Mechassault: Phantom War (DS) Review
Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 09.18.2006
Warning…ammo bay fire…warning…mech geek approaching…
Another dream of Battletech fans the world over has been realized: Portable 3D mech combat! At last you can liberate entire planets and level natural terrain all from the comfort of the back seat of the family road trip SUV. Mechassault: Phantom War has landed on the Nintendo DS, featuring true 3D graphics, simplified gameplay, and plenty of giant robots just itching to get annihilated.
The story for this edition of Mechassault fits just perfectly into the Battletech series. The game takes place years after Mechassault 2 for the Xbox. In this installment, all hyper pulse generators (i.e. intergalactic phone lines) have been hit by a virus and brought down. With communication lines cut throughout the galaxies, the threat of wars and raids that no one will ever find out about is imminent. You are Vallen Brice, a chick with a genius IQ and some hardcore mech piloting skills. Your mission: secure a hyper pulse generator and fix it so that the universe will be saved from war. Your modus operendi: blow up everything possible.
The game features the same simplified combat that the Mechassault series is known for, which means no worries about dumping your ammunition or loading out the specs for your battlemech before each mission. At the same time however, the game adds much more personality and technical babble to the overall story. Vallen is much more vocal than the previous protagonists of the mechwarrior series, but damn all if I understand a word of what she and her friends are talking about half the time.
There’s over 20 mechs as well as other vehicles to play with and wireless multiplayer play for those of you who have the unique ability to gather up to four mech nerd/DS owners into a single room. The game has all of Mechassault’s flavor with more of Battletech’s jargon. You know you’re in trouble when there is an ad for the Mechwarrior miniatures game hidden behind the instruction manual. Speaking of which, before I begin this review I would just like to send out a special wave to the guys over at Virtual World, the wannabe mech jocks who felt my writing would never amount to anything. Funny how things work out, eh guys?
Graphics
The graphics for Phantom War are pretty shocking. I knew the DS was a cool piece of hardware but I had no idea it was capable of 3D mapping on such a grand scale. The game does suffer from the DS’ usual pixilation but in this case it’s arbitrary. The mechs look just fine from normal distance and have a nifty little scaled down version of their old explosion animation from the Xbox. One of the biggest surprises is that Phantom War features the ability to exit your mech as in Mechassault 2, which means you get a chance to see the actual mech size up close even on the DS. The switch between large and small scale is completely fluid and I’m amazed to see the DS pull it off.
The backgrounds on each stage are typically clean looking, albeit they are subject to that whole Battletech post apocalyptic orange color most of the time. There’s a few cut scenes too, which look phenomenal, yet somewhat cheapen the actual gameplay graphics themselves. Animation is fluid nearly all of the time, even on human characters, and facial features are clearly visible when Vallen is outside of her mech. The game doesn’t look perfect, but by comparison to other mech games, Phantom War looks great, portable or not.
Gameplay
Sadly, Phantom War’s biggest feature is also its greatest downfall. Since the game is pretty simple in its combat, a staple of the Mechassault series, there are no overly technical features to the game. Simply pick a weapon, aim, and fire. While this avoids putting off younger players or those who want to focus on the action, it becomes repetitive quickly. You run around and blow stuff up, occasionally hacking a gate or a mech. The actual fighting is pretty standard fare and there are no limbs to blow up or legs to slow down. The only things the touchpad is used for are hacking (drag and drop one box to another), menu selection, weapon selection, and getting in and out of your mech. It’s a real waste of what could have been play to some really futuristic features.
Hacking sequences break up the monotony ever so slightly, and once you get used to them they too lose their appeal. The difficulty level isn’t insanely high here and despite the annoying push button camera/torso twisting, the controls are actually pretty easy to get used to. If you’ve ever played any game that required piloting a giant robot, you’ll more or less be able to breeze through the entire game rather quickly. It’s fine if you are into straight action ports, but overall this is really a waste of the DS’ capability.
Sound
Phantom War’s voice acting was the last thing I expected. While it can be a tad overdramatic or cheesy at times, Phantom War features clean, extensive vocals that had me checking the actual game cartridge to see if Majesco had added an extra memory pack somewhere. The main character has a personality now instead of the mute ignorance of past heroes in the series, and that’s always a plus. Hearing actual complete conversation come out of the DS instead of random one-liners really knocks you for a loop, and I still can’t believe it.
The sound effects are toned down versions of the Xbox installments. While those particular sounds weren’t anything special to begin with, hearing muffled versions of the various zaps and explosions from the other games is slightly worse. The same goes for the music. It fits the futuristic war theme relatively well, but there’s nothing compelling or motivational about it. It’s not even catchy. Overall, the sound is passable, with some really amazing voice recordings.
Lasting Appeal
Playing through the single player campaign unlocks more mechs for use in the multiplayer mode, and up to 4 players with four copies of the game can battle it out together. We’ll ignore the fact that you would have more of a chance of finding four 1st generation Charizard Pokemon cards in a single room than finding four people who own this game, and just give credit that the feature is there at all. Phantom War really needs WiFi support to have any true replay value, and once again the lack of this feature is a true waste of what could have been a great addition to Nintendo’s WiFi lineup. Damn exclusive selling points…
Fun Factor
Fans of the Mechassault series will get a kick out of having the quick action and simple gameplay come to their Nintendo DS’, and new players will have a smooth transition into the world of giant robot battles. Having characters with some form of personality on the DS is nice, the low difficulty level makes for quick play through monotonous stages. While there are a few too many technical terms and ultimately trivial mumbling throughout the game, there is plenty of stuff to blow up. At the end of they, whether fans admit it or not, blowing stuff up is what mech games are about, and now you can do it portably, over and over and over again.
The 411
Phantom War isn’t bad, but somehow it has missed every major feature that would make it stand out from other action games. I sincerely hope that this game is just a shadow of things to come for mech games on the DS, because it’s almost impossible not to notice the potential here. For now, chalk it up as the technical guy’s version of a beat em’ up stress reliever, and enjoyed a nice quick mech battle or two on the DS. Take it in small doses and you’ll probably enjoy it.
