With the PS4 release date for Gundam Versus announced, the exclusive PS4 game will be available 29th September in North America. The arcade fighting game, where giant mechs fight it out with gargantuan swords and blasters, has been built upon from the original smash hit arcade game in Japan. If you’re a mech fan, this will come as welcome news, but as September is still a little way off, here are some games to chew through, some of our favourites and some to get excited about.
Zone of the Enders
Set in a futuristic world, players take control of an Orbital Frame, or SUPER ROBOT. Equipped with dashing, running, guarding, attacking and throwing. The old school mech game was great fun to zip through, and delve into a chaotic war between Earth and Mars.
Titanfall 2
A first person shooter, where you can play alongside your mech buddy, where you are controlling both the player and Titan. You’ll have an arsenal of abilities available, including cloaking, parkour, wall running and so on. There’s an abundance of cool weapons and a hectic multiplayer mode as well as cool single-player with puzzle elements and a play your own way style.
MechWarrior 2
The 1995 game is high up on any mech fans list, developed and released by Activision, MechWarrior 2 belonged to the BattleTech franchise. Choosing between two Clans, battles took place on planets in the BattleTech universe, with specific goals to reach, such as search and destroy or base strike. The onboard computer provides constant feedback during combat, so players can change strategy. The game is crammed with serious tech and plenty of action.
Armored Core 4
A reboot of the series, created for Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, the game’s setting makes this one of my favourite mech games, set on a Dystopian Earth, that has been conquered by an evil corporation and the governing bodies have been overthrown. The mechs are chunky, the movements are fun and the missiles are powerful.
Hearthstone
It has a mech class, so it made the list. Hearthstone is a card strategy game where you can play as certain classes including hunter, paladin and rogue with specialised class cards and online ranked matches. The mechs in the game allow you to create a ‘mech hand’ where mech cards buff and compliment each other.
Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri
The legendary tactical first person shooter set in a science-fictional 24th century. The game focuses on combat and you get to wear a cool armoured suit. Compared to the popular MechWarrior 2 and from the developers of System Shock, the game’s gameplay works similarly, with the HUD containing three multi-function displays, for tactical information, such as squad commands and weapon stats. The game took you through missions, where you were briefed then deployed into action, with objectives to rescue or ambush.
War Tech Fighters
The upcoming mech fighting game described as the love child of Michael Bay and Evangelion by way of a nuclear powered food blender. Players will lead an assault on the Zartros empire with their battalion of War Techs, the deadliest weapons ever built. A War Tech is a precision made Mech which uses the latest in state of the art military technology. The game will be coming to Early Access and is available for pre-purchase now.
Strike Suit Zero
A space flight combat game, available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Strike Suit Zero is one of the newest contenders to take the mech powerhouse trophy, with its classic gameplay style aimed to resurrect arcade-style shooters. It’s story-driven single player campaign mode is packed with large ships, heavy weapons and mission orientated gameplay with a tactical edge.
BattleTech
The tactical mech combat game will be returning to PCs in 2017, from the original creator behind the popular series. Taking on BattleMechs and commanding a mercenary outfit or mechs and warriors, you’ll be fighting a brutal war, in this tactical, strategy game full of explosions, lasers and epic battles.
Shogo: Mobile Armor Division
A first person shooter from Monolith Productions, released in 1998. A bit of a hybrid between the first person shooter mechanics and the weighty mech combat. The game has a nice mix between on foot action and in mech blasting. Shogo has mech fan nostalgia pulsing through its veins and is one of the first FPS games to feature a branching storyline, which resulted in a different ending.
What’s your favourite mech game? Let us know!