As I established in my Xenogears review, I love mecha. I love big robots. From Voltron to Veritechs; Dancougar to GaoGaiGar to Gasaraki, that's all that I need to really enjoy myself. If one were to say that my love of mecha is a metaphor for a penile inferiority complex, then by all means say so. Know that by doing so is essentially a waiver that makes it OK to combine the plasma power of my Blazing Sword and Tekno Power-Blasters on your puny fleshbag body.
*sigh. If only…*
Anyways, I'm talking about a game that had no real impact on me when I initially played the demo version. It only had a sampling of all the components available, so there wasn't much appeal. Plus the controls for aiming the mech's targeting was set up like an airplane. I wasn't in an airplane, so what gives? So Armored Core sat on the shelves until I saw it again at Blockbuster Video. It was during those days that i had a lot of free time: I was making comic books left and right while watching as much Mystery Science Theater 3000 as I could muster. When I couldn't watch it on cable TV, I had my buddy David hook it up with taped MST3K(with Joel, TV's Frank and Dr. Forrester). While he showed me those taped episodes(of which "Eegah!" is still my favorite), I also got to see some import games on his modified PlayStation. The fighting game "Sailor Moon S" wasn't a big draw for me, but Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness was. This is the game I had seen in magazines where there was a mech that looked like Akuma from the Street Fighter series. This game is also the backstory for the Marvel vs CAPCOM character Jin, his BLOODIA mech and the Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo villain Devilot. While I played this game, I remembered Armored Core. I thought to myself, "Wait a minute, Armored Core lets you CUSTOMIZE your mech" and I realized that for all the 2D CAPCOM goodness that Cyberbots brought to the table, it wasn't gonna touch Armored Core. With that, I went out and rented the game.
Armored Core is a simulation game along the lines of Gran Turismo, but better. Instead of limiting oneself to a internal combustion engine and 4 wheels, Armored Core allows you to pilot huge-ass mechs. You've got the ability to combine pieces of mechs(arms, legs, bodies, head, weapons, etc.) into a fearsome battle unit with limitations on weight and energy consumption. In Armored Core's sequel, Armored Core 2: Another Age, the mech cannot leave the shop if overweight. Luckily for the inexperienced mech-builder, that does not apply in the original.
You're part of a mercenary group called the Raven's Nest. Your people do the jobs that pay very well and are, by necessity, very dangerous. You'll do battle with many types of enemies, yet you'll only have to fight another good mech pilot once. You'll go into battles that require you to have certain components in order to survive the environment let alone the battles on the stage, so the option to do missions over again in order to get more money is a plus. A minus for some people is the touch of realism: when you use weapons that have solid ammunition or you take damage during a mission, you will have to pay for repairs to your mech. If you're trigger happy, the ordinance fee will kill you. Luckily, there's an alternative: energy weapons. They take energy from your generator and heat up your jets, so flying and firing your lazer gun is not the best idea.
You're part of a mercenary group called the Raven's Nest. Your people do the jobs that pay very well and are, by necessity, very dangerous. You'll do battle with many types of enemies, yet you'll only have to fight another good mech pilot once. You'll go into battles that require you to have certain components in order to survive the environment let alone the battles on the stage, so the option to do missions over again in order to get more money is a plus. A minus for some people is the touch of realism: when you use weapons that have solid ammunition or you take damage during a mission, you will have to pay for repairs to your mech. If you're trigger happy, the ordinance fee will kill you. Luckily, there's an alternative: energy weapons. They take energy from your generator and heat up your jets, so flying and firing your lazer gun is not the best idea.
Another customization point is the paint job of your mech. you can go with any of the preset paintjobs and modify those, or you can make your own. If you want a brand on your mech, you can choose from the large selection of premade logos, blank logo standards or make your own. The downsides to both of those functions are:
You cannot color an individual limb a different color than the rest of the mech.
If you don't know how to draw, the logo creator can be the hardest thing in the game.
These functions alone kept me occupied for most of the game, due to my thing about making my mech look sweet as hell. That's not the only thing you should be wary of because it's what's inside the mech that counts.
In addition to being a good pilot, being armed and being armored, you must take advantage of the internal components. While your weapons and mech have base abilities, certain chips and additional items installed into your mech's computer and engine will allow you to excel where you couldn't before.
Case in point: the WM-S60-6(a back-mounted small missile launcher, aka "the Hex Launcher") has up to 6 separate lock-ons at once. The problem is they lock on too slowly to be effective. Luckily, the internal component SP-AXL(a 2 slot component) can greatly speed up your lock-on time. While this is great and all, you have to remember to TURN THE COMPONENT ON. (NOTE: the problem can be eliminated by obtaining the secret weapon WX-S800-GF[a dual missile pod weapon], which shoots 6 missiles with a quick, single target lock.)
I got over the airplane controls, went above and beyond good taste in mech battle protocol and ultimately enjoyed the game Armored Core. This game spawned some expansion games to it called "Armored Core: Project Phantasma"(new parts and missions) and "Armored Core: Master of Arena"(a tournament competition for your mech). Agetec has also produced challenging sequels for the Playstation 2 called "Armored Core 2: Another Age" and "Armored Core 3: Silent LIne." Both PS2 sequel have the Master of Arena feature built in, with some of the hardest-fighting mech pilot AI I've ever seen. All of these games deserve medals in their respective areas, but I'll have to stay with the originator.
RATING: 9/10
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