• Title: Metal Warriors
  • Platform: SNES
  • Year: 1995
  • Developer: LucasArts
  • Publisher: Konami
  • Genre: Action Platformer

Summary

Metal Warriors is an action platformer / run-and-gun game for the SNES, developed by LucasArts and published by Konami, released in 1995. You play the role of Lieutenant Stone, a mech pilot for the United Earth Government, fighting against the evil Dark Axis force and its leader Venkar Amon, who have been waging war against Earth. I really didn’t pay much attention to the story beyond this, despite the cutscenes being very pretty. I played this game for Imp Zone Game Club.

Gameplay

The gameplay is your typical 2D action platformer with a few novelties. You pilot various mechs throughout the game, with the ability to get out of your mech to bring your pilot into tight spaces or swap a damaged mech for a new one. This goes both ways—enemy pilots can also enter empty mechs, including yours after you’ve left it. If you play this game, at some point you will be killed by an enemy pilot that stole your mech, and you will be furious about it. I liked the Havoc, Drache, and Nitro mechs the most.

The control scheme is pretty straightforward and overall it’s pretty fun to fly around with a mech and wreck shit. The mech controls are a bit loose and sloppy, and the human pilot controls are slightly more finnicky. Someone over at Imp Zone said it feels less like you’re directly controlling your mech and more like you’re controlling the human that is (somewhat poorly) piloting the mech, and I think that’s a pretty spot-on description.

Many people have compared this game to Cybernator, another mech platformer published by Konami in 1993, but I haven’t played that game so I have no basis for comparison. I had fun with Metal Warriors though, so I’ll probably check out Cybernator in the future.

Graphics

The graphics are a bit of a mixed bag. The cutscenes look incredible for a SNES game, and the mechs and enemy sprites look great as well, with fluid animation and lots of detail. However, some of the stage pieces and backgrounds looked flat and lifeless compared to the rest of the game’s art. Also worth noting that there is no HUD; your health is represented by visible physical damage to your mech.

Sound

The sound design in this game is good, which is unsurprising for a LucasArts game. I did start to get annoyed by the default gun sound toward the end of the game. The music was pretty good but nothing stood out as exceptional or noteworthy to me.

Conclusion

Overall, I enjoyed this game despite its flaws. The lack of a HUD was unique for the time but I think a HUD and maybe a mini-map would have been nice additions. The later stages became a bit tedious, and the last boss (and final fuck-you escape sequence) were insane compared to the difficulty of the rest of the game. I didn’t unlock the secret level or the hidden basketball mode. I also didn’t try the multiplayer deathmatch mode, but it seems pretty cool. I probably won’t play this game again but it has piqued my interest in the genre and I’ll likely end up playing Cybernator and Front Mission: Gun Hazard soon as a result.

Overall Rating: 6/10

A few tweaks, some more polish, and a bit more balance in the endgame could have bumped this up to a 7 or 8. If you like run-and-gun platformers and/or mechs, you’ll probably like this game.