Every time I play a Godzilla game it makes me want to actually get into the films (aside from Shin which I have seen and did love). Save the Earth did this more so than maybe any other and offered a fairly competent fighting game experience atop that.

The 3D fighting mechanical skeleton of melee/ranged combat styles that you shift between is always a favorite of mine and this game specifically makes both really integral at higher level play. I feel like I would ruin my life trying to do another hard mode run without any ranged attacks, and that's by design.

But it does have some glaring flaws. The mostly fixed camera means that, at higher difficulty, the AI knows where items are that you couldn't have possibly seen, and will be able to repeatedly heal and damage boost while you're holding out for scraps. There's also a huge lack of balance, with several characters having the ability to empty out your special meter all-together and other roster members being useless for much other than lobbing beams repeatedly to little effect. Your favorite might not be viable, and that's always a bummer.

Toss in the scattered mini-games in the Action Mode (which I wish there had been more of) and a really bare-bones story that follows the exact same structure as nearly EVERY Godzilla game (even the pinball table like, come ON) and Save the Earth is a really fun fighter for franchise fans that's held back, albeit only slightly, by select design decisions.

Also, the AI has no idea what to do about 90s Godzilla's tail whip attack. They have a mental breakdown when he starts throwing it back. I obviously benefited from this but it does feel REALLY strange.