""Battle All Over - Thank you for your playing""

Zoids is an anime which dates back into the old-school anime days of the good old early 80's, along with the likes of Voltron, Robotech (::cough:: Macross ::cough::), and Transformers (ok so Transformers isn't an anime, but who cares?). And it also has that new-school appeal as several new animated series have been released in the US, featuring seamlessly integrated computer animation with classical hand-drawn cel animation. Zoids represents the perfect blend of old school and new school traditions (in my mind at least). And it has garnered a large following of hardcore Zoid zealots both in the US and Japan. And as video game companies are prone to do, Tomy decided it was time to cash in on the Zoids franchise. But how well does the game hold up to the animated series' brilliance?

Graphics

Zoids Versus' graphics are fairly well done, although admittedly they're nothing special. Tomy apparently went for the bare-bones graphic engine, rather than adding lots of fancy effects. The Zoids in the game have some pretty high-polygon models, with a few nice textures here and there, nothing special, but not that bad either. The Zoids also animate fairly well, although I never really got the feel that I was piloting some enormous mechanical beast. The graphics seem to be missing a certain ''something'' which just gives you that really-impressed-feeling, or give you the effect that you're not playing a game, but are really piloting a real Zoid (although Zoids Versus certainly comes closer than any other Zoid game I've played).

On the bright side, the game DOES have a really SWEET intro!

Music

Don't expect any music from the anime(s), but the music isn't all that bad either. Some of the tunes are pretty sweet, but still nothing authentic feeling or really special here. The sound effects work well, but again, nothing special.

Gameplay

Once again, Tomy went for the bare-bones-no-extras-if-we-can-help-it with the game's various modes. There are only 3 modes, firstly is ''Zoids Battle'' mode. In this mode, you start out with 30,000 credits, 2 Zoids, and your raw ambition. You progress from one round to the other, beating the crap out of your enemies (each battle is 2-on-2, or sometimes 2-on-1, when you're up against a boss), and earning more credits depending on how well you do. You can use your credits to buy better Zoids, or upgrade the Zoids you already have. Each Zoid has a certain number of weapon ''slots'', into which different types of weapons can be inserted (usually a Zoid can carry from 2-8 weapons at once). Weapons range from ''Wild-Weasel'' machine-guns, to blades which you can use to cut up your enemies in close range, to long range missiles, to long range canons. There's a fairly large variety of authentic Zoid weaponry present, which will no doubt quench the Zoid addict's... addiction.

But it doesn't stop there! You can add 3 various ''sub-parts'' to your Zoid, which will give your radar longer range, increase your armor, etc. Finally, you can add one ''option'' to your Zoid, such as a booster to make it go faster, a shield which you can generate momentarily to block the enemy attacks or deal damage, drop mines, put up a smoke screen, etc. These will play a large part in the strategy (if you can call playing this game ''strategic'', which may be a bit of a stretch of the word, as I will get into later), and give you the advantage.

The B Button is used to jump, which isn't really useful at all (you can't jump off walls like in the show, believe me, I tried!). While the Y button cycles through your weapons, and the X Button uses your physical attack. Your physical attacks are actually your best weapon for most Zoids, but it also demonstrates Zoids Versus' lack of balance in certain areas. Some Zoids (like the tiger-type Zoids) have really crappy hard-to-use physical attacks, while other Zoids (such as the T-Rex style Zoids) have extremely cheap physical attacks.

If you're low on HP, your EX gauge will start flashing, allowing you to perform an EX Attack by holding down A the X button. EX attacks are the most devastating moves in the game, and are also the most graphically impressive moves for that matter.

The C-stick allows you to side-step or jump backwards, although this feature is not all that I had hoped it would be. For example, you can't use your boosters to side-step or strafe at all. The D-Pad tells your retarded partner what to do, which is a nice feature, but it's about as useful as it was in Rogue Leader (which means it isn't useful, at all).

There are only 12 levels in this mode, and it can be beaten in a matter of half an hour or possibly even less (although it will probably take first timers somewhere around 2 or 3 hours to do it). Fortunately even after you beat the mode, you can do it all over again, only the second time around your Zoids and money carry over.

Next up is Mission Mode, which, unlike Zoids Battle Mode, gives you your Zoids rather than you having to buy them. The game follows a storyline (which is all in Japanese), and you can take either side of the war. There are somewhere around 16 missions for each storyline, and there are even branching paths depending on which story selection you choose. Most of the game is very import friendly with all-english menus, but the story mode is simply incomprehensible for the katakana-impaired.

