I like big robots. Mecha, as they’re often known. I like the genre and, mostly, I like the games.
Unfortunately, the trend seems to be towards arcade-style reflex-testers, rather than games where big robots are a bit slower and more ponderous. Much as I enjoy Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, I want something a bit different. I know we’ve had Chromehounds, but the campaign was a bit rubbish.
Basically I want Mechwarrior games back. Or Front Mission games. Or both. On my 360.
I consider Mechwarrior 3 to be the best of the Battletech-canon games, and I really liked Front Mission 3 and so was gutted when Square didn’t feel like releasing Front Mission 4 in Europe. Or Front Mission 5. Or any other Front Mission games. I didn’t own or play MW4.
MW4 and FM3, though, had much of what I want out of a mecha game. There’s time for a bit of tactical thought, in MW3 because Mechs move quite slowly, and in FM3 because it’s turn-based. Both games have a huge amount of customisation for your giant mechanical toys. Both have a pretty strong plot, and FM3 had two entirely different storylines depending on a decision you make almost at the beginning of the game.
Front Mission games also call their mecha “wanzers”, leading to many pieces of unintentionally hilarious dialogue.
Unfortunately, thanks to the brutal evisceration and subsequent abandonment of the Battletech property by Microsoft Games (for this Battletech fan at least, MechAssault 2 was a hideous abomination) I’m not going to get what I want. I hope Front Mission does well on the DS but they’re not releasing that in Europe either, so even if it does, odds are I will see no new FM games here. So I am going to have to do the next best thing.
Mechwarrior 4. Four quid. It’s not exactly “next gen” but it has lasers and missiles and robots that stomp. And, in the end, isn’t that really all that counts?
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