Prince of Persia Review

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The Prince of Persia franchise has always been an exception to my desert rule. I typically do not like adventures in any form of media that take place in the olden times or in a desert. This game manages to accomplish both while still being a very good game and that takes a lot of skill. I’d say that the film is what got me into the franchise and then I quickly went and bought most of the games in the series. Currently, this is my favorite installment and it even passes the other PS3 title. (Forgotten Sands)

The plot involves a guy who has lost his donkey in a sandstorm. We don’t see the Donkey for the rest of the game so it’s safe to assume that it decided to go to New York. The hero then notices that a few guy are trying to attack a lady so he steps in. Her name is Elika and she needs to cleanse all of the lands. Unfortunately, her father has succumbed to the powers of darkness and all of the legendary villains have been awakened. Our hero must now go on his greatest adventure yet and save the planet!

Pretty safe plot and it’s good enough for me. Who doesn’t like a plot where the Earth is going into darkness and must be purged? It’s not super original, but it makes for a good formula. Naturally, the gameplay determines how well that will work out. During the platforming part, it’s a little bit like Mario. You run and jump through and place and Elika can give you a double jump in a sense. The gameplay is not quite as smooth as Mario and you’ll likely fall a few times due to unresponsive controls. You can temporarily run on walls and use grass to climb along them. You don’t have to worry about falling because Elika will make sure to save you.

Yes…you can’t really die in this game. If you get hit enough to the point where you get a red warning, then you have a chance of dying. I believe that it may have happened to be once, but I can’t really verify that. Aside from that instant, it’s extremely hard to die even if you end up throwing the fights. You can jump into an endless abyss for eternity and Elika will keep on saving you.

The Combat Gameplay is definitely my favorite part of the game and it’s what makes the title so enjoyable. You’re basically fighting in Dynasty Warriors mixed with Spiderman style. You can use slashing attacks, athletic maneuvers, or classic grabbing. Elika will also help you by charging into the opponent with her blue energy abilities. You can link these attacks to hit the opponent as many as 14 times in one combo. Mastering each of them is fun (and necessary for a trophy) and the gameplay never gets tiring.

The only problem with the fighting is that it is way too easy. The first boss is pretty much as simple as the final one. The final boss is a bit of a joke because you can beat him with ease. If anything, you just don’t want to beat him too quickly if you’re trying to get a 14 hit combo on him. This is a game that could have greatly benefited from an online vs mode. Testing your mettle against other players is always good and it would have been especially fun in this game.

The Main Character never really gets a name. Mostly, people refer to him as the Prince (Prince of Persia…it all makes sense now) but it doesn’t really matter as far as this review is concerned. He’s not one of the more likable main characters. He spends a lot of time flirting and he should concentrate more on the fight. I did like his decision at the end, which gained back some respect from me. He’s definitely a good fighter and that’s always a plus.

Elika is around for the entire game as well and she doesn’t always get along with the main character. I can’t say that I was really a fan of hers as well. She could get pretty irritated at the main character for no real reason at times. Her abilities are great, but she put too much faith in Ormadz all the time.

The King isn’t very likable either. He turns evil without really having a good reason. He’s also not very powerful and even after his super forms…he’s not much of a threat. The main character is still more than a match for him and that’s a little embarrassing for the King. So much for the power of darkness eh?

There are 4 main minions of Ahriman. The Warrior, The Hunter, The Concubine, and the Alchemist. The Concubine is really the only one that talks a lot. The Alchemist may have spoken, but I do not remember if he did or not. The Hunter and The Warrior were silent. I didn’t care for the Warrior. He struck me as a jungle fighter and he wasn’t very powerful. Quick, but that’s about it. I didn’t care for the Concubine and she wasn’t a terrific fighter. Usually she would just try to get Elika out of the picture so that she could win. The Alchemist was all right, but he didn’t really have any character so it’s hard to know if I’d really like him. The Warrior had the best design from the group, but that’s about it.

Graphically, this game is pretty underwhelming. The animations aren’t really fun to look at. The character designs are pretty good for the villains, but the graphics don’t really help their cause. I’m not saying that this game looks as if it were on the PS2, but it’s just not very good. It’s possibly because they were trying to get the game to look old or gritty, but it didn’t work for me. Give me Mario 3D World anytime!

