We wonder what went through Rogue Play’s collective heads when they got the Godzilla licence. Given the leash of the world's most iconic building-mashing monster, we can’t work out at what point they felt that a match three puzzler would be the best fit. But while Godzilla - Smash3 may not offer the most apt use the king of lizards, it does offer some monstrous elements.

Controlling Godzilla, you must battle the military, smash buildings, and defeat other monsters. While you match-up colours beneath, the top of the screen translates your moves into attacks in the game’s impressive 3D engine. This visual orgy of creature-on-skyscraper violence vaguely ties the game to the film, but it only serves to slow down the puzzle game going on below the carnage.

Like similar battle-based puzzle games, the combat is controlled by joining three or more matching blocks by tracing a line through them with your finger. The more blocks you combine, the more powerful Godzilla's attacks become. It’s a responsive system, even on smaller screens, and can prove very satisfying as you create massive chains that destroy enemy tanks in a single blow. 

There's more to the game than smashing, though. Blocks are scattered throughout the grid which boost health, charge your devastating atomic breath, and clog the board with rubble. These introduce different strategic option, and bring a considerable amount of challenge to levels with specific objectives.

While these blocks do change how you play, they also prove the game's downfall. Goals quickly become unreasonably punishing, steering you towards the store in the hope you'll pay out for continues and extra lives. By level nine, the first level to introduce a time limit, we found that the random grids were already becoming nearly impassable without investing in continues, a fact that made the sluggish animations at the top of the screen all the more maddening.

Godzilla - Smash3 is such an odd use of the infamous beastie that it is hard to believe many fans of the movie will really be that interested. While it is a passable interpretation of the genre, it quickly becomes a pay-to-win game, making it hard to recommend.