GigaBash review: Kaiju jamboree

Who doesn’t love a good giant monster movie? Philistines, that’s who. Kaiju like Godzilla, King Kong, King Ghidorah, Mothra, and more have been haranguing humanity in delightful disaster flicks whenever we get too rambunctious for decades (and sometimes saving us from even worse titans). It’s not often we get a good game dedicated to that very passion, but that’s where Passion Republic Games comes in with GigaBash: a Kaiju party brawler in which cities are your battleground. Even if the game is somewhat lacking in online and gameplay features, it’s still a good slugfest for any monster fan.

Something, something, humanity’s hubris…

GigaBash follows a common narrative of monster flicks. Across the world, humanity has discovered and begun harvesting a mysterious energy source known as Giga Energy. Unfortunately, the various expeditions awaken sleeping monsters who rise from their resting places to wreak havoc on civilization and fight each other for the Giga Energy sources too.

The array of Kaiju (known as Titans in GigaBash) run the gamut of beasts and beings inspired by popular films. Rawa is a dragon beast much in the vein of Godzilla where Gorogong is a volcanic primate. There’s even an ode to Ultraman, Gundam, and mechanical versions of some Titans that can be discovered in the Story Mode. Unfortunately, you can’t necessarily play every creature you see. Though some are unlockable, others are confined entirely to Story Mode.

GigaBash’s monster design is a solid mix of inspired and original ideas, and the fun design found throughout this menagerie of monsters extends to the environments they fight in and the music to which they throw down. The game features a multitude of battlegrounds including dense cities full of skyscrapers, coastal towns near the base of a volcano, and desert military bases full of power reactors and further classified technology. Finally, it’s capped with a great soundtrack that, while a little corny, pays homage to a multitude of moods found within the disaster flicks mentioned above. You’ll find harrowing music suiting of a disaster in progress, as well as sweeping heroic tunes dedicated to some of the game’s more just and kind beings. It’s all a pretty stellar presentation fitting of GigaBash’s wide variety of giant brawlers.

Let them fight

GigaBash provides a number of gameplay options for you to explore everything its monster brawler gameplay has to offer. Each monster has a standard attack, stronger held attack, stationary special attack, moving special attack, grab, defense, and defensive regular and special attacks. Each monster can also build up Giga Energy to take on an overpowered Giga Form which makes them larger, unharmable, and do more damage. Finally, they each have an ultimate move. In a normal fight, you’ll engage in up to four-player brawls with CPU bots allowed to fill. Whether on teams or in free-for-all, you’ll use your attacks and powers to pummel the other monsters until only one creature or team remains.

GigaBash features a few alternatives to the standard gameplay as well. There’s a minigame mode in which you can take on a number of fun challenges against friends or the CPU. You can also go online to play in both public and private matches. There’s even a gym in which you can work out strategies for your favorite monsters and their attacks.

Finally, there’s a Story Mode. In this mode, you’ll play as one of several Titans and see their origin play out across a series of fights. Unfortunately, not all monsters are covered by the Story Mode. Though you’ll fight against much of the cast, GigaBash only features story chapters for four of its roster and the stories aren’t particularly long (though they are fun). You can also unlock various bonus monsters for the roster and other collectibles like art and music for an in-game gallery.

Ultimately, GigaBash’s mileage will likely be determined by how many friends you have to play. It’s a blast as a party game, but the Story Mode and gameplay modes are rather limited online and off. It won’t be terribly long before you’ve seen or unlocked most of what the game has to offer. Even so, both the online and local play work well enough to warrant a fun get-together in this game.

Who will be king of the Titans?

GigaBash has a lot of fun elements to it. The monsters are quite varied and well-designed, in terms of both original creatures and obvious nods to classics. I also really enjoyed the battlegrounds, music, and stories (as short as the latter was). And that last note ultimately sums up my experience. In both gameplay modes and story, it doesn’t take a lot of time to see everything GigaBash has going on. Even so, if you can wrangle some buddies together either locally or online, GigaBash would make a solid addition to a party game night.

This review is based on a PC review copy supplied by the publisher. GigaBash is available now on PS4, PS5, and PC, with later releases planned for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.