Unfortunately, the soundtrack isn’t very good. I can’t really say that I liked any of the themes. The boss themes were uninspired and the stage music begins to get old as you listen to it for the 50th time. Considering how great the soundtrack was in Warrior Within and other Prince of Persia titles, this was a little disappointing. It’s not a terrible soundtrack, but it’s definitely one of the weaker ones that I’ve heard in a while.

The trophies in this game are definitely reasonable and none of them are insanely hard. I should know since this is one of the select games where I achieved the Platinum. It shouldn’t take you too long and one playthrough could be all you need for all of the trophies if you play your cards right. I ended up using 2 playthroughs with a few stages in the third one to get them all. Trophies are always an incentive and they can make a great game even better by adding that extra boost or replay value.

One extra negative that should be mentioned is the fact that you can’t skip cutscenes. That can be very frustrating when you have to start a new playthrough since the cutscenes are numerous and they can be very long. You should always have the option to skip cutscenes in a video game and I never like it when games stop you from doing this. It’s not large enough to take points away from the game, but it should definitely be noted. I suppose that the game would be pretty short without the cutscenes, but that’s no excuse.

I have to say that the ending to the game is awesome! More games should end like this and it was a good move on the main character’s part. It may be a little controversial, but I believe that he made the right move. The ending is almost worth getting the game for. It’s just that good and it’s definitely one of the best endings for a video game. If only a Mario game could utilize this ending…it would be one of the best Mario games out there! This game got a sequel…in a sense. I own it for the DS and it’s in the same continuity. I should probably go back to beat it someday….someday.

Overall, this is a pretty fun action game. It’s a mix of platforming and cool sword action which is great. The combat is definitely the best part about it since the soundtrack, character cast, and graphics aren’t the best. Sometimes, the gameplay is all you need to be a great game. I highly recommend checking this game out and it’s at a very low price right now. I don’t see why you wouldn’t enjoy such an epic adventure!

Overall 8/10

Greninja vs Samus

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Samus Greninja
Now this is a battle of top tiers! Both of these fighters are near the very top of the Smash Bros roster and they share many of the same advantages. Both of them have a large arsenal of attacks at their disposal and super speed is an ability that they possess. Greninja can try to overwhelm Samus with his water abilities, but her armors can stand up to just about any element. I can see Samus pulling ahead in this round thanks to her Zero laser, but it will definitely be a close fight that could go either way. Samus wins.

Marcus vs Thomas

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This is one of those times where there’s no stopping the true hero! Thomas may think of himself as a superb strategist, but Marcus is the guy who does all of the heavy lifting. Thomas is skilled in his own right, but Marcus is definitely the better hand to hand fighter. As far as their Digimon go, Marcus also has the stronger creature so this results in a huge advantage for him. You don’t want to get in the way of one of Marcus’ punches! Marcus wins.

Mary Moo Cow vs Biollante

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Mary Moo Cow may have an incredible TV show, but she’s no match for Biollante. Biollante was never my favorite Kaiju and I didn’t really care for her film, but it could have been worse. At the very least, I still have to admit that Biollante is a fighter and she could take Mary Moo Cow down for the count. Mary Moo Cow just doesn’t have the skills needed to take this win! Biollante wins.

Kai (Ronin) vs Toshiki Kai

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This is definitely a mismatch since the Kai from the 47 Ronin film isn’t much of a fighter. He’s basically a human who knows a few supernatural tricks. That won’t deter the Kai from Cardfight since he has many powerful monsters to back him up. Kai (Ronin) takes another loss with this round, but at least he went down swinging! Kai wins.

Diddy Kong vs Rosalina

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Diddy Fire Rosalina
This is a pretty even match since both fighters are not exactly top tier, but still have some firepower. Rosalina’s barrier comes in handy during this battle and it’ll give her the slim advantage. Diddy Kong is athletic, but Rosalina will eventually KO him. Diddy Kong will have a very tough time breaking her barrier and she could just make a new one. Rosalina wins.

