Godzilla: Monster of Monsters

Godzilla: Monster of Monsters ゴジラ (Gojira) is a 1988 game developed by Compile for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Story
"In 2XXX A.D. when the orbits of Pluto and Neptune exchange their positions, the Earth receives a declaration of war from an unknown planet. The invaders from Planet X attack the Earth as part of their plan to conquer the entire universe using a legion of space monsters. The Earth sends Godzilla, king of the monsters on the Earth, and Mothra, to defend itself. Godzilla advances through battle stages called Ring Fields provided in interplanetary space to battle that legion of space monsters controlled by Planet X. Godzilla must battle its way from one Ring Field to another, and finally defeat King Ghidorah at Planet X to defend Earth. For the sake of the future of the Earth, Godzilla's fierce battle now begins..."

Character Details
Both Godzilla and Mothra start the game at level 1, and with a limited supply of life and power. The monsters can gain levels by defeating bosses and certain stage types (Ruins and Hyperspace); every time Godzilla or Mothra gains a level their life and power bars will increase. The maximum level is 16. The life bar will replenish once a boss is defeated, or when a Life Capsule is picked up. The power bar recovers by itself over time, and the more life the monster has the faster it recovers.

Advancing
To move to the next world, the remaining monster(s) must move onto the Base Headquarters stage. On the following turn the player must select the monster without moving and the game give the option to advance to the next world. If either Godzilla or Mothra died before advancing, the deceased monster will reappear in the next world; however, the revived monster will lose one level as a result. Things to note: if Godzilla or Mothra advances to the next level, and the other monster left behind is destroyed, the game will be lost. In addition, there is a chance that while exploring the levels, the player can encounter a 'Hyperspace' area. These areas feature battles against the Gohten from The War in Space, Dogora cells, or Matango. Clearing these areas can reward the player with another level.

Playable Monsters

 * Godzilla
 * Mothra

Bosses
Each world hosts 2-8 bosses, depending on how far the player is, who will attack the player on their way to the enemy base. The player doesn't have to beat the bosses, with the exception of King Ghidorah, to advance in the game, but in general they will be hard to avoid and confrontation is inevitable. Things to note: boss matches (or "Hyper-Fight Mode") last approximately 40 seconds before the match is ended in a draw and both monsters are returned to the Ring Field view; in case of a draw, the enemy will have its health restored slightly (this differs between the U.S. and Japanese version of the game).

Main Bosses
Godzilla: Monster of Monsters features eight bosses, several of whom had not yet appeared in a Godzilla film up to this point. A new boss is added every world, which the player will fight along with the previously defeated monsters. The bosses are:
 * King Ghidorah
 * MechaGodzilla
 * Gigan
 * Hedorah
 * Baragon
 * Varan
 * Moguera
 * Gezora

Other Characters

 * Dogora (Regular enemy)
 * Gotengo (Regular enemy)
 * Manda (Regular enemy)
 * Matango (Regular enemy)

Scrapped Characters
Through examining the game's coding and sprite data, Rodan and Anguirus have been discovered. Anguirus, called "ANGILAS," is playable in the Japanese version of Monster of Monsters through cheat codes. However, he doesn't have any attacks other than a "destructive walk." Rodan has a board piece in both versions, while sprites for him exist in the game's coding. An unused sprite for Hedorah's flying form can be seen in the game's end credits.

Glitches
Some glitches in the game can have favorable benefits to the player, while others serve only to slow him or her down. Gezora can infamously trap the player in the corner of the boss fight and repeatedly deal damage to them until the timer runs out. On the other hand, Moguera can sometimes get stuck in its beam charging animation temporarily, allowing the player to land more hits on the mech.

Cheat Codes

 * At the password screen, entering "DESTR0Y ALL MONSTERS" activates a special mode where Godzilla and Mothra fight all the monsters at once on Earth.
 * Entering "Monster 0" at the password screen starts the game on Earth with only King Ghidorah as an enemy.
 * Entering "START T0 END" as the password plays the ending sequence.
 * Entering "sound test" as the password plays some music from the Japanese version.
 * Entering "sea m0nster" as the password will take player to Planet X and will cause all monsters to spawn from the center of the playing board.
 * Entering first 3 letters of any world ("PLU" for "Pluto", "MAR" for "Mars", etc.) as the password will make the player start at that level, with Mothra and Godzilla both being at Level 1.
 * Entering "Gh1d0ra" as the password will take player to an unfinished level which can't be played.

Trivia

 * A creepypasta was made about this game, called the NES Godzilla Creepypasta.
 * Although the inhabitants of Planet X in this game aren't given a name, it is possible that they are the Xiliens. Some of the UFOs in the game closely resemble their UFOs from Invasion of Astro-Monster, and they control King Ghidorah, much like their actions in the movie in which they made their debut.
 * The cover art for the game features a picture of the ShodaiGoji suit, while the sprites used for Godzilla in the game more closely resemble the KingGoji or MosuGoji suits.
 * In 2015, the toy company NECA produced a figure of Godzilla based on his appearance in this game.