Kaiju Wars is an isometric strategy game from Foolish Mortals Games. Players take the role of a newly elected nameable mayor, whose city has become the target of ravaging kaiju monsters. The mayor personally heads to the frontlines to issue orders to the army and air force. As attacks become more frequent, players may find a conspiracy that goes far beyond just the city limits.

Kaiju Wars, PC, Review, Turn Based Strategy, Foolish Mortals Games, Michael Long, Military, Retro

The gameplay in Kaiju Wars is fragmented into three phases: economy, military, and kaiju. While managing the economy, any standing buildings will produce money, science, or other resources. During the military part, players can build various types of bases, deploy attack vehicles, or repair damaged units. Finally, it becomes the kaiju’s turn to move across the land, destroy money generators, or defeat military forces. Strategies for winning may include protecting buildings to stockpile a vast army, repeatedly throwing the most robust military to kill the kaiju outright, or generating a high enough science score to claim victory instantly.

Player tactics may change depending on which of the five kaiju are attacking and the special moves in their arsenal. The Godzilla like lizard kaiju has automatic healing and a multi-tile range breath attack, making direct battle lengthy and costly. Meanwhile, the Mothra like flying kaiju can quickly destroy planes, but it is more vulnerable to land-based units like tanks and artillery.

Kaiju Wars, PC, Review, Turn Based Strategy, Foolish Mortals Games, Michael Long, Military, Retro, NoobFeed

Controls in Kaiju Wars are almost entirely done with the mouse. Players will click on individual buildings and units and direct them to the exact tile to interact with. At times, commands will switch between left and right mouse to confirm, which often feels clunky and pointless. The game also has some hotkeys to quickly pause, skip turns, or move around the map quickly. This is especially handy as some of Kaiju Wars’ can be text dense and a bit hard to parse at a glance.

The unfolding campaign introduces each kaiju monster at a time, allowing players to understand the key moves that each one uses and how to defend against them. Further missions mix things up by having multiple kaiju deploy on a single map, resulting in players shifting focus or risk complete annihilation quickly. During each scenario, players will receive additional advice from their military specialist Major Danger and/or scientist Doctor Wagner; other advisers may also speak up from time to time. But players should treat these suggestions with a grain of salt, as some may lead to worse situations or contradict.

Kaiju Wars, PC, Review, Turn Based Strategy, Foolish Mortals Games, Michael Long, Military, Retro >

The story of Kaiju Wars is presented as a multi-page, six-act comic book. Players can skip ahead and see a preview of the pictures throughout the comic but can only read each panel one at a time in order. These may present a story cutscene, real-life acted newsreel, or a playable stage. The oddity is that the game always jumps back to the comic after such events. It would have been a good feature to have a more immersive move that automatically moves forward to the next part of the campaign.

The story campaign will last around 20 hours to complete leaving players hungry for more. Besides the comic book, players can also take time to browse Kaiju War’s television network. These channels will continually broadcast news segments to build world lore (including ones not already within the campaign) or provide YouTube links to international kaiju films within the public domain.

Kaiju Wars, PC, Review, Turn Based Strategy, Foolish Mortals Games, Michael Long, Military, Retro

Kaiju Wars also includes a full map editor suite. These tools allow players to make a fully customized map and scenario. Players can even upload completed levels to the Steam Workshop and download other people’s works. The tools allow for selecting different tilesets, starting buildings, kaiju stats, and side objectives. Most of the creation interface is easy to understand, tough with no guided tutorial. It will take a lot of playtesting to make sure a custom level both functions and is balanced enough to be enjoyable.

The art direction in Kaiju Wars is all over the place, making it feel like several games mish-mashed together. In-battle retro sprites are immaculate, and every animation is incredibly smooth. This gives the individual kaiju lots of presence and personality even if they have no outright dialogue.

Kaiju Wars, PC, Review, Turn Based Strategy, Foolish Mortals Games, Michael Long, Military, Retro

The art for human characters like Major Danger and Doctor Wagner can be outright garish, mainly inside the comic book or on loading screens. It seems like the artists were trying to emulate 1960s Godzilla posters but missed the mark with proportions and color. Finally, the real-life actors are a jarring contrast to the otherwise digital setting. Though most of their performances are good and humorous, it would have been better to stick to one unified graphical style.

The music in Kaiju Wars is fantastic. The entire soundtrack is mostly retro chiptune based. It captures a level of nostalgia for both early 8-bit game consoles and 1960s Japanese cinema. Each tileset also has a fitting theme, making it feel like players are marching forward to an even more grand and intense battle. However, there are no unique tracks to browsing menus, reading the comic, or making a level outside of the mission music. Spending time in these auxiliary aspects will eventually make the limited soundtrack sound repetitive.

Kaiju Wars, PC, Review, Turn Based Strategy, Foolish Mortals Games, Michael Long, Military, Retro, NoobFeed

The in-game experience is bug-free and playable without any hiccups. But the initial startup load time is oddly long for such a simple-looking game. It is possible that either Kaiju Wars is either un-optimized or those great animations are due to actual powerful graphics. Additionally, the game application will sometimes fail to properly close upon exit.

While each individual campaign battle is engaging, with only six acts Kaiju Wars doesn’t have enough content on its own. Players will need to rely on building their own maps and finding others produced by the Steam community. Foolish Mortals Games may also further add improvements to Kaiju Wars, with the developer already mentioning additional modes and multiplayer support. These features could make it worth the launch price.

Kurtis Seid, NoobFeed
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