Dragon Ball Raging Blast Review

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DBZ has had some terrific games in the past! Even the ones that did not hit it out of the park were generally very good so I had high hopes for this one. After all, Raging Blast is known as a (sort of) successor to the Budokai Tenkaichi series, but with PS3 graphics and a large chunk of the roster being thrown aside. I knew that I was going to be in for a treat! I had actually been meaning to get this game for years and years, but it always got beaten to the punch by other games. Well, now I finally got it and the wait was worth it!

This is usually where I would talk about the plot, but it’s DBZ. You already know the plot! It covers all three arcs of the manga along with the Bardock OVA and the Broly films. Beyond that, we also have some good ole What Ifs. Unfortunately, the game plays it very safe with the What Ifs so they aren’t very interesting. Having Vegito battle Gogeta is a good concept, but they make you play it twice so that both characters can win. Talk about a cop out….Nontheless, the game has over 100 levels, which makes for a very extensive Story Mode! At times you may wish that it was shorter, but that’s not my main complaint with it. I don’t like…The Red Star system!

In this game, Red Stars are used to unlock just about everything from costumes to music to levels in Story Mode. Earning Red Stars is the annoying part. Basically, you have to replay a level that you’ve beaten and there will be 3 missions. You get one Red Star for beating the level on Hard Mode and two others for doing certain actions during the fight. This could have been acceptable, but you can’t get the Red Stars from the get go. This means that you have to play each level at least twice and most of them will need a third play through since getting all three in one shot is extremely difficult. Considering that there are over 100 levels….you’ll be playing over 300 fights! (Not counting that some levels have up to 5 fights in them) That was more than a little tedious and I don’t think that the developers did a good job on that one. I’ve earned about 50 Red Stars so far, but playing through those levels so much can get old very fast.

Luckily, not everything is purchased through these Red Stars. You also have the classic D Points and you use them to buy items from the shop. This feature is in just about all of the DBZ games and it’s a good system. The items aren’t unreasonably priced and you should have a good chunk of them by the end. Going to Shenron and getting the D Points multiplier is a must if you’re in a hurry.

To collect the 7 Dragon Balls, you must compete in a Super Battle Trial. This will open up a Dragon Ball fight. After one battle, then it closes and you have to rinse and repeat. This is another tedious part of the game because you have to do at least 14 battles to get the 7 Dragon Balls each time. That’s a little long, but not extremely long. It’s just a bit of a bother. The Super Trials have several modes like Survival, Team Battle, Punch Machine, etc. They’re pretty good and extra modes means extra replay value!

I mentioned that the roster got a lot smaller, but it’s still decently large with at least 50 fighters. We have most of the big characters from the series, although the exclusion of Mystic Gohan is not cool. For that, I would have preferred that they kicked out Videl or Chiaotzu. Mystic Gohan is essential! The game mostly ignores the films, so Broly is the only extra character. Still, I’m glad that they chose him since he’s a Must in any DBZ game. Some of the hype for the game also revolved around the Super Saiyan 3 form that Vegeta and Broly got. It’s definitely fun to play as those guys and it’s a fun addition to the game. I’m hoping that they’ll be mainstays in future DBZ titles although that does not appear to be the case. Hopefully in the next big DBZ game for PS4.

Time to get into the most important aspect of the game…the gameplay! I must say that it is a solid step down from Budokai Tenkaichi 3, but I suppose that was bound to happen. The problem is that you don’t feel the blows as much as you did in that one. Also, it’s tough to link combos to each other because some characters simply cannot do it anymore. You’ll finish a few hits and the character will pause. By the time you can launch the next attack, the fighter is on the ground and your combo is lost. Most of the techniques and combos are similar to BT3.

It took me a while to get the hang of the game, but now I’m pretty confident in my skills. You’ll find yourself using the super attacks a whole lot since they’re so easy to use. Not to mention the fact that it’s a lot safer to just spam them against enemies once you’re playing on hard difficulties. At first I was definitely not crazy about the fighting style, but it grows on you. You just need to give the game a chance and playing through the tutorials may not be a bad idea. (Trophies…) I forgot how to transform, which is too bad, but it’s easy to find out with a quick Google search. Once you feel like you’ve brought your A game, then it’s time to try out your skills online against real players. That’s one of the great things about Wifi. It can definitely add to the experience of a game and the servers are still open, which is pretty amazing! It’s hard not to compare the fighting style to BT3, but once you get past that…then it’s pretty incredible!

