Kaiju Response Team

An evil monster has attacked the city! Does the Kaiju Response Team have what it takes to defeat it before it razes the city? This game was released on 02 Feb 2025 by Kaiju Response Team for the 2025 64brew Game Jam.

You can get the ROM from its download page by using the password kingofthemonkeys. You can also get it from Drive, and its code from Github.

About Kaiju Response Team

A giant monster has attacked the city, and it’s up to you to take it down while keeping citizens safe! In this game, you drive a rescue truck through a synthwave-inspired Japanese city that is under siege by a kaiju.

The truck has typical tank controls, but it also comes with a water hose and a giant repair hammer. Evey time the kaiju attacks, it’ll either damage the building or set it on fire (30% chance). The building will collapse if left aflame for too long or if it’s been hit with damage more than once. It’s unlikely to target the same building twice, so fires should be your priority.

Once you reach a building in peril, you need to water it down with Z if it’s on fire, and then repair it with R until its damage is gone.

You’ll notice that there are some buildings that have large yellow cranes next to them. These are construction sites that take a long time to build but are the only way to defeat the kaiju. Once built into glorious satellite dishes, they will chip away at the kaiju bit by bit until its health goes down to zero so be sure to keep them in good health as well.

You can gather upgrades along the way, but what they do is not very clear. I think they increase acceleration, max speed and repair speed.

The game ends after either the kaiju has been taken down or eight buildings have been lost.

Credits

Kaiju Response Team was made by…. Kaiju Response Team. It consists of:

• Xtagon
• Will

Review and conclusion

I feel like this is the kind of game that embodies what a homebrew game should be: A simple premise with an enjoyable gameplay loop that comes with great presentation in both the visual and audio department.

It took me a while to figure out what the true objective of the game was though. I spent about 30 minutes driving around repairing buildings whilst in a zen-like meditation. Once you get into the rhythm, it’s easy to play through it without losing any buildings. I then wondered why I never had to repair any of the buildings with yellow cranes so in the downtime between repairs, I drove close to one and realised they could be worked on. And then it all clicked.

One major annoyance is that the radar/minimap is flipped, so turning left in the game makes the radar spin clockwise and vice-versa. A small cutscene takes place every time the kaiju attacks but you can still move and repair using the minimap as a guide, so this reverse-control makes it feel very weird. The truck also gets caught up a lot on building corners, so be sure to reverse a little bit after each repair before driving forward again.

The kaiju is a bit hard to see since it floats high in the sky and the cutscene shows it for just a split second, but if you look closely it turns out to be the Suzanne blender monkey, which is just hilarious to make her into a giant monster attacking the city.

The custom music by Xtagon fits great with the synthwave vibes, and it gives the scene a sense of fear and urgency. There is a Japanese voice warning every time the kaiju attacks, but it doesn’t get too annoying.

Kaiju Response Team absolutely nails its simple-but-challenging concept, backed by stellar presentation. While the controls have a few rough edges and the objectives take a moment to click, it’s a truck ride that’s more than worth taking.