards add an element of uncertainty to the battle that I don’t love, and makes achieving some optional mission goals a matter of luck sometimes.

Missions are built around earning “breakthroughs”. Doing enough Science earns a breakthrough (and in the games I have played so far, have been the only breakthroughs outside of the tutorial). You can also earn breakthroughs by defeating the monster, after which I assume Dr. Wagner can research in peace.

It’s a comic book with a battle in every panel. The battles aren’t incredibly hard on “normal” mode. As mentioned, all my victories so far have been science victories, so it’s just a matter of ensuring Dr. Wagner is able to work each round, and not much time is wasted with her in transit to a new lab. Careful placement of bases between labs makes this fairly simple; the rest is getting tanks beneath monster heels while going crazy with the special abilities of other units. I’m sure there are other tricks to learn in the rest of the game.

Verdict: The demo was fun enough to make me consider buying it on Steam when it releases in February. I do like strategy tactics games and giant movie monsters. And I really need to know whatever Wagner knows.

The Kaiju Wars demo is currently available for free on Steam.