Graphics are not ultra important, but they’re always worth noting. They look really good in this game and the character models hold up well. I find Goku’s Super Saiyan character to look the best from the whole cast and his Super Saiyan hair is great. It captures the golden look while also appearing yellow. It’s hard to describe, but it’s how I want a Super Saiyan’s hair to look. The rest of the animation is basically what you may expect from the Budokai Tenkaichi games. The models have less black lines across them and they seem more streamlined. I definitely have to give the graphics a big thumbs up!

The soundtrack isn’t the greatest as far as DBZ games go, but it’s good enough. The tunes can come across as a little generic, but there is a decently large selection so you’re almost guaranteed to find at least one song that you like. The opening is pretty catchy when the game first boots up and the dying Namek stage theme is pretty good. The game won’t be losing any points in this area!

This game has trophies and they’re pretty reasonable for the most part. I don’t care for the online trophies and I never will. Online trophies aren’t practical since the servers will eventually close and you’re doomed if people aren’t playing the game anymore. Beyond that, I’ve gotten a decent amount of the trophies, but I don’t intend on getting the Platinum. Not really worth the time and effort, but the trophies are still reasonable for the most part.

Overall, this was an excellent DBZ game and easily one of my favorites of all time! It’s my third favorite in the franchise behind Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and 3. We have a solid cast of characters and a really large story mode. With all of the collectibles and modes to try out; Raging Blast has a huge amount of replay value. You’ll be playing this game for countless hours and I recommend it to all 3D fighting game fans. Also, what’s cooler than the thought of playing as a Super Saiyan 3 Broly!?

Overall 9/10

Godzilla (2014) Review

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2014 has been a pretty big year for films so far. We got The Amazing Spider Man 2 and Captain America, which were both pretty great films in their own right. Nontheless, Godzilla was the film that I was excited for. Over the last year or two, I quickly went and watched all of the previous Godzilla films in the franchise so that I could be ready for this one when it hit theaters. Well, I made it and the film was excellent!

I have to say that the atmosphere was perfect for the film. It was cloudy and dark outside and you got the feeling that something terrifying was about to happen. Once you entered the theater, it was easy to see how excited everyone was. For once, the place was packed and the room was completely sold out. Surrounded by many Godzilla fans, I quickly braced myself for the inevitable awesomeness. Be warned that this review may contain spoilers!

I barely even need to describe the plot, but I may as well. After the Government “destroyed” Godzilla in 1954, they decided to hide this from the civilians. Joe is forced to move out of his home amidst devastating circumstances, but he suspects that this was no natural occurrence. After a 15 year time skip, forces are on the move on again and the Muto has awoken. Joe’s son, Ford, steps into the main role as he carries on the fight against the monsters. Hope seems to be lost and humanity may need to rely on the power of Godzilla to save them all!

Pretty vague summary, but most of the plot is in the trailer. It’s hard to know where to start in a film like this one where there is so much to say. I suppose that I should begin with the two negatives that I had with the film since it’s all uphill from there. The first negative was the very unnecessary scene that involved a dog attempting to run away from a large flood that was approaching. That scene came out of nowhere and it was added for no discernible reason. That definitely didn’t help the film and I was hoping that Godzilla would manage to avoid this particular error.

The other part that I didn’t care for was the romance between the main character and Elle. They only get two major scenes that are hard to watch, but that’s enough. It may have been a while since they’ve seen each other, but we don’t really need to see that. The scenes were far too long and this wasn’t a huge negative, but a negative all the same. I wouldn’t have minded if they just shook hands or something. That would have definitely been passable.

Now, let’s get into the good parts! Godzilla’s portrayal was spot on! He’s a hero, but he’s a fighter first and foremost. It was awesome to see him completely crushing the Muto monsters. During the first fight, Godzilla was winning effortlessly and there was nothing that they could do to stop him. I’ll admit that I got a little worried when they started double teaming him, but Godzilla still held his own. Godzilla’s Atomic Breath was an epic moment as well. I’m sure that everyone had been waiting for that moment and he definitely made the most out of it. It may not have ended the fight on his first blast, but the next one did the trick. Noticeably, Godzilla made an effort to avoid hurting any of the humans. He did get upset and put them in danger several times, but they were never his main concern.

