Huge Robots and Mecha used to be Japan’s thing and most of the fans were Japanese too. But now it has become a part of pop culture and it is known globally. Mecha anime, shows, and movies have created faithful and great adaptations of the Huge Robot culture. But it seems like develoeprs still have not been able to figure out a way to make a game that perfectly encapsulates the experience.
Key Takeaways
Mechas come in all shapes and sizes, but what makes them so cool is that they have a ‘weight’ to them, a sense of heaviness and size. We have many games based on mechs and giant fighting robots, but none of them have hit the spot.
What The Fans Need
Before we get into why games need to step up their game to deliver a good mecha genre, we must first see what is it that makes a media enjoyable for the fans of the genre.
Let us take the movie Pacific Rim as an example. The movie features robots larger than life and the way they are shown as huge metal warriors based on a foundation of gears and steel is near perfect. When I was watching that movie, I really hoped for a game that would follow the same aesthetic and impact that the movie had.
Fans considered the movie an instant classic and to this day still looks great. The impact in every punch, the destructive weight of the Mechs, and the mechanical parts struggling to create movement are all the fans needed. If developers were to take this movie as an example, it would lay the foundation for a Mecha game that would capture the hearts of the fans instantly.
More Human Than Robots
Many games have tried to represent these mechanical beasts, but none have actually treated them as mechanical beings. Titanfall 2 is a great title that came close to giving us a perfect sci-fi mecha shooter. But the series focused more on the FPS aspect rather than the Giant Robot one.
No doubt Titnafall 2 was a great game but it wasn’t what I wanted. The mechs felt like people in a giant suits running around and shooting others.
Japanese developers have added a lot of twists to the genre too. But with these twists, the game ended up feeling floaty and too fast-paced for a giant robot to feel immersive. A recent release named ‘Megaton Musashi W: Wired’ features mechas, but they move so fast that you almost feel like the protagonist is wearing a suit rather than piloting a huge metal monster.
Most of the games of this genre have human-like animation and presentation instead of robotic.
What About Armored Core 6?
Armored Core 6 is the most recent release of one of the most successful gaming studios, FromSoftware. Armored Core 6 has fast-paced gameplay and is a great game. But I believe that it is not a good mecha game.
No doubt the characters you play as are giant mechs named Armored Core, but they do not act even a single bit like what a mech should. They boost around everywhere while spraying enemies with tons of bullets. Having guns on a robot isn’t wrong but the movement is insane for a giant robot of that weight.
Armored Core 6 plays a lot more like Project Wingman and Ace Combat. Flying around and shooting guns with high speed while using thrusters to dodge attacks is the same as flying a plane. These huge building-sized fighters move very fast and break the immersion of actually being in a mech.
Not to forget that Armored Core 6 has sword and melee weaponry options too. But they swing these weapons like you are playing Dark Souls. Nothing about these mechs is mechanical or robot-ish.
What To Expect
We can only hope that a studio tries to make a game of this genre into an immersive experience. Making the gameplay feel weighty, mechas look huge, and making their design mechanical can be done considering the examples that anime and movies have set.
I hope that one day we get a game that truly feels like piloting a mech, even if it takes years.
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Shoaib Rashid is a passionate Gamer and an experienced writer who has been covering the Gaming Industry for over 3 Years. He started his career as a freelance journalist, writing reviews, previews, news, guides, and features for various industries. He joined VA Gaming as a Writer in 2022 and was promoted to Content Editor in 2023, where he oversees the editorial tasks and ensures the quality and accuracy of the content.
Shoaib loves to play all kinds of games, from Competitive shooters to the latest AAA releases, you name it, and he got them all covered; a PC Enthusiast who loves to stay upgraded with the latest hardware, and he enjoys sharing his insights and opinions with the Gaming Community.
While being a hardcore competitive Gamer he also a big Anime fan so his IGN goes by #SHiNiGaMii. and you can join him on Steam and checkout his library to learn more about his accomplishments.
