There’s no other Godzilla videogame that understands the futility of fighting radioactive beasts better than Godzilla Defense Force. Every run is hopeless; that’s by design. The game exists to suck money and time, but this is a smart, appropriate application of the idle clicker. Tapping the screen sends troops to the shoreline, defending against various monsters from Toho’s library, those monsters under alien control. All troops die. Every one of them. Watch as piles of small foot soldiers rush into the fight, only to disappear when they arrive. Assume radiation got to ’em, if not a claw or burst of fire. The tanks last a little longer. Not by much though.

Godzilla lore concerns near invincible creatures, a majority the physical after-effects of nuclear fallout, designed as impervious to produce the desired metaphor – nuclear war is a monster, and when loosed, cannot be defeated. While for gameplay purposes Godzilla Defense Forces lets Godzilla fall to masses of firepower, it takes ludicrous amounts of time, money, and patience to happen. The same goes for solving worldwide tensions over nukes.

A cash grab littered with ads – this is questionable app store fodder, but Godzilla Defense Force’s attraction lies entirely in the license and smart application.

3/5