And last, and probably also least, is Versus Mode. Remember the whole name of the game is ''Zoids Versus'' afterall, right? So you'd think Tomy would have some really awesome versus mode ready, right? Well you couldn't be more wrong. The whole ''versus'' mode seems more like an after-thought than a really well thought out gameplay mode. Basically you choose your character (which doesn't change anything except for the screams your character makes), and your Zoid, and the level. And then... well... you fight it out. As far as options go, you can place the split-screens in one of two modes, and you can choose the time limit! Wow, I'm simply overwhelmed here! That's right, no tag-team modes, no 2-on-2 modes, no boss fights, and you'll never find a CPU-controlled character in this mode either! The fact that Versus mode is basically none existent (especially when the game's name is Zoids Versus), is one of the game's largest glaring flaws (although there are many more, which I'm about to get to), and really hurt the game's final score and longevity.

The Camera System

Ever since the advent of 3 dimensional games, camera control became an essential part of navigating a 3D world. However, Zoids Versus' camera system REALLY sucks. All the control you have over it is the R button, which toggles between having the camera fixed behind you, or having it lock into both you and the enemy, and take a 3rd-person view. Don't expect any cockpit, high-flying, or action cameras, as this is ALL you'll get. The camera does fairly well in most of the desert levels, but when you start getting into the military complex and city levels, the camera system's flaws will be all to evident.

Oftentimes the camera runs right through walls, sometimes obscuring my line of sight of my OWN Zoid, gets stuck inside buildings, and starts having seizure-like spasms as the camera flies all over the place in vain trying to to escape the buildings in vain. Heck, I've even had the camera LOSE me and everyone else momentarily! Night-time levels don't fair to well either, since you can't really see ANYTHING that's going on. But this flaw is dwarfed in comparison to the flaw I'm about to discuss...

Artificial Intelligence

A.I. is one of THE most IMPORTANT aspects of many games, and yet it is more often than not completely overlooked. A.I. is one of the hardest parts of any game to design, program, and implement, and furthermore, it is one of the most under-appreciated aspects of most games. If your game has a weak A.I., that is much less likely to be noticed than if your game's graphics or sound effects are poor, especially to only the casual gamer. Poor A.I. is a reoccurring problem in most games I've played, simply because the developers don't take it seriously and give it enough thought. Once this crappy A.I. reaches its maximum abilities against you (which doesn't take long), the developers try to make the game harder (and able to keep up with you) by allowing the A.I. computer-controlled players to ''cheat''. I've seen it all to often, enemies who have way more health and better weapons than you, other cars who teleport up behind you in a race, and opponents in fighter games which obviously do WAY more damage than they should. It's not that Zoids isn't challenging, often-times it just down right frustrating, but that's more so due to the enemy Zoid's vastly superior weaponry, rather than then the enemy being really ''intelligent''.

And since versus mode really sucks, you'll basically be up against the A.I. in the majority of your time playing the game. Come on, if IBM can build an A.I. which can beat the grand master in chess at his own game, then someone should be able to build an A.I. which can beat me in Zoids WITHOUT cheating!

Zoid Versus' A.I. seem to be programmed to run around in circles without any sort of strategy. I've seen the enemy run off, exposing their backs to my long-range missiles, and then stop once they reach the level's borders. Then they start launching missiles wildly up in the air, which are obviously to far away to hit me. I've seen enemies get stuck up against walls, firing missiles and bullets at a wall all the while hopping up and down like a complete idiot. The computer just runs around in seemingly random directions, shoot and attack, hoping SOMETHING will actually hit. Oh, and my favorite is when they run up next to you and try to blast you in close-range with long-range missiles! LOL!

Extras

Zoids Versus does feature over 40 characters to play as, and over 30 Zoids to pilot, which are quite impressive numbers. There are somewhere around 16 levels to play in (can't remember the exact number), but unfortunately the levels are more or less the same. You're either in a desert, in a city, or in a military base of some sort. And all of the various types are quite similar. Perhaps a sky level would've been a nice addition... (for the flying Zoids, all 4 of them).

To beat Zoids Battle Mode and Mission Mode (in both storylines) will probably only take you only 8-10 hours (or perhaps even less), and there isn't much to do after that, especially when the game has such a poor versus mode. The only thing left to do really is perhaps to go through Mission Mode again and choose the other branches of the story you didn't experience last time, or go through Zoids Battle mode over and over again, earning cash and trying to buy all the Zoids (which is what I'm doing right now). But overall, I felt that Tomy didn't take much time to add to many extras or extended the game's replay value.

Conclusions

If you're a Zoids fan, you're going to buy this game no matter what I say, aren't you? Tomy has a pretty darn good game here from some aspects, but the poor A.I., terrible camera, and lack of much replay value really hurts the game's overall score. Still, I'm giving the game an 8 out of 10 (which is probably more than it deserves), because I'll admit I really did enjoy myself in some portions of the game (that and I've watched the intro 10 times, and loved it each time!). If you're a casual gamer without much interest in Zoids, you might want to pick it up still, but there are better import games to be had. The game is very import friendly, with all-english menus, just don't buy it from buyrite.com, believe me, that site sucks. And I'd also recommend modding your Game cube rather than getting the freeloader boot disc.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/05/02, Updated 10/05/02