''Godzilla Game'' is a

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

released by

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

in 1978. The game is a licensed-

tie-in A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, website, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original proper ...

with

Toho is a Japanese entertainment company that primarily engages in producing and distributing films and exhibiting stage plays. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. ...

's Godzilla franchise. The game features a pop-up

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the eponymous 1954 film, directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda. The character has since become an international pop culture icon, appearing in various media: 33 Japanese films p ...

with roaring

sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

. Between two and four people could play. Each player controlled six spaceships, with twenty-four ships included in the box. One player's spaceships were all green, another's were all yellow, another's were all orange, and another's were all magenta.

History

The game was released for $8.99 in 1978. The Godzilla Game was released one year after Mattel's Shogun Warriors Godzilla toy was released in 1977.

Gameplay

Players attached their ships to a platform and take turns spinning a wheel. Depending on the amount of players, each player will place between two to four spaceships on the platform. Based on the number the wheel lands on, the player would move the platform that many spaces. Occasionally, the wheel would release a

spring-loaded A spring is a device consisting of an elastic but largely rigid material (typically metal) bent or molded into a form (especially a coil) that can return into shape after being compressed or extended. Springs can store energy when compresse ...

Godzilla that would eat one of the spaceships. Players can place another ship from their stockpile on the platform when its their turn and the arrow points to an empty space. The last player to have a spaceship left would be the winner. The spaceship on the game art is labeled as "P-1", which is the same name as the spaceship in the 1965 Godzilla film

Invasion of Astro-Monster is a 1965 ''kaiju'' film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the sixth film in the ''Godzilla'' franchise and Shōwa period. The film was a Japanese-American co-production; it was the second collaboration ...

. The instructions feature an alternate quick game mode where if one of a player's ships is destroyed it has to be replaced immediately, rather than waiting for the spinner to land on an empty space.

References

External links

*
Original Godzilla Game commercial
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{Godzilla Board games introduced in 1978 Mattel games Board games based on works Science fiction board games Godzilla games