Muto was a pretty fun villain. We had both a guy and a girl Muto. The guy version was a lot smaller, but he had wings to make up for this. He is definitely not the strongest monster out there, but he is still very large. His size is nothing compared to Godzilla, but his speed serves him well. The design is really fun and it reminds me of Clover, Kamakuras, and maybe even a little Orga in there. His EMP ability is also pretty fun and very useful against the government. It basically means that the humans are helpless against him.

The girl version of Muto is much larger, but she does not possess wings. Her physical strength is admirable and while she was not as physically strong as Godzilla, she was very powerful. Her limbs were sharp enough to stab into Godzilla when she struck and many hits connected against Godzilla. Her striking power is fierce and she proves that she can stand up to any other American Kaiju. Overall, the film did a great job of making this new Kaiju design. It can definitely hold up to any of the older ones and they look amazing.

Ford Brody is the main character and I can’t say that he was my favorite hero of late. He reminds me of Alex Hopper, but Hopper may have been a little better. It’s definitely debatable, but Ford just wasn’t cool to watch. He didn’t give Joe the benefit of the doubt for a while, which was sad. His army training was a nice twist since it gave him some experience, but it actually wasn’t played up all that much. Still, it helped for the Halo jump. Ford isn’t a bad character, but he can’t hold his own film so I’m definitely glad that it’s called Godzilla!

Joe Brody looked like he would be one of the main characters from the trailer and he does get a decent role, but it’s not as large as you may have expected. That’s not a really bad thing, but I would have preferred it if he had gotten a larger role in place of Ford. Joe was a lot more sympathetic and he knew what he was doing at all times. Getting that data was critical…hopefully.

Dr. Serizawa is around and he seems to be the son of the original Serizawa. Unfortunately, he’s a tough character to root for. He locks up the heroes and he then proceeds to make the exact same mistakes that the originals made. Was it really a good idea to let the Kaiju get near some more radiation? I don’t think so! Serizawa keeps on trying to tell the government to let nature run its course and allow Godzilla to win, which is good in theory…but he doesn’t make a strong case. He could have presented his argument in better ways. That being said, this is the army so I doubt that they would have listened to him. Serizawa was a decent character, but he definitely wasn’t as good as he could have been.

Elle Brody doesn’t get a whole lot of scenes, but she seems to be a reasonable person. I still say that Ford and Elle should have taken things a lot slower when he got back home. Elle makes the tough calls at the end, but it’s still good that she sent the kid away. (Maybe, she was safe the whole time so things may have been easier if they had been together) She was all right and maybe Elle will get more of a role in the sequel.

Godzilla’s design is a crucial part of any Godzilla film and this one did a nice job. The only part that I’m still not a fan of is Godzilla’s face. It looks way too much like a Bear and he just doesn’t have that Godzilla grin. Godzilla’s roar is as powerful as ever and the rest of his design is nice and monstrous. It’s definitely one of his better looks and I wouldn’t mind if they kept that design for the next film, but an alteration to the face would be good.

Godzilla gives us a lot of action as well as a few emotional scenes. Sandy Brody’s scene is pretty tragic and you’ll likely remember it from the trailer. Emotional moments can definitely be good as long as they’re handled the “right” way. Naturally that’s subjective, but I would say that the film handled the scene pretty well. It was sad, but it didn’t drag on for a while to keep on reminding us how sad it was.

Godzilla really shines in the action scenes. We didn’t get any until we were at the very end of the film, but it was the perfect setting. Nighttime in the middle of a big city is where I want just about all fights to take place. It’s the perfect arena and I loved seeing Godzilla throw Muto through a few buildings. His atomic breath scene was pretty epic and while the blast was not as big as you may have expected; it was played off as a compacted blast for maximum damage. That worked just as well for me. The fight was styalized after the showa films so we had a lot of hand to hand combat with minimal long range attacks. Godzilla’s final blow against the creature is pretty intense. Perhaps it was a little over the top, but it’s something that many fans had probably been waiting for and it definitely beats what I thought he was about to do. (I don’t want another Anguirus vs Mecha Godzilla right now…) Godzilla basically reminded everyone that you should not try to fight him.

