Zone of the Enders: Fist of Mars review

With CastleVania: Harmony of Dissonance inexplicably delayed by a few weeks (would Konami really think a Halloween-ish launch would improve sales?), I was left with a hole in my busy playing schedule. Rather than request another THQ title for review, I decided to pick this little GBA game up instead. After all, it comes from a series renowned for its anime stylings and really big robots. The game's roughly a sixty-forty split between character chatter and Advance Wars-esque strategy. Also, there are RPG elements, which make their presence felt on between-mission screens. Yes, you read that right; more of your time in this game is spent flicking through text than blasting bad guys. Even Hideo Kojima would stop short of that, surely? Surprisingly, it makes for an enjoyable, neatly structured game, with events contextualised and your units having far more individual character than those in Advance Wars; although obviously there are fewer. The story is important, so I'll try not to spoil it for you; all I'll say is that it's the sort of quirky heroism and (in this case fairly topical) moral musing that anime fans will be accustomed to. At any rate, the game is divided up into a series of short episodes, usually with a fair amount of chat, a battle, and some more chat at the end. Between episodes, you mess with the RPG bits, save to one of fifteen blocks (although a mid-battle quicksave is available, with a quick load on the title screen), and more often than not, move right onto the next episode. The gameplay is very similar to Advance Wars, with a couple of twists. The interface, for example, is largely identical, with unit selection bringing up a series of choices (including "MOVE"; as it's the first selection, getting used to the extra button press is fairly easy). There's the same grid, although no arrows, and enemy unit info/movement/firing range works, if a little idiosyncratically. The little changes really stand out; one of them is in the actual combat. When you or the enemy chooses a target, a screen appears giving the probability of hitting the target, the damage the attack will do, and the target's probability of dodging (the player can still back out at this stage, which helps forward planning). A tap of a shoulder button can toggle a short prerendered anime attack sequence, but crucially, an "Interactive Action System" battle mode. These short, interactive sequences of attacking or dodging, although simple, not only allow players to use their skill to make an unlikely hit or avoid a potentially lethal attack, but often betray the characteristics of certain mechs- accurate, lobbing less powerful shots over a long range, skilled at dodging the enemy, or terrifyingly powerful and near-inescapable. Indeed, character is very much at the heart of this game. The few troops you have are more like characters in an RPG than tanks on an Advance Wars battlefield, and they can be kitted out with different equipment, or have their accuracy/damage ratios tweaked, or they can learn new and distinct abilities and attacks, as the adventure wears on. It eventually reaches the stage where you catch yourself cheering at the appearance of an MIA (presumed dead), seriously powerful comrade, returning to (what else?) kick the enemies butts. Each of your units has a selection of long and short range attacks, some of which don't become activated until a "Spirit" stat has built up enough through a battle, and making quick decisions about which attack to use "on the fly" adds another element to the game. Items can be gained, equipped and used, and certain types of unit (LEVs, rather than the familiar Orbital Frames) can be upgraded with cold, hard cash from destroying the enemy. Missions are full of character, too, objectives changing mid-battle, and there are some fun (if a little shakily explained) actions, such as defusing bombs, which slip into the mix. Each battle is nicely contextualised in the storyline, and conversations pop up mid-battle at key events. The one problem with the game is that it's a little bit too… easy. Unlike Advance Wars, where mistakes in strategy were costly, you can get away with making a few slip-ups. The fewer enemies and the larger number of attacks in the game prevent it ever having the sort of puzzler style rhythm that characