Mecha Magnates

[TsunamiWombat]

No Japanese shit can beat BattleTech. Hands down

You realize Battle Tech is just a half dozen japanese intellectual properties robbed of their mecha during a period when they could get away with that due to conflicting copywrite laws and cavalier american attitude towards anime and japanese cultural product... right?

Shit, BattleTech has a whole list of mecha it can't use anymore because they CopyPasta'd them from Macross and other anime, including a Valkyrie that is literally, a Macross Valkyrie in Gerwalk mode.

I am dissapointed by the lack of Gungriffon.

Edit: Found that list. They're called the 'unseen'

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Unseen

 

[Vierran]

I have always liked my Mecha but there have never been many people to share it with me where i am.

 

[tendo82]

Moral of the story: Ollie Barder knows more about mecha than you. Great breakdown of a genre.

Also, a personal obsession I'd like to mention, mostly because I've never played it but always coveted the game, is Frame Gride for the Dreamcast.

Correct me if I'm wrong Mr. Barder, but I'd file Frame Gride under the Virtua On category? It's a cool game because the mecha are in the vein of the baroque Five Star Story fantasy mecha/machine of the gods robots.

 

[Pendragon9]

Such a spectacular expose on the various mecha franchises.

From my ava, you can tell what my favorite series is.

 

[Geoffrey42]

Steel Battalion is pretty much the only reason my original XBOX is still hooked up. And sad to say, I don't know that I've ever gotten past the 4th level... *hangs head in shame*

Well, SB and Deathrow. Man, I love that game.

 

[Domus]

Energy swords? Jetpacks? Transformation? Mecha skates? The only thing you ever need is guns, armor and more guns! Like this guy:

http://the-junkyard.net/vehicles-starsiege.php?action=viewvehicle&game=starsiege&id=16

On the other hand, a couple of ATs walking beside my big ass HERC would also be great.

 

[toapat]

Games of course, like MechWarriors (from 1 to 4) and MechCommanders (1 and 2). Of course you can add Assault Tech 1 if you like, but it's sill a beta version

these
only good mech warrior games, as they actually have something that could be built, unlike say, the humanoid wariors that everything else is. that, and they were made by a company that cares

 

[ilion]

The Mechwarrior\battletech universe is awesome,( has a very Dune feel to it) too bad i never got to read some of its novels, i remember being awed by the amount of information in mech2, and mercenaries was great, my first mech games however were virtual on and gungriffon on the saturn, and i loved them. been trying out the front mission. especially 3, its not bad, a bit random but hey.

 

[AceDiamond]

No Japanese shit can beat BattleTech. Hands down

You realize Battle Tech is just a half dozen japanese intellectual properties robbed of their mecha during a period when they could get away with that due to conflicting copywrite laws and cavalier american attitude towards anime and japanese cultural product... right?

Shit, BattleTech has a whole list of mecha it can't use anymore because they CopyPasta'd them from Macross and other anime, including a Valkyrie that is literally, a Macross Valkyrie in Gerwalk mode.

I am dissapointed by the lack of Gungriffon.

Edit: Found that list. They're called the 'unseen'

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Unseen

Which are now legally allowed to be used by Battletech-related properties again, except the designs lifted from Macross because Harmony Gold likes to think it's still relevant.

Also that's not a "half-dozen", and to say that all Battletech consists of now is "anime robot designs stolen" would be disingenious considering the 100+ Battlemechs in said universe.

 

[MiodekPL]

You see - I'm talking about design. Battletech designs looks, and feels much more... realistic than Japanese counterparts. Look at Timberwolf/Mad Cat (well - it became a symbol right?) or Mad Dog/Vulture. Those are their designs. And they're good

 

[AceDiamond]

You see - I'm talking about design. Battletech designs looks, and feels much more... realistic than Japanese counterparts. Look at Timberwolf/Mad Cat (well - it became a symbol right?) or Mad Dog/Vulture. Those are their designs. And they're good

I would agree that a lot of the mechs in Battletech do look a lot more realistic in a sense that they seem more tank-esque than some of their Japanese contemporaries but the Wanzers in front mission, and even some of the versions of mobile suits from gundam follow the same design concept of something that looks utilitarian over stylish.

 

[Ollie Barder]

But Shogo has MAC-10s. Silenced MAC-10s, the single coolest weapon ever designed by man. In the Future.

Its not really that odd, what with the mecha being very humanoid in design as well as having the dangerously useless viechle mode.

Many of the Armored Core games had MAC-10's too you know. It's quite a common weapon in most mecha games. As for the mecha control, the issue was more down to the lack of inertia when you were in a machine that obviously had far more mass than a human. The recent Yuke's VOTOMS game dealt with this issue far more elegantly [http://www.mechadamashii.com/reviews/reviews-soukou-kihei-votoms/] and the mecha in VOTOMS are much smaller than in Shogo too.

I am dissapointed by the lack of Gungriffon.

Well, Valken and Leynos are very much Gungriffon's main inspiration. In any case, Armored Core has been far more influential since (and it was released within a year of the original Gungriffon too).

Also, a personal obsession I'd like to mention, mostly because I've never played it but always coveted the game, is Frame Gride for the Dreamcast.

Correct me if I'm wrong Mr. Barder, but I'd file Frame Gride under the Virtua On category? It's a cool game because the mecha are in the vein of the baroque Five Star Story fantasy mecha/machine of the gods robots.

Exactly, Frame Gride owes much more to Virtual On than many realise. The issue with Frame Gride's implementation of the set-up though is that it lacked the fixed dashes to link the two modes of combat (as in ranged and melee). ZOE suffers a similar problem but because you have to deal with multiple targets the fault is not as obvious. One aspect of Frame Gride that was revolutionary though was its Squire system. As you could spawn various helper robots that would attack your foe. Using them was actually quite tactical as well and each type had distinct abilities and AI. Amazingly, Frame Gride managed to handle all of this via a dial-up modem for the online versus.

