Gotengo

The nihongo|"Gotengo"|轟天号 or ごうてんごう|Gōten-gō|"Roaring Heaven", also known in the West as "Atragon", is a submarine battleship that has appeared in several tokusatsu films of Toho Company, Ltd., beginning with "Atragon" (1963). It was first conceived by author Shunrō Oshikawa in his 1899 novel "Kaitei Gunkan" ("Undersea Battleship"), of which "Atragon" was a 1963 adaptation produced by Toho Studios. The submarine is heavily armed and armored, but its trademark tactic is to ram and sink enemy ships. In cinema, the submarine is easily identifiable by the enormous drill on its bow, a feature conceived by for the feature film; it is also notable for being able to burrow underground and fly (even, in "The War in Space", into outer space).

"Godzilla: Final Wars"

The "Gotengo" is used mostly for battling monsters in "". For instance, in the first sequence it is battling Godzilla in the 1960's, resulting in Godzilla's burial under hundreds of feet of ice. Immediately after the opening credits, the "Gotengo" is locked in battle against its old enemy Manda, which the ship defeats with an emergeny maneuver through an underwater volcano and a combination of the Absolute Zero Cannon and drill. Later on, during the Xilian-induced monster attacks on major cities, the "Gotengo" is dispatched to destroy them. However, the only weapon that truly works to destroy the alien threat is Godzilla himself.

Video Games

The "Gotengo" appeared as a playable character in the Super Nintendo game "Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters" ref|1|1. Utilizing various lasers, the Zero Cannon, its drill, an electrical surge, and two different fighting styles, "Gotengo" is a powerful character but is rather difficult to use (it is also only available in the Versus Mode).

The "Gotengo" also appeared in the video game "", under its original Western name "Atragon" (in the game mislabeled "Atoragon") as an unplayable boss-style character.

In the game's story Mode, General Gyozen, a military official obsessed with destroying all kaiju, steals the vehicle to attack all of the monsters (excluding the Global Defense Force Mecha-kaiju). In the Earth Defender, Alien and Mutant stories, Gyozen is introduced in the "Enter Gyozen" episode (the "Atragon" does not appear in the stage, however) early in the game. The "Atragon" will first appear in the episode "Gyozen's Grudge" a few stages later, in London. Upon beginning the stage, if the objective is not completed in a certain amount of time, the "Atragon" appears and begins attacking the player monster, ignoring the CPU monster. The next time the ship appears is in the episode "Gyozen's Plan", which takes place in New York City. Like before, the "Atragon" will appear if the objective is not completed after a few minutes. However, if the CPU character is an ally monster, the "Atragon" becomes a sort of mini-boss, with a health bar appearing on the bottom of the screen that must be reduced to half before the "Atragon" flees and the stage is won.

"Atragon"'s last appearance is in the second-to-last stage "Flight of the "Atoragon" in Osaka as a boss, where its health must be fully depleted in order to win. "Atragon" has several attacks: It flies up off the screen between attacks, and drops down into the arena to attack, preventing it from being attacked until it drops down; it drops right beside the layer and starts a broadside barrage of four lasers that can seriously injure the player (announced by Gyozen saying "Fire broadside batteries!"); it can drop down a distance away and initiate a fast ramming attack with the drill (Gyozen says "Activate drill!" just before the ship drops, and the attack comes very fast); and it can drop a distance away and fire a volley of seeker missiles as well as a devastating crystal laser from the drill ("Charge the cannon!" is the cue here). In the Playstation 2 version of G:U "Atragon" also has the Absolute Zero Cannon, allowing it to freeze kaiju.

* [http://www.tohokingdom.com/vg/gdam/gotengo.htm] Tohokingdom: Characters: Gotengo