A few months ago, we learned that Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki‘s next project with the king of all Kaiju wasn’t going to be his next movie, but a new theme park ride set to open in Japan this summer. Now we have more details of what to expect… and what familiar shiny face Godzilla will throw hands with during it.
Today it was confirmed that Yamazaki’s ride, set to open next month at the Seibuen Amusement Park in Tokorozawa, Japan, is called Godzilla the Ride: Great Clash, and will see Godzilla face off against a completely new Mechagodzilla, designated the “KIJU type 0‐G BREAKER‐.”
Great Clash will cast ride-goers as crew members of an organization called EDGE, the Emergency Defense against Gargantuan Encounter. Stepping aboard EDGE’s flagship vessel and getting aboard an aerial/amphibious drone, the roughly 15-minute splash ride will see attendees hunt down and engage Godzilla as he scraps with the new Mechagodzilla. As well as the ride experience itself, Great Clash will include a pre-show room with live actors, letting attendees see footage of Godzilla attacks, detailed schematics of EDGE’s vehicles, and even a mockup of the new Mechagodzilla in its hangar waiting for deployment.
The new design has some interesting parallels to both Yamazaki’s Godzilla design in Minus One, as well as the design used in Legendary’s Monsterverse for Mechagodzilla’s appearance in Godzilla vs. Kong. The streamlined head, removing the usual pointed ears and head crest typical of Toho’s Mechagodzilla designs definitely feels a little more akin to that Western design, but the overall smoothness and chunky armor plating is definitely more evocative of Mechagodzilla’s Japanese designs, looking much less skeletal. It’s an intriguing mix of design philosophies that you probably won’t get to appreciate all that much if you’re lucky enough to get on board Great Clash this summer while you’re busy enjoying the ride itself.
Godzilla the Ride: Great Clash will open at Seibuen Amusement Park on August 1.
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