WarTech: Senko no Ronde

"WarTech is Launch!"

It's sad to say, but the number of good Japanese titles on the 360 is pretty slim. Although the console doesn't quite suffer a lack of games from Japanese based publishers, it doesn't have nearly the array of interesting overseas titles we were seeing in the PS2's third year. Thankfully, Ubisoft has been trying to remedy this by publishing strange, original titles from overseas. That, or they've just been hoping to find a random foreign box office hit they hope to continue publishing to cash in on. Either way, now we have Senko no Ronde and now we're stuck with it.

WarTech, the inexplicibly campy english title Ubisoft has attached to the game, is something of a very unique 1-on-1 fighter. Anyone who's ever played a SHUMP (Shoot 'em up) before will instantly recognize where developer G.Rev was going with their idea. Unlike a title such as Soul Calibur where the idea is to beat your opponent to death with your fists or weapons, WarTech is about flying a giant robot around a circular arena while trying to kill your opponent using various types of projectiles. Imagine taking any overhead shooting game, (something like Xevious or Ikaruga) and turning it into a fighter. THIS IS WAR...Tech.

As crazy as that sounds, G.Rev has made it work. Players are given a choice of 8 flying mechs, with two fighter variations each, to pilot. Each robot is given a statistic in things such as movement, fire power, defense, etc. While these stats may seem to mean something at first, you'll quickly realize they're almost useless to pay attention to. The real meat doesn't come down to each robot's statistical values, but their unique attacks and how they're utilized. Once you've picked your giant, Japanese mecha of choice, you're thrust into a small circular arena viewed from overhead where you must fight for metallic dominance! Meanwhile, your pilots get to throw around some horribly translated insults in squeaky Japanese voices.

Players are given three types of attacks to play with. A basic shooting attack, a heavy attack that needs reloading, and an even stronger barrage attack that takes away energy from your player's power bar. You can even input special button formations to make your pilot initiate special attacks. These are all long range attacks, and the challenge comes in piloting your mech to avoid your opponents bullet formations while trying to drive him into your own. If you manage to get close, or dash into the other player, you can quickly hammer him with a physical attack that will damage him and throw him away from you. If things become too overwhelming for you you can throw up a defensive barrier that drains your mechs energy instead of health, or you can summon a barrier that eliminates all bullets around you for a split second. When you run out of health you enter a Vanish state which basically makes you invincible for a couple secnds, but if you get touched even once after that you're dead.

Fighters have a power bar separate from their health. It charges over time but you can charge it quicker by either taking or giving damage. Things like using shields, special attacks, barrage attacks, or BOSS mode will drain this bar. And you really don't want a low bar or the number of attacks available to you will be pretty limited. Every fighter can use a special OverDrive mode once per battle. The upside is that this very quickly replenishes your energy bar. The downside is it also rapidly sucks away your health even quicker than the voice acting will take to make your ears bleed.

Where the fights really become interesting is during BOSS mode. Each player can use BOSS mode twice in a fight, as long as they have enough energy to perform the attack anyways. BOSS mode summons a gigantic armor shell for your already gigantic robot. This quickly puts the screen into a more traditional SHUMP perspective where your opponent must now fight for his freaking life against your huge battle robot. It plays out exactly like any SHUMP boss fight, only now you control the boss. While this is going on your energy bar begins to drain. Once it hits the bottom, BOSS mode is over and you return to a normal fighter. If you have any health left over from BOSS mode it goes back to your player, adding another layer of stratgey to the game... This is especially true because if you activate BOSS mode during the Vanish stage you gain extra powerful attacks and a chance to regain your health. The downside is that if you're defeated then you lose the fight instantly.

So is any of this seemingly complicated fighting fun? Yes! Or rather mostly. There's a few problems here and there. For starters the single player mode is pretty meh. Not only is it short and lacking many characters or any unlockables whatsoever, it's also got some of the most woefully lame AI in a fighter, period. And by lame I mean the AI has almost perfect bullet doging ability even on the easiest settings. The only way to hurt them usually is to throw out so many attacks at once that the AI becomes confused and can't dodge correctly. The hit detection is also strange at times. There's no way to tell whose attacks will hit first in a physical fight. Some of the larger bullets also have a very small hit box and pass right through your robot without any damage. Worst of all, not all the mechs are created equal. Some RIDICULOUSLY overpower others. And I mean ridiculously. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the single player is passable but mostly sucks, and online is fun but you'll never find a single person playing ever except some random guy from japan. In a game that is all war and no play... No one wins.

By the way, the story is completely non-sensical. The most I was able to understand is there's a special facility testing a super clone pilot in a robot, and some police force named Goddiver is out to stop them. Well, it was either that or some very young looking school girl in a tight outfit decided to take her robot outside for the day to fight some evil dudes with lots of guns and two girly boys with obvious "feelings" for one another, all the while saying horrible engrish sentences in the highest tone of voice she could. I really don't know. All I know is that for a very brief moment you're able to see her scantily clad portrait in HD on the character select screen and I no longer care what the story is.

Senko no Ronde... Oh sorry, WARTECH, is a fun purchase. If you can nab this for $10-15 by all means pick it up and get online so we can fight damnit. Even the single player is worth it at that price, as well as the asthetic application of having a weird game no one played attached to your Gamer Tag. If it costs anything more than that avoid it like the plague. WarTech is a nice little distraction with some really good ideas but it's not a complete title. There's less meat on this game's bones than even I have. It's no where near a polished product that Ubisoft should have been charging $50 for. Oh well... keep those weird imports coming Ubisoft. Enchanted Arms was pretty lame, but maybe one day you'll hit the jackpot that was Earth Defense Force 2017. Just don't try to tell me your discount Japanese imports are worth $50...

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/08

Game Release: WarTech: Senko no Ronde (US, 05/29/07)