Written by James Welch, April 4, 2016, at 4:40 p.m.
Another giant robot game? Yes, sir! If you were one of the poor unfortunate folks who took the time to read my BattleTech review, you’ll know that I love me some giant robots. What’s more awesome than diabolically piloting an 85-ton metallic monstrosity and devilishly demolishing your opposition with utter abandon? Not much if I do say so myself… and I do.
This time around, I am steering away from BattleTech, and headed towards a little known Konami gem by the name of Metal Warriors. Metal Warriors is what would happen if Yoshiyuki Tomino was assigned to design Clan Jade Falcon mechs. Yes, I am talking about a level of geek coolness that defies imagination. If I were to sum up Metal Warriors in a single word, it would be amazastupendificent. Too much? Probably, but this game is worth me making a word up for it.
Metal Warriors was released in 1995 by Konami for the SNES and developed by LucasArts. The game itself is a side-scrolling action-platformer, eerily similar to another Konami game: Cybernator. Cybernator takes place in NCS Corp’s Assault Suit Universe. Surprisingly, this game, despite its graphical and gameplay similarities to Cybernator, bears no relation to that game or even that series. In fact, while the Assault Suit series is very popular in Japan, Metal Warriors never saw a Japanese release. Metal Warriors was released exclusively here in good ol’ North America.
That is too bad, because the rest of the world was effectively robbed of one of the SNES’s greatest games, and everyone was robbed of a potential sequel or sequels that could have followed.
Graphics-wise, Metal Warriors is one of the most graphically impressive games ever released for Nintendo’s 16-bit powerhouse. Colorful robots, in two delicious shades of pink and purple (hey, they needed to use the remaining colors for all the cool stuff in the game), battle against an entire enemy army of purple robots. OK, well maybe the colors are a bit underwhelming at first glance, but there are other graphical inclusions in this game that more than make up for it.
To start, there are some Gundam-inspired anime cut scenes that drop you right into the story and keep you tuned in between missions. Watching your pilot power up his mech, and fly off to attack the Dark Axis powers in the game’s intro was like watching an episode of Robotech. The cut scenes aren’t the only thing awesome about the game’s graphics.
The levels are destructible in many places, and mechs show damage. Since there are no visible user interface or health bars to be seen, you instead have to rely on the visible damage your robot shows. This begins as a slight darkening of color, but the more damage you sustain, the darker it grows. When your mech is near death, it will turn almost completely gray and sparks will fly from it. This is your cue to hop from your robot and seek out another one.
If graphics in Metal Warriors were a car, they would be a 1963 Corvette Stingray.
While the graphics are great, it’s the gameplay that makes Metal Warriors truly stand out among it’s peers. While side-scrolling action platformers may have comprised a good chunk of the SNES library, Metal Warriors added a few features that make it unique in the genre. First off, you can leave your robot at any time and commandeer another. If your robot is too heavily damaged, it is often in your best interests to eject and seek out another mech to pilot. While each level has it’s own mechs hidden throughout for you to find, oftentimes they are better equipped to handle the current mission’s objectives than your own.
Speaking of other mechs, there are six additional mechs to use against the Dark Axis’ forces. These range from your own mech, the Nitro, which is equipped with a beam sabre, an energy shield, and a jetpack (to go along with his hand cannon), to the Juggernaut-like Prometheus, which uses a giant cannon and a flamethrower to dish out extreme amounts of punishment.
You can try all of the different mechs in the Multiplayer mode, which is a split screen 1v1, PvP battle, letting you choose the combatants and battling on different worlds. It’s a blast, and just another one of the reasons that Metal Warriors is one of the system’s best games. The gameplay? Nothing gimmicky here: 10 out of 10, A+, gaming nirvana. ‘Nuff said.
The music and sound effects are amazing as well. I would like to go out on a limb and say that the original soundtrack (OST) of Metal Warriors is the best non-Square OST on the SNES. I’m serious, it’s freakin’ phenomenal. I don’t even need to go on a tirade here. If you dig video game OSTs, then this is a must have.
So again, you get to read one of my fanboy rants about a game that every SNES aficionado should be playing. Metal Warriors is a must have. It looks great, it plays great and it sounds great. Get this game before the price goes up even further (I paid $200 for my copy), and go kick some Dark Axis.