(These are going in absolutely no particular order, by the way.)

For the second in this little exercise in waxing nostalgic, we jump ahead to the age of the SNES and this unsung piece of industrial grade awesome. When most people gush on about Lucasarts games, they tend to fix their sights on the likes of Maniac Mansion and their other adventure games, but to me, THIS was why Lucasarts was worth remembering. (I believe I already confessed last time that I didn’t have the attention span to really appreciate adventure games or RPGs until probably Chrono Trigger.) So, here goes. Metal Warriors.

I have a hard time talking about Metal Warriors without talking about Cybernator. I know there was pretty much no connection beyond Konami publishing both now, but back when they were fresh, I was convinced that the two games were connected. I decided that Cybernator’s protagonist “Jake’s” full name was “Jake Stone,” to line up with the given name-less hero of Metal Warriors, and that the events in MW were due to the battle with the Axis taking a turn for the worse, due to the enemy force of MW being the Dark Axis, and well, the latter game is a hell of a lot harder.  Actually, I never did beat it. I played the daylights out of it to the point where I found some cheaty ways to get through the early stages scot-free, but that damn Jungle stage was a brick wall to me. But, going back on topic- Cybernator and Metal Warriors were two SNES games about giant fucking robots, a fictional topic that I am all about. Maybe the shortage of decent mech-related console games had me desperate to believe that Cybernator was so successful here that an American studio would turn out their own official take on it.

Even getting to play this game was like some kind of exquisite, rare treat back then. I couldn’t find the damn thing at retail anywhere around here, and this was back when we were making weekly family mall trips. I had to make due with repeated, overpriced rentals from Blockbuster until one day, they put the rental copy up for sale. And that’s why my copy has big ugly, sticky VOID VOID VOID VOID VOID stickers all over it.

Metal Warriors is a pretty easy game to pick up, but by no means an easy game itself. You control a mecha suit in a platformer style game, storming your way through enemy bases, cutting a swath to the exit, boss, or whatever else. What makes this game stand out was the WAY it went about its platforming. For starters, you weren’t confined to the mech- you can tap Select to disembark and move about on foot as a little jetpack guy to manipulate switches and make use of the tiny corridors scattered throughout the game. Outside, of course, you’re pathetically vulnerable and just pack a pistol that’s only good for fighting other guys on foot. But you are able to jack unoccupied enemy mechs, of which there are six playable types with their own perks and flaws. The Nitro and Havoc are your “normal” machines, so to speak, and the other four occupy more specialized roles (the Prometheus is a lumbering artillery platform that packs a devastating set of cannons but can’t jump, the Ballistic is basically one of those rolly droids from the Star Wars prequels, the Drache is an entirely aerial machine that can fire in any direction and crush enemies with a divebomb attack if they get below it, and the Spider is well… a robot spider. Use your imagination.) Another twist this game brings is that there is no life meter or ammo counter. Your machine’s appearance degrades the more damage you take, and when you’re really in trouble, your backpack starts sparking (disabling your special weapons) or your arms fall off (can’t attack period.)

I could never put my finger on exactly what the unique ‘feel’ the game was creating was until recently- MW plays a hell of a lot like a modern shooter. And I mean that in a good way. There aren’t really any laughably easy to murder cannon fodder enemies, just about every opposing mecha takes multiple shots to dispatch. That, combined with having to gauge your damage solely on appearance makes for a lot slower, more deliberate approach than your typical run and gun. By varying objectives, they also made a game where not every level ends with “BOOM. HERE’S A BOSS,” making your missions into actual missions rather than “we called our stages something else.” (Also, the bosses that are actually IN the game feel kind of weird and forced- like the giant tunneling worm robots in the city.) Some enemies had a disturbing tendency to act in tandem, either by accident or on purpose- I vividly remember having a Havoc land on a platform and soak shots up with its riot shield while a machine gunner robot behind him unloaded at me. By adopting this slower, more strategic pace and making you take full advantage of cover and the item spawn points, it’s probably no wonder that the multiplayer was mysteriously addicting.

Yes, this game even supports a split-screen VS. Mode. My friends and I burned away our share of afternoons killing each other on the handful of maps the game offers, usually just hitting the “Random” option to keep things interesting. Some stages kept spare mecha suits off to the sides for you to trade into if you trashed or just didn’t like the computer assigned one, which often lead to tactics like destroying the spares in advance to try and catch your opponent stuck as a vulnerable little jetpack guy. Which in turn sometimes lead to tense stalemates where one player would just sit in an unreachable spot, trying to see who gives up their advantage first. I remember though, I used to feel a bit gypped that the stock enemy grunt unit wasn’t useable. They had flight capability and these nifty energy bazookas that made a cool power-noise before firing. C’est la vie.

So, now’s when I ask- how exactly did this game affect me and what I look for in my games now? I was ALWAYS a robot geek. It definitely scratched an itch in that I’d been dying to play a game remotely similar to Robotech or Exo-Squad or something along those lines. (Actually, I’d still pick Metal Warriors over the official games for either of those shows.) Its design sense really stuck with me through the years thanks to the outright gorgeous hangar sequences and ‘practical’ feeling environments. It may not be the Gundam, but the Nitro cuts a unique figure with its oversize boosters, cloth-covered joint portions and shoulder hooks. I would definitely love to see Metal Warriors followed up or remade for the current gen, or even just some kind of PC port that would allow online play sans split-screen. I know it probably won’t happen since well, it isn’t Star Wars, but it’s nice to dream, especially when the game already has the “feel” of a War for/Fall of Cybertron. Stuff like Armored Core V has been pretty satisfying for a mech fix, but sometimes you just want that surreal, video gamey style of warfare where rubber bullets that bounce off all the walls is still tactically sound.

If anyone was curious, my big ‘clever’ trick for Metal Warriors was in Mission 3, immediately fly your Nitro up and to the left, you can pre-emptively destroy the flying mechs that would normally be there to antagonize you while you escape at the end of the stage.