Ever wanted to play as a kaiju? Welcome to Gigapocalypse – a 2D fighting game that puts you in control of various mega monsters reigning destruction on Earth. Whilst the game is in early access, all that’s missing are levels and additional kaiju. The game mechanics are all in place so its well worth diving into for a review because Gigapocalypse is a blast to play.
Each kaiju plays very differently but their load out is built up the same way. Each monster has two main attacks you can trigger with mouse buttons or controller buttons. You may be able to move these attacks around to aim them too if they are ranged like missiles of beams. The more destruction you cause, the more rage you accumulate and rage is spent to trigger your attacks. It does regenerate over time but very slowly, initially at least. You’ll also have health which will deplete over time as the humans try to take you down. Run out of health and the stage ends.
Levels will take a few tries to conquer as they are long and the humans have a lot of ways to attack you. It reminds me of Rampage as a 2D fighter as you punch buildings down or shoot tanks and copters. It’s so satisfying to level a city as you slowly auto walk through. Each run gains you XP to level up your kaiju which you can then use to upgrade armour, health and your two base weapons. Each time you level up you gain a skill point to unlock and then upgrade one of five extra abilities. These have cooldowns and larger rage penalties for using but these skills make sure each kaiju plays very differently. Some are brawlers, some like a ranged attack and the hard one reflects projectiles back at humans and plays like an entirely different game.
Cutely, between levels you also have a charming mini Tamagotchi side to Gigapocalypse. You can buy things for their home, feed them and clean up their poo. This gives you more XP for upgrades. The room items also buff the monster in different ways too. It won’t change your world but it plays into the lovely charm of the game. This charm is reflected in the bosses as well. Each act of two levels ends with a boss. The first one is a maths robot that fires sums at you. The graphics also have plenty of tongue in cheek Armageddon humour too. Add to that a hairspray chiprock soundtrack and you have a winner. One last element to talk about are pets. You can bring up to five of them with you and these are upgradeable too. Some buff you, some attack humans, some change the world around you a bit. It’s another nice bit of personalisation and all these elements come together to get you invested in causing mayhem.
Gigapocalpyse is just joyous to play. It is easy to understand, has plenty of nuance and humour to boot. Whilst levels will need replaying to grind and upgrade your kaiju, the improvements are usually quite noticeable between reruns so it feels different enough to not feel dull. Some may not like the slow march forward style of the gameplay but I loved it. There are plans for six more kaiju to add to the three currently available and and four more acts to add to the two so far. I can’t wait to get stuck in.
Review copy provided by the developer.
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