Front Mission

"A great game that shows its age"

Front Mission for the NDS will come as a godsend to anyone who always wanted to play the SNES version but never got the chance, or people who loved the SNES original and will come back for the multitude of improvements in the handheld version, including a new campaign and new wanzers.

Gameplay 8/10

Gameplay in Front Mission is divided into essentially two distinct aspects, the first being the purchasing of equipment for your walking armored weapons called "wanzers" and the second being the use of that equipment on the battle field. In between these two aspects being a smattering of simple town exploration and plot progression.

If I had one complaint about the purchasing/equipping section of the game, it would be that the pace at which parts are released is not well thought out. In some sections you will see new parts available after every mission that offer only marginal improvements over previous parts. This detracts from the gameplay experience by bogging down game flow. Other than that, the vast variety of well designed parts makes for great eye candy even more than ten years after the game was first released and should make any mecha fan happy.

The game differs from most SRPGs by leaning slightly more towards placing importance on equipment rather than skills. There are a very small number of skills in this game and you won't get any until roughly the halfway point of the game. However what skills there are manage to be absolutely game breaking. The Guide and Duel skills along with their supplements, manage to make the LONG and SHORT specializations far and away superior to the melee specialization. With these skills it is often possible to destroy enemy units in a single hit. Despite this glaring flaw in design, which is only made more obvious by the improvements found in subsequent Front Mission games (Especially the excellent Front Mission 5) gameplay remains entertaining, and will keep you coming back for "just one more mission."

Story 8/10

In what would later become the standard for the Front Mission series, Front Mission offers up a tale of war motivated by shadowy conspirators, and the heroes who attempt to stop them. There are two scenarios in the game to play, which offer interrelated views of two sides of a war called the "Second Huffman Conflict" between an Asian superstate called the OCU and an American superstate called the UCS (USN in the Japanese original).

In the OCU scenario the player follows the story of Roid Clive, a man who carries the burden of supposedly starting the war by touching off an international incident between the two superpowers. Clive is recruited by the OCU once again to lead a formidable mercenary unit named Canyon Crow, that goes on to prove their worth in the war against the UCS. In doing so Clive encounters larger mysteries that shed light on the true nature of his past.

In the UCS scenario the play follows the story of Kevin Greenfield, a UCS Spec Ops team member who runs afoul of his superiors due to his uncompromising morals and concern for his fellow soldiers. Later reassigned to another unit, Greenfield fights in the Second Huffman Conflict and begins to unravel the mysteries behind his old unit, the Black Hounds, and the woman he loves, Maria.

Of the two stories the OCU story is notable because it basically set the tone for all later Front Mission games, whereas the USN story is notable because of its vastly superior dialogue and general quality of writing. The USN story bumps this score up to an 8.

Graphics 7/10

Graphics in FM have been improved over the SNES original, with backgrounds looking crisp. However this remains an old-school game, and it would be hard to say it can compare to other modern DS games very well. Luckily this never really detracted from enjoying the game for me.

Final Score 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/06/09

Game Release: Front Mission (US, 10/23/07)