Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee - GameCube

Despite the initially stodgy controls Destroy All Monsters actually reveals itself as a highly entertaining free-roaming fighter very much in the style of Power Stone. And despite its slow pace things can get quite tactical as you use skyscrapers for cover and employ the widely varying powers of each creature. The graphics aren't amazing but they do manage to convey a great feeling of scale, and, even better, the idea that you're actually a 400-foot man in a monster suit-–which sounds rubbish--is hilarious in practice. The only real problem with the game at all is the fact that you can only use three of the eleven monsters to begin with, with the rest having to be unlocked via the rather badly paced single-player mode. Why there's only a selection of three monsters to start with is particularly baffling since the game features an extremely enjoyable four-player mode.

Destroy All Monsters is excellent knockabout fun for anyone that likes their beat-'em-ups simple and unpretentious. It's also, at time of writing, the only fighter on the market to feature a giant city-destroying moth. --David Jenkins