ALL THE MECHS!
Hey everyone, Mazer here and today we are going to be talking about video games! Specifically the video games that we’re currently playing.
If I’m being honest with you, I just really could not come up with a topic to discuss this week. I don’t know what it is but I am just drawing a blank. As such, I decided instead to talk about the games we’re currently playing.
Funnily enough, the games we are playing somehow fell into the same genre of Action/Adventure games featuring Mechs! For those of you who do not know, I am not really a fan of Mechs. When it comes to Mech Anime, I find most of them rather dull. Naturally, there are some exceptions. I absolutely love the insanity of Studio Trigger’s Gurren Lagann and Production I.G.’s Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet.
Yet when it comes to Mechs in video games; I love them. I love how heavy they feel. I enjoy the satisfaction of seeing enemy mechs get pulverized, and I absolutely adore the power you feel when you get that massive punch through the enemy mech’s defenses. It’s satisfying as hell.
Do you remember Virtual On? It was a Sega game made for the arcades in the 90s and it served as my introduction to the Mech Game genre. Players sat in these chairs and used tank controls to move their agile mechs across the battleground while fighting off other mechs. What made it even better was the fact that you could battle other players as well. Such a good game!
I digress. We’re not here to talk about the past. We are here to talk about the present! So without further ado, let’s talk about what Mech games we are currently playing!
Gotcha Force (Nintendo Gamecube, 2003)
Gotcha Force is a funny little game. In it you play as a young Japanese kid who is approached by a tiny robotic alien called a Gotcha Borg. The Gotcha Borgs are recruiting children and preteens to help them defeat the evil Gotcha Borg empire – the Death Force. It’s a very Power Rangersesque storyline complete with rivals, betrayals, and twists.
Now, in order to defeat the Death Force, players must train, upgrade, and recruit Gotcha Borgs. This is where the game takes an interesting little turn. From what I’ve been told, Gotcha Force includes over 200 Borgs for you to seek out and collect. By battling other kids, you earn the chance of recruiting a new Borg. The more Borgs you recruit, the better your chances to defeat the Death Force.
Every Borg provides its own unique abilities. Some move faster, others deal more damage; some can teleport, some have rapid-fire weapons, and some can even nuke the entire battlefield. The wide variety of Borgs makes for fun gameplay as I rarely find myself sticking to the same team for more than a handful of battles.
I love this mechanic. I am one of those guys who sticks to a specific party if I find they serve my purposes. If they are getting the job done, what’s the point of swapping them out? Well that is not the case in Gotcha Force. For example; I was rocking a trio of Heavy Borgs – a traditional tank, a heavy melee Borg, and a Borg with a giant chainsaw. They were decimating the enemy! That is until I ran into a group of speedsters. These nimble little Borgs tore my heavies to shreds! This made me rethink my strategy. I swapped my trio out for a group of nimble ninja and gunslinger Borgs. With these faster Borgs under my control, I was finally able to defeat the enemy with few casualities.
Gotcha Force is a surprisingly good game. While it is not perfect (the camera angles can be a problem and the voice acting is laughable at best), it a lot of fun. We are currently streaming it Friday-Sunday at 11:30am – 14:30pm PST.
You can check out our first stream here!
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (Xbox Series X, 2023)
Dark Souls with Mechs.
There. That is all I have to say about this game.
Okay, that’s not entirely accurate. In fact, it isn’t the least bit accurate. Armored Core VI is the latest game from developer FromSoft. Known for their soul-crushing difficulty, FromSoft is responsible for such games as Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Blood Borne, and of course – Armored Core. This is, obviously, the 6th mainline game of the franchise and the first I’ve played.
I’m presently still in the early chapters of the game. That being said, I already love what I’ve experienced thus far. Whereas their other games instill a sense of helplessness in the player, Armored Core makes you feel like an unstoppable killing machine.
Well, for the most part.
Your mech feels satisfyingly heavy. Every step you make, every move you take (I’ll be watching you!) results in a satisfying THUNK. When you jump off a building, you FEEL the impact of your mech hitting the ground. Whenever you use your boosters, you FEEL the speed.
But it is the SCALE of the game that makes you feel like a bad-ass. What I thought were small drones were, in fact, full sized Helicopters. They were the size of my Mech’s arm! Tanks might as well be toys as I crunch them beneath my feet.
And the equipment! Oh the equipment! There are so many options from weapons to body parts that you can get lost in customizing your mech to your exact playstyle! Personally, I lean towards the heavily armored builds but the fact that I could swap out to a speedster build on the fly is fantastic!
That said; although you can rip and tear your way through the game’s version of Goombas with ease, don’t you dare think that this is a cakewalk. This is first and foremost a FromSoft game and it comes with the same difficulty the company is famous for. The rival mechs (the full-sized ones, not the fodder) can easily rip you apart if you aren’t paying attention. And the bosses? Forget about it! They are wonderfully insane and I look forward to tackling the challenge they present. Here is a clip of us facing off against one of the game’s early bosses.
Unfortunately, I am still early in the story so I cannot go into any further detail about its story or combat. But from what I’ve experienced so far, I love it!
Sand Land (Xbox Series X, 2024)
Sand Land is an Open World action game based off the manga (and later anime) of the same name. Written and drawn by legendary manga author Akira Toriyama, Sand Land was one of the last projects worked on before his untimely passing.
The game’s plot is as follows: Natural disasters and endless war has left the planet a desert wasteland. People and monsters alike struggle to survive on a daily basis. Taking care of the monsters (classified as demons) is the Prince of Demons, Beelzebub. The precocious scamp steals water and supplies from the greedy king’s forces and hands the supplies over to his people.
One day he is approached by a human sheriff named Rao. Rao informs the Prince that he may have discovered a water spring that could end the desert’s drought. Unfortunately he is not strong enough on his own to tackle the task at hand. He offers an alliance with Beelzebub – exchanging the location of the spring for the Prince’s strength and abilities. Beelzebub agrees and together they venture off into the desert to find the spring.
As of this post, I am only an hour and a half into the game. Just far enough to encounter my first mini-boss and first stealth mission. That said; I am loving everything that I’ve encountered thus far. The graphics are bright and colorful and just dripping with Akira Tomiyama’s artistic charm. The writing is akin to his other works as well. Charming, silly, with just the right amount of menace to make the villains feel like a threat without ever getting too serious.
Gameplay – mixed between driving around in your car/mech and moving on foot – is tight and entertaining. Usually in open-world games, I end up ignoring enemies while on my way to the next waypoint. That is not the case here. The combat is so satisfying – mixing up light and heavy attacks to build combos – that I find myself jumping out of my car at the first sign of enemies.
Sadly, I cannot really comment any further as I’m still very early in the game. I have yet to try out any of the mechs or tanks that have been shown in the trailer so unfortunately I cannot give my opinion on that mechanic. However, if the early gameplay is anything to go by, I feel like I’ll be enjoying the mech combat as much as the rest of the game.
We’ll return to this topic once I get further into the game but for now I just wanted to share my early impressions as it is one of the three games I’m currently playing!
What are you playing this month? Let us know in the comments!