 S... E... S... Drunk! A couple weeks ago I looked at Cybernator, so, now let's take a look at a game that everyone thinks is the sequel, Metal Warriors. This one came out in April 1995, and it was only released in the US and not Japan for some reason, and no, this game has nothing to do with Cybernator or the Assault Suit series. It's completely its own thing made by LucasArts in North America, and it's a really well-made run-and-gun where you fly around as a mech blowing stuff up. And right away, as you can see from the footage, it's obvious why people would think this is Cybernator 2. They look very similar, and they were both published by Konami. But Metal Warriors plays a bit differently, has an extra game mode, and might actually be a better game overall than Cybernator. The thing that actually mystified me about this game, though, is that... where the heck was it? This was one of those titles I never once saw for rent or to buy anywhere. The only time I saw it advertised was in Nintendo Power, and this ad made the game look really cool. But yeah, if you got a copy of this game back when it first came out, you're in Rare Company. Apparently, according to designer Mike Ebert, Nintendo themselves were interested in publishing this game. But once the PlayStation launched and the transition to 3D games started, the interest dried up and the deal fell through, and Konami ended up being the publisher. And it's too bad this game didn't have more of a chance to become more popular, because Metal Warriors is such a fun playthrough. You get one health meter, and five continues to get through nine levels with no battery saver password, so you gotta finish this one in one go round. The main mechanic that separates this game from Cybernator, and Target Earth for that matter, is that you can get out of your mech as a tiny, teeny little guy, and run around and shoot stuff, and even get into other mechs. The game takes advantage of this by creating lots of places where you blow things up with a mech, and then risk getting out to fend for yourself to reach a switch to unlock the next area. Plus, you get situations like this. I mean, look at this brave dude, hunkered down by himself, shooting unlimited ammo at me, even though I can just hop up here and get health every few seconds. That's just a cool visual that really makes your mech look like an unstoppable machine. Another way this game differs is that your health meter is the mech itself. It slowly fades to a gray color as you take damage, and it's a really cool touch. And I appreciate how clean everything in this game looks as a result. There's no numbers or bars on the screen, it's just you and your mech making stuff go boom. Plus, your mech as it takes damage looks really cool, eventually you'll lose your primary weapon, and all you can do is hope to fly to the finish. The controls are a bit more immediate compared to a game like Cybernator, but it still feels like you're controlling a mech, and the aim is handled the same way, where you have to let your weapon rotate around, but unfortunately in this game there's no button dedicated to setting your aim when you're standing still. It's still B to jump and Y to shoot, but also A to do a melee attack using a friggin' lightsaber. Yeah, this is made by LucasArts, alright. The L button uses a power-up, and the R button raises your shield, while X lets you set up temporary shields. Really, you'll mostly find yourself holding down the B and Y buttons as you zoom around fighting mechs, it's so much fun. I should mention though that you can't use your lightsaber in mid-air, but you can use the packs you pick up and mount to your mech, and it's usually stuff like missiles, grenades, homing and bouncing bullets, it's a really good time. Eventually in the game you stumble upon other mechs you can control. Man, how cool is that? There's six different mechs in this game you can play as, and they all have different abilities, like being able to roll like Sonic, or just having a huge-ass bazooka. They all have different controls too, like this one here is pretty much a twin-stick shooter where you're using the face buttons to fire in a particular direction, kind of like Super Smash TV. It's amazing to me that there's this much depth in this game, and all you're really doing is blowing stuff up. But yeah, it's very obvious that a ton of work and a lot of thought went into this one. The added storyline is also a nice touch, if only because the pixel art here just looks awesome. I mean, this is the kind of look that people think of when they think of 16-bit graphics. The actual story itself is mostly mission-based, where first you rescue someone, then you invade an enemy base and knock out their shields, then you go down to the planet's surface and infiltrate their underground base. It's straightforward stuff, but the visuals in these cutscenes are absolute top notch. But it doesn't end there. One more thing that makes Metal Warriors stand out is the head-to-head mode. It's simple. It's you versus a second player, you each pick a mech, and you try to blow each other up. And holy crap, it's a lot of fun. Once you get the hang of the controls and get to know each map a little bit, it's seriously such a great time, and if nothing else, it's a lot of fun to just screw around with each different mech for a while. The spider mech is especially fun to play around with, but just in case that's not enough for you, there's also a basketball mode you can unlock. What? Yeah, when the Konami logo fades to a white background, you hold left L and A on controller 1, and up Y, select an R on controller 2, then you'll see a new option on the main menu and, uh, yeah. You got a guy's head inside a basketball rolling around, and there's skeletons and explosions, and... I don't even know what to say, man. I guess it's just proof that the developers had fun making this one. Metal Warriors is not, without its flaws, the most glaring being the sound of your main weapon. Yeah, it's nitpicky, but after a couple hours, I'm really tired of that sound. I should also point out that the level design is pretty bland. It's mostly just a series of mazes, and there's not the kind of variety here that you'd find in a game like Cybernator. And also, as much as I love how clean and uncluttered the screen looks, some people might be turned off by the fact that you can't see the number of missiles or grenades or whatever that you have left, or how long your power-up lasts, but to me, again, that's just nitpicky stuff. So yeah, Metal Warriors is another game where it's like, uh, can you tell I like this game? The single-player campaign is good enough on its own, but you toss a versus mode in there and, baby, you got a stew going. If you're into running-gun games like Contra or Gunstar Heroes, you really owe it to yourself to play this one. It's a great title with a surprising amount of depth that's had me coming back to it for years, and it hasn't been released anywhere else, so this is another one you'll have to play. Anyway, you can. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.