NES Godzilla Chapter 4: Dementia

DISCLAIMER: This story will have graphic imagery. If you are squeamish, I highly recommend not reading any further.

When I got back to the game, I was getting very upset and confused.

I thought about the way the monster looked at me. The game COULDN'T have heard what I said, that's impossible. It had to be a random occurrence. But why did it happen precisely at the moment I insulted the monster?

Nothing about this game made any sense. The new Godzilla monsters, the weird replacement monsters, out of place imagery like the green temples, quiz levels, and the red monster chases. It didn't seem to add up in any kind of meaningful way.

If it was a prank, it wasn't funny in any way I could understand, and they clearly put far too much effort into it.

If they were trying to make a genuine sequel with the new Godzilla monsters, then why did they add...everything else?

Maybe it was some kind of art experiment? Some group project made by a group of really talented and crazy people and they lost the cartridge somehow? Or they intended for some random person to find it?

It was all just fruitless guessing. As far as I could tell, there was only one way to figure out what the deal with this game was. To play it through to the end. Maybe, just maybe, there would be something in the credits, an explanation by the creators as to why they made this. Or it could be something much more cryptic and strange, maybe even something more horrifying.

Before I got a good look at the Dementia board, I considered replaying Trance to see if the red monster would look at me again. But I decided against it. I wanted to keep moving forward. I was also somewhat worried that backtracking might cause the game to become even more strange.

The Dementia board music sounded a lot like the Saturn music, except it was slowed down and played with a piano-sounding instrument. Like most of these new map themes, it had a dangerous suspenseful feel.

While listening to the music, I looked at the Dementia board. There were four boss monsters this time: Space Godzilla, Manda, Gigan, and Baragon. I was surprised that there were two new Toho monsters this time. But the best was still to come.

I started the quiz level. Here's another list of results in the same format as the last one.

Quiz 2

1. Can you swim?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Happy

2. Do you like fish?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Sick

3. Can penguins fly?

Answer: No, Reaction: Sad

4. Can it spin in all directions? (There was no clarification of what Face meant by "it" so I just guessed)

Answer: No, Reaction: Surprised

5. Do you breathe oxygen?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Weird Face #6

6. Do you like cats?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Confused

7. Is water wet?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Angry

8. Have you ever broken a bone?

Answer: No, Reaction: Happy

9. Do you like your job?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Hurt

10. Would you like a new monster?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Weird Face #11

I wasn't entirely sure at the time as to what Face meant by "new monster," but I couldn't resist answering "Yes" just to see what would happen. The result was mind blowing.

The game took me back to the board and I had a new playable monster in the form of Anguirus! Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to play as Anguirus, since he was my second favorite Godzilla monster (And plus I never liked Mothra all that much).

Before I get into the level description I'll talk about Anguirus a bit:

Using the up and down buttons you could choose whether Anguirus stood in a bipedal stance or crawled around on all fours. It wasn't a huge difference, but being able to stand was helpful in boss fights, and crawling sometimes helped dodge obstacles and attacks.

He could punch and kick like Godzilla, but no tail whip. Instead, he something far more interesting: the ability to curl up into a spiked ball of death and roll around. You could still take damage, but it was lessened. It was good way of clearing out stage enemies, but unfortunately doing this also drained the power bar.

But the spiked ball wasn't his only special ability. When you press "Start," he would fire a beam of energy from his mouth. It resembled Titanosaurus's sonar attack, and if this were a hack it may have been inspired by the Roar attack from Atari's Godzilla fighting games.

Also of note is that when playing as Anguirus, the level meter gets glitched up. Judging by the life and power bar, I'd say he's on level 10.

Now, on to the level: