THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

Check out http://www.zillastyle.com for awesome finds from around the world!

Also: I'm messing around with templates here, so don't be surprised if the place looks broken ;)

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Am I Godzilla? I am Godzilla!

For a while now games have tried to put the player in the 'shoes' of giant monsters. None however have been so specific as 'I Am Godzilla!'. This flash game has literally one mechanic, stomping.

Using either the keyboard or mouse you control your mighty 'zilla foot, and press space or the left mouse button to crush whatever, or whoever is foolish enough to be below it. You have to time your clicks to get the most effective stomp in, and failing to do so results in some quick button mashing to lift your foot before you can take damage. This usually comes from from angry citizens and the army, who don't take kindly to your new found hobby.

As you rack up points and progress you'll be able to purchase upgrades, and effectively grow up, making your business end larger, faster and stronger (cue Daft Punk). Speaking of music, in the game tune choice is kinda weird, but hey! You might love it!

To recap the controls, use the mouse or arrow keys to move. Press the right mouse button or space to stomp. Press P to pause. Finally when low on health you have the option to press R to run away, which results in a mini game where you either press keys or move the mouse to run, after which you return to the same level with as much heath as you could accumulate. This is essential in later levels. Go forth and stompify!

Armor Games - I Am Godzilla

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Old Chewits adverts

One the first 'zilla style things I saw growing up was The Muncher, a mascot for Chewits sweets in the UK. In the 80s he was a classic B-Movies clay-mation monster. In the early 90s the colour sceme got brighter and the monster more cartoon like, but still clay-mation. Then in the late 90s they made the jump to 2D animation, also renaming him to The Chewitsaurus. Now he's seen less on TV, and more as an internet logo mascot known as 'Chewie'.

The old clay-mation adverts were a lot of fun, usually involving The Muncher eating various other things (vehicles, the Taj Mahal, Barrow-In-Furness's bus depot) but always found Chewits to be, well... chewiest!

The hardest video to find has been the early 90s commercial. The new-look Muncher was trying out rubber boats, rubber tires and something else trying to find something chewy. Eventually he settled on Chewits, naturally! Do you remember this advert? If so please get in touch just so I know I'm not going mad! I'd love to see it again. It's interesting to see how to image has evolved and you can find more Chewits videos on zillastyle's Youtube page linked below. In the meantime here's my favourite from the 80s version.

Youtube - zillastyledotcom
Chewits - Official Website

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You are the Kaiju

So it's 10pm in the UK and I'm still taking in all the recent announcements from Microsoft's E3 press conference. E3 is a big-ass electronic expo where Microsoft, Sony & Nintendo (aka: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 & Wii) show off all their new hardware and software. Microsoft just had their time to show off, and would you believe it! Giant monsters found their way into the press conference. This is further proof that Kaijus make everything better.

A project codenamed "Natal" (Microsoft's answer to Wii's motion controls) looks pretty cool. Instead of relying on a controller... YOU ARE THE CONTROLLER! Imagine that! It's basically PlayStation's Eye-toy on steroids which recognises your movements, as well as your voice.

The promo video features not only bad actors pretending to have fun, but also an example of monster madness. Check out the the video below around 1:12 in, you don't control the Kaiju...

YOU ARE THE KAIJU!

Xbox 360 - Official Website

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Happy birthday Big Ben

The world's most famous clock celebrates its 150th birthday today! Also it's important to remember that the name 'Big Ben' actually refers to the bell which resides in one of the UK's most iconic Landmarks.

Despite the clock starting on May 31st 1859, the great bell within didn't actually sound until a good six weeks later on June 11th. Regardless, the instantly recognisable sound has kept Londoners on-time for a century and a half. Must be hard working in London, you've no excuse to be late with that loud thing reminding you when it's the top of the hour. Excuses excuses indeed...

You'd be right to ask how this fits in this blog. Well back in 1961, Eugene Lourie (who brought us The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms eight years earlier) directed a British take on Godzilla movies called 'Gorgo'. While perhaps not as well none as the 1953 classic, Gorgo sees a sea monster's offspring captured and taken to London as a circus sideshow. Naturally, "Mama" Gorgo isn't happy about this and heads to London to get her kid back.

While ironically difficult to find in the UK, this movie is available on DVD in the US. Here however is cult TV show MST3K's take on Gorgo, specifically the scene in which Big Ben is destroyed just under two minutes into this clip. If you're unfamiliar with MST3K (or, Mystery Science Theatre 3000) then I hope this is a decent introduction, but I've provided a link below so you can find out more about this amazing (now sadly finished) show.

