Godzilla, SimCity Societies ready to rumble

Godzilla and major metropolitan cities have metaphorically gone toe-to-toe many times, but the result is always a mayor's worst nightmare. While cities have essentially gone 0-for-a-million in the long-standing rivalry, that might change this holiday season as the two familiar foes take their struggle into the retail arena.

The rumble in the concrete jungle is nearly here once again. Atari today announced that Godzilla Unleashed for the PlayStation 2 and Wii has gone gold, while Electronic Arts revealed that SimCity Societies for the PC has achieved the same status.

Looking at the tale of the tape, Godzilla Unleashed was developed by Pipeworks Software, the studio with considerable experience bringing the gargantuan metaphor of the dangers of scientific progress to the world of games. They also handled the last two games starring the movie monster, 2002's Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee and 2004's Godzilla: Save the Earth.

Meanwhile, SimCity Societies development was handled by Tilted Mill Entertainment. The team at Tilted Mill has never worked with the venerable SimCity franchise before, but it does have experience with both the city-building genre and picking up an established franchise. Its debut title was Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile, which it followed up with another historic city-building sim (and the latest iteration of an Impressions Games PC series), Caesar IV.

EA set a specific launch date of November 13 for its city-building spin-off in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. However, it seems nobody wants to tell the jade giant where to be or when; Atari is saying only that Godzilla Unleashed will be out this holiday season.