Zoids: Battle Legends

"Zoids Versus 2 review, obviously."

As a dedicated zoid fan I bought the first zoids versus game soon after it came out. I soon found it to be incredibly limited, but being zoids, that didn't concern me too much. Then rumors started to hype me up about a sequel, Zoids Versus 2, I was so excited. Once I got it, it was easily much greater than the first one, but imagine a game with virtually nothing to do but battle, only with 3 times as much of it.
3 times the zoids, 3 times the battles, a new mode, a CPU battle feature, etc.

Among the different modes, they included:

Battle mode: No fighting game is equipped without one, a simple mode with a simple plot, beat your opponents and earn money to buy new zoids. The major flaw that brings this mode down to "beat the same people over and over to get your favorite zoid" is the AI. If you ever had a favorite character in the series and are about to battle them you think "oh no, not this guy" but once you've played battle mode many of times, or even just once you will soon realize that every opponent has the same strategy of victory, run around like an idiot and shoot anything that happens to come across your line of fire. Take Naomi for example, the expert sniper, she doesn't snipe, in fact, she just runs around shooting and occasionally flairs off missiles, un-aimed of course.

Mission Mode: The pride of being a zoid fan, a war breaks out. But this war not only features no cut scenes, but text! This seems less of a war and more of a separate battle mode, only with occasional battle conditions and less choice over what you can pilot. The best part of mission mode is that the AI actually does something, they shoot, they move, they strike, but they are cheap because they regenerate. Regeneration of course replaces having more than 4 zoids on the screen, instead, when you kill an opponent and there are supposed to be 2 of them, another one comes from no where.

VS Mode: This is the worst mode of them all, got a buddy thats just as crazed about zoids as you are? Well, even if you manage to pay someone to play vs mode with you, even YOU can agree that it isn't incredibly impressive. Having such large stages and freedom to roam around isn't fun. The stages are what you would want out of a zoid game, base, desert, inner base, valley, and city. The base stages are for more strategic battles (as strategic as your nonzoid playing partner will allow you to play, "I don't know the controls, but I can sure as hell chase and hold down A!") it isn't as boxed in as the city, but it isn't as desolate as the desert, not to mention the feel of piloting a mechanical machine bent on destruction in a weapons facility. The desert is for straight out combat, shoot, strike, run away. Inner base is the same as base, only indoors. Valley is annoying because there isn't anywhere to go. City is the best, you can hide, strike, shoot, anything, but unlike in ZVI, you can't go on the freeway, and there aren't any people running around, not to mention its not interactive in any way. Don't even bother with CPU, unless you found it a challenge in battle mode.

Fist mode: Pretty much the same as VS, only confined and with a faster frame rate. 9 different mat-like stages, flat, mountain, crater, doughnut, indescribable x4, and swirly. Flat seems to be the biggest, mountain is the same thing only it shoots up, crater is the same thing only inverted, doughnut is fun with that payed friend from vs mode, but the CPU will fall in the conveniently placed hole 5 seconds after the game starts, indescribable are like mountain and crater, only with ramps, and swirly seems like a good scene for a chase down the mountain seeing as how it is just a flat stage only smaller and has a swirling path all the way to the bottom, but the opponent will go off and shoot at random and fall off. Otherwise it's fun, more so than VS I think.

Characters: The characters have different "stats" that supposedly play a huge role in the performance of the zoid, such as some characters provide a smaller turning radius than others of less skill at maneuvering, and some characters make the guns do more damage (who knows how) and they are more accurate, and others do the same only for close range. It makes no difference who your opponent is.

Zoids: When I first heard "over 100 zoids to chose from" I thought that this was something, but there are only about 50 or so, only this time they include various variations of some of the zoids, such as color, or they might have 100 more hp than its predecessor, or added missiles, pretty much the different custom versions in the zoids franchise, only you can save the expense of "customization"

Extras: More characters, more zoids, and even the rare legendary zoids such as the death saurer, ultrasaurus, death stinger, and mad thunder. These are less fun than you would think, I love smashing everyone and using a special weapon called "fixed missiles" but the CPU won't allow it because they shoot at you until they reach you, and then they ram into you constantly (a grueling 5 minute process of death since it only does 10 damage) until you decide to just forfeit out of boredom, and against another person, who in the right mind would want to play as a normal zoid against a monstrosity, they want to use one of their own which is no fun, then it is just shoot each other with big guns since close range will take 30 seconds to complete (except the mad thunder, but then you have to get in close, 5 more minutes unless you cheat and just jump forward constantly).

My views on this game seem negative considering the score I gave it , but if everyone who reviews tells of the positives, the reader never gets what they need to be cautioned of, like buying a car because it was red but not knowing that it was a house because the order was in Japanese.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/19/04