Gorgo on DVD - Amazon
MST3K Info - Wikipedia

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Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus

Yep, you read that right. A MEGA Shark fights a GIANT Octopus. According to the official site, this movie will by out by May 26th, 2009. It's also being made by the same people who brought us TransMORPHers, THE Terminators, and 30,000 Leagues Under The Sea. All wonderful rip-offs of similarly titled franchises.

Do we hate them for this? No way! Despite the absurdity of these kinds of movies, it's still fun to see what crazy stuff people will come up with next. I say keep them coming! Where else am I going to see a giant shark snap at the Golden Gate Bridge? Or better yet! A giant shark leaping-out-of-the-water-and-biting-an-airliner-in-mid-flight!

Check out the trailer below, followed by the epic airline scene.

Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus - Official Site

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Drink more milk, destroy cities better

Convincing kids that milk is more fun than soft drinks can be a tough sell. I love milk, but I have it in in tea more than anything. Also I'm talking about regular cow milk, none of that crazy stuff. Yak milk or whatever.

It turns out over sized lizards need to drink milk too, otherwise a trip to town can end up being really embarrassing!

The BC Dairy Foundation held an an online contest for users to submit their "must drink more milk" videos. Naturally, in a perfect example of what could be called "The Godzilla Rule." a Kaiju-based video was entered. It features, as mentioned above, a 'zilla style monster coming to town and realising he should have drunk more of the white stuff.

I've also included another "milk promotion meets dinosaur comedy" video. I was surprised to find more than one. I guess it's just another example of dinosaurs making everything better.

Must Drink More Milk - Official Site
BC Dairy Foundation - Official Site

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Guilala believes you can be rich like him

So if you're looking for a $100K+ job 'The Ladders' got your back! This ad features Godzilla wannabe, Guilala! Also known as ギララ or Girara. He first appeared in 'X From Outer Space' back in 1967, a perfectly ham-filled monster romp cashing in on the aforementioned King of the Monster's success.

However in 2008, perhaps in the wake of Coverfield's success in making people perhaps care a little more about monster movies, a remake ... or sequel, was made! I've not seen it as yet, but it does star Kitano 'Beat' Takeshi (seen in cult classic 'Battle Royale' & game show 'Takeshi's Castle') so I don't know why I've not bought a copy already.

Anyhoo! The Ladders group chose this big guy, as well as wee versions of him to illustrate the difference between the big and the little. The successful and the unsuccessful.

Perhaps a little ironic considering big money's harder to make these days. It might even be a little insulting to people earning $25K a year, or even $80K! They're after $100K+ champions baby! Not losers like myself, although I wonder what someone with the CV to earn a hundred thousand dollars a year would need from a 3rd party company to ensure they get the job? Surely if you're asking for that much 'dolla' your resume better be thick with success already.

The youtube account hosting this particular video must be official or something because they have little behind-the-scenes videos as well. These feature one of the smaller Guilala characters complaining about their less than staring roll. They're not very funny but harmless fun I suppose. I chose this one because it had swearing and I wanted to be edgy...

So there you have it! If you want more money you have to be a monster, rarr!

The Ladders - Official Site

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Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar

Dinosaurs? Check. Are they also Robots? Check. Jet Packs? Check. Laser Beams? Check. We're done here! Play the game below!

The controls are simple. You move your Dinosaur around the screen with the mouse, and press the left button to fire. You'll battle various flying enemies, and it all culminates with an obligatory boss-fight.

Why don't huge game companies use concepts as good as this? Pah.

Arcade Bomb - Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar

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Braid music available online

Braid was awesome for many reasons. Concept, execution and style all played a part, also the music kicked ass. From the opening alap to the bouncy strings of the first levels, the game had a its own vibe.

Interestingly the music wasn't written in house, but licenced from independent musicians who had uploaded their work to magnatune.com.

It was also nice to see and artsy, indie game not be completely up its own arse. The ending was clever and the puzzles were pretty tough, but the satisfaction of figuring them out was unparalleled. I felt clever! Anyways, check out the various links below to hear to check out the music and the official site. If you've not played Braid, it really is different (and frustrating at times) for all the right reasons.

I've not listened to it fully, but that's only because I keep replaying the first two tracks 'Maenam' and 'Downstream'. Below is some footage from an earlier level of the game. Ironically it doesn't feature the music I'm raving about, but it's a good example of one type of puzzle. Also a great nod to Mario & Donkey Kong.