The mecha design isn't quite as ornate as Mamoru Nagano's manga opus Five Star Stories [http://gearsonline.net/fss/], in fact the game was originally meant as a Panzer World Galient [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MESzTIqS3wA] homage - which is a much closer fit in terms of the world setup to Frame Gride.

Such a spectacular expose on the various mecha franchises.

From my ava, you can tell what my favorite series is.

Ah, Nineball Seraph. The kit for that is pretty epic [http://www.hlj.com/product/KBYVI-22] btw.

I do have a question of opinion. What did you the OP think of the Armored Core series changing from AC3 to AC4?

I didn't like the transition because of the drastic change of missing the HUD display which allowed not only information to be spread across the screen but also increased the immersion even if the mech was in the third person perspective. The change just made the game to hard to play because the lack of information and change.

But I want to know what you think?

The shift in AC4 was more towards Layzner, which had no real cultural basis outside of Japan. I like both AC4 and ACFA quite a bit and whilst the basic implementation is very much in line with other AC games, the overall increase in speed and streamlined HUD does take a bit of getting used to.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

You see - I'm talking about design. Battletech designs looks, and feels much more... realistic than Japanese counterparts. Look at Timberwolf/Mad Cat (well - it became a symbol right?) or Mad Dog/Vulture. Those are their designs. And they're good

I would agree that a lot of the mechs in Battletech do look a lot more realistic in a sense that they seem more tank-esque than some of their Japanese contemporaries but the Wanzers in front mission, and even some of the versions of mobile suits from gundam follow the same design concept of something that looks utilitarian over stylish.

Umm... there is nothing realistic about Battletech Mechs, at least, in practical terms. I already stated this but apparently nobody read that comment. Loading down a humanoid frame that's over 20ft tall with 100 tonnes of weaponry is pointless, it is a big, slow, tactically unsound target! Now I would say that 99% of Mechs/Mecha/whatever are impractical in a realistic warfare scenario, the only exception being 4 Legged Tanks that utilize Legs for All Terrain Purposes and Wheels for Speed.

Battletech is no exception to this, in fact, taking note of how SLOW they are, they would be pretty much useless and could be easily taken down by a Tank with equally heavy weaponry.

Do NOT use Realism as an arguement for why Battletech is better! YOU may LIKE it better, and may FIND it more realistic but it is not.

I hate how every goddamn mecha/mech thread on this site turns into a bunch of Battletech Worshipping assholes shouting how awesome their franchise is and how much everything else sucks compared to it. You people are as bad as Warhammer Fans on 4Chan, do you want that label?

 

[Jhereg42]

-sigh-

I miss Mechwarrior and Mech Commander.

This article is going to make me go and break all my old Giant Robot games out again. Darn you.

 

[geldonyetich]

As a fellow who has been dabbling with creating his own mecha game, it's interesting how many of these different permutations I went through. There's a whole lot of different ways you can go about it.

Thanks for pointing out Carnage Heart, it's an interesting approach... reminds me a bit of OMEGA [http://www.mobygames.com/game/omega_] or perhaps FFXII's gambit system.

 

[7moreDead_v1legacy]

<3 Mech's

Hence why I am playing Steel Talons in Kanes Wrath ^^ Still getting to grips with AC:4A, my 360's dead so I can no longer play my Chrome hounds

Spoiler

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

I get a bit sad when people talk Mech games and don't mention Metal Fatigue.

Sure, it's a flawed game so I can see why it was never all that popular, but it had some great ideas that were pretty well implemented, with customizable mechs (or Combots, as the game called them) and combat where you could chop off enemy parts, salvage them, reverse-engineer them, and add them to your own 'bots.

As I said, the game certainly had it's flaws, but a small part of me is still hoping for a sequel that ties up the storyline (which, even though it was mostly told through simple text in the briefings and debriefings, was pretty good but ended in a sort of stalemate cliffhanger), or at least a spiritual successor.

 

[Ollie Barder]

I get a bit sad when people talk Mech games and don't mention Metal Fatigue.

Sure, it's a flawed game so I can see why it was never all that popular, but it had some great ideas that were pretty well implemented, with customizable mechs (or Combots, as the game called them) and combat where you could chop off enemy parts, salvage them, reverse-engineer them, and add them to your own 'bots.

As I said, the game certainly had it's flaws, but a small part of me is still hoping for a sequel that ties up the storyline (which, even though it was mostly told through simple text in the briefings and debriefings, was pretty good but ended in a sort of stalemate cliffhanger), or at least a spiritual successor.

I remember playing this almost a decade ago now and, yeah, it was under appreciated. However, in terms of RTS impact, Herzog and Herzog Zwei especially are the "daddy" in terms of the genre (technically, they created it).

 

[Ollie Barder]

Apples and oranges in my opinion. The original Battletech design is much more focused on form meets function. With Japanese mecha being designed to look 'cool'.

That's not entirely accurate, as real robots (from Dougram and VOTOMS) are much more about form meets function. I think you're confusing super robots with reals here.

Those are certainly better than most of the super robots you see today primarily, really my point just was that it's odd to compare something on design aesthetic when one is designed to be a hyper-styled and the other is designed around its task. It's not even an East/West thing either. I wish I could recall the name of it, but one of the more interesting mecha shows I have seen, focused on the military doing trials between these new bipedal mechs and a traditional tank unit.

Madox-01? [http://www.gearsonline.net/series/madox-01/]