The Mutos managed to land a lot of hits on Godzilla and they did deal a lot of damage, but the victor was never in doubt. I’ll admit that it got a little close for comfort since it was hard to imagine that they could put up such a fight. I did cut the film a little slack there because they parodied the roar part. Godzilla decided to take time off from the fight to let out a roar of challenge and the two monsters promptly took him down. Stopping to roar is not recommended in a fight, but Godzilla used to do that all the time. It was a nice homage.

One area of the film that never made sense was the cutaways. Several times Godzilla would be getting ready to fight Muto and then it would cut away. Once, we even jumped ahead to the next day and we’ll find out that Muto escaped with Godzilla in pursuit. I don’t get how their fights would keep ending so abruptly and it can be a little irritating. It feels like classic plot hax and that’s why they made sure that the scenes weren’t on screen. Perhaps it was the only way to make things believable. Still, I didn’t appreciate missing out on all of those fights so that was definitely a bit of a negative.

On the other hand, I did like the 3D roller coaster effect. Several times, it felt as if you were in a ride where you had to escape from the monsters. The camera would feel as if we were now in first person view as the monsters approached. It meant that we couldn’t really see the action, but it was very epic. One of the scenes that definitely stood out was when the burning train headed towards the two main characters. It felt like a horror scene and it was very well done.

We’ve also got to give the Bus Driver an honorable mention. He went above and beyond the call of duty as he put the peddle to the meddle. I have to give him credit for going full speed twice in the span of a few minutes as he had to get past the Kaiju. The kids were lucky that they were with this trained professional!

The soundtrack was pretty good for the film. We had some very serious themes and even a hero theme or two when Godzilla was fighting against Muto. Live Action films aren’t known for their great soundtracks so it’s always a pleasant surprise to see a film that actually does have some good tunes.

This was definitely a big improvement from the 98 film and I also prefer it to the new Pacific Rim adventure. Compared to other Godzilla films this one definitely won’t be very high in the ranks, but it did manage to defeat a few of them. The original Godzilla, Return of Godzilla, Raids Again, Vs Biollante, etc. This one definitely beat those films, but it naturally pales in comparison to Final Wars, GMK, Vs Mecha Godzilla, and the original Ghidorah The 3 Headed Monster. Hopefully this film does very well at the box office so that they can afford to have some more great fights for the sequel in 2016.

I have to admit that a post credits scene would have been perfect for the film. We got a chinese dragon symbol which may allude to Manda or Ghidorah, but I wanted something a little more bold. A Kaiju in space that is flying towards Earth, a tablet with the words, “Mothra Awakens” or even a final scene with the government and “Project Mecha Godzilla” Adding in any of those scenes would have been very epic and added another boost to the film.

Finally, there was one part in the ending that I did not care for. That part was Godzilla crumpling to the ground after defeating the other two Kaiju. Was it really that much of a fight? The two Muto monsters definitely did some significant damage to him during the double team, but I figured that Godzilla would be able to bounce back from it. I’m glad that he waited for the Mutos to be out of the picture before fainting, but I didn’t expect that from Godzilla. I just thought that he’d head back to the ocean and call it a day. I expect him to end his next fight with a little less damage to show off Godzilla’s unlimited stamina and determination!

Overall, Godzilla is everything that I could have hoped for! Godzilla looked incredible and the monster fights were a lot of fun. The Dog scene may have helped to knock down the score along with the romance, but the film definitely succeeded in the long run. I highly recommend checking this film out as soon as possible and you won’t be disappointed. It’s not every day that you get to watch the King of the Monsters in theaters after all!

Overall 8/10

Godzilla vs Hank Schrader

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Hank Schrader will join the fray against the King of the Monsters, but he will be defeated. He can’t hope to win against such a fearsome beast and he’ll quickly be defeated. Godzilla has done pretty well today and I’m sure that we can expect him to get more wins in the future. This is Godzilla and he never backs down from an intense fight! Godzilla wins.