Official Site - News about the music
Magnatune - The Braid section
Wikipedia - Find out what an 'alap' is! :P

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Kaiju in video games

Video games have always featured giant monsters. For some it's the entire premise of the game, but apart from the obvious, you'd be surprise how many games sneak a bit of Kaiju fun in there. How many? Well check out Giant Bomb's "Kaiju" section to find out!

Giant Bomb is one of the more awesome game sites out there. Not just because of the awesome GB staff, but also because of its more trust-worthy wiki of all things gaming.

I signed up on the day it launched, and my first contribution to the wiki was the Kaiju concept, it even got a mention on the site's podcast, so I guess it's a more interesting concept than I thought. Although in saying that they do have a very popular page on Hamburgers.

Giant Bomb - Kaiju Games

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Godzilla gets MTV's life-time achievement award

So way back in 1996 Godzilla was honoured by MTV's movie buffs. A year prior we bid farewell to the big guy in Godzilla vs. Destroyer, but after forty years of film-making it was a well deserved award. He's footage from the ceremony, presented by Patrick Stewart. I think it's either Godzilla or James Bond who has the most movies, I guess there's room for a Godzilla vs. James Bond movie in there somewhere.

Man... remember 1996? I remember Independence Day came out. Hunchback of Notre Dame... Mars Attacks... I guess movies came out in 1996.

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Godzilla vs. The Mushroom Kingdom

So one cool thing about this blog is that I'm able to share my findings on the internet. Some of them you'll have seen, others I'm sure you will have not. Either way, I just want to share the goodness! This is a video of Godzilla in the mushroom kingdom. It's also my first video post so I get to try sticking a youtube video in here... here goes!

Ohh and you want to hear something obnoxious? I spell-checked this post and it found two errors. Apparently I should have spelt both 'internet' and 'youtube' with capitals... Up Yours google! :P

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Kaiju-kicks availible in Europe

Last year 'Loyal K*N*G' wrote an article on an upcoming line of Puma shoes, based on famous giant monsters. They included Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Mothra, Mecha-Godzilla, and King Kong. The shoes are unlicensed it would seem, as they've adopted interesting names like "Lizoid King" and "Terror King" rather than use Toho's registered trademarks.

Recently I was able to find a website which will distribute to Germany and the UK, the only irony is I couldn't find the Godz... erm, sorry, 'Lizoid King' set. Darn! They've got all the others, and by the time you've read this article they could have them all, or be sold out!

If you're in North America (or of course, Japan) I'm sure you have a much better chance of finding these shoes. I was really surprised to find somewhere which would ship to the UK. Godzilla merch is really tough to find over here! If you find a new place which is selling them, feel free to post the link in the comments section.

Original article - Loyal K*N*G
Online retailer - The Good Will Out

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About me

Hello! If you're reading this you've found my little space on the web. It's a place where I can post random musings and various finds online and off, bits of news, and generally blabber like so many blogs out there.

The idea for zillastyle.com occurred when I realized the reason I didn't update my previous blog is because I'm not really interested in talking about my day-to-day activities. I'd rather find something or see something or get told something and talk about that. I enjoy video games, music, movies, graphic design and of course (if you haven't guessed) I'm a huge Godzilla fan. So rather than wait until something truely amazing happens here at home, now the plan is to just talk about the random stuff I find interesting, funny, informative, and the rest.

The site is split into various catagories in the Navigation Bar above. Favourites is where I'll link to something which was pretty cool at the time. Next is Kaiju and that's where you'll find all the 'zilla style news about Godzilla and other giant monsters.

I'm trying to learn Japanese at the moment. I've always enjoyed the tech-savvy stereotype of Tokyo, I'd like to go there some day. It'd be nice to actually understand all these monster movies I own. We'll see how that goes. Also, Japanese game shows are the best!

I'm into playing video games, although I don't play them as much as I'd like. There's a lot to choose from nowadays and I've no interested in going bankrupt trying to to purchase every new game which comes out. I always end up falling back on action and puzzle games. Xbox 360 is the weapon of choice.

In Movies and Music you'll find various bits of news and hopefully reviews of stuff. I want to review movies because I think figured out a fantastic rating system. 'Good Movie' or 'Bad Movie' - it's perfect! Spare me your metacritic nonsense! Was it good or bad?

Videos simply lists all the posts on this site which contain video footage, and finally there's the RSS feed!

At the time of writing this biog, it's April 2009. I hope you enjoy my thoughts and perspective on stuff. I guess we'll find out!

Cheers!

- zillastyle

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