By Dante Spado
I’ve been living Godzilla vs. Kong for a year and a half. On a weekly basis, I am a proud supporter of Godzilla and Lizard Nation. Let me explain.
Between sophomore and junior year, I bought the game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for my Nintendo Switch. I played it frequently over the summer, spending many hours mastering characters such as Cloud and Little Mac. But there was one character in particular I had a strong affinity towards: King K. Rool.
K. Rool is the main villain in the Donkey Kong franchise. He’s a big crocodile with a crown on his head, a cape and an armored stomach. He is to Donkey Kong what Bowser is to Mario. That summer, I spent hours throwing around K. Rool’s weight, shooting opponents with his cannonball gun and countering their attacks with his gold-plated stomach. He quickly became my go-to character.
At the start of junior year, my roommates and I moved into an apartment with a common area and a big TV, and the first thing I did was set up the Switch and Smash. My roommate, Alex, booted up the game and selected Donkey Kong. The rivalry was instantly born.
Alex and I spent countless hours doing what we call the “D.K.- K. Rool matchup” where he plays as Donkey Kong and I play as King K. Rool. We would start off doing best of five sets, but soon it evolved into keeping a running tally of who won more games. At one point, I was a good 10 games up on him, but the tide quickly changed and I was down 10 games. This rivalry would lead to some tense moments, and while it was all in good fun, it definitely made our blood boil. If Alex won a match he would bang on his chest like a gorilla, and if I won I would taunt him by smacking my stomach the same way K. Rool does. Those actions would push our buttons, and next thing you know, we’d be playing another match.
This rivalry has been going strong for almost four full semesters now, and it’s evolved outside of the game too. If I ever say I can’t hang out or do some activity because I have homework or work to do, Alex will say “that’s typical Lizard Nation.” I’ll then tell him “someone has to work around here, an Ape Nation guy wouldn’t get that.”
So, when the trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong dropped, we were amped up. While D.K. vs. K. Rool is a rivalry for the ages, Kong vs. Zilla is the big leagues. We sent each other memes in support of our fighter and antagonized one another for days. We also decided that, COVID-permitted, we’re gonna go see the movie on the big screen and treat it like a sporting event, cheering on our fighter and booing the other.
While I think it’s obvious Godzilla will win this fight by a landslide, especially considering they had to increase Kong’s size for the movie, it should be a good fight, and hopefully a good movie. If not, I may have to release the Dante cut; dozens of hours of footage of Alex and I running the D.K.-K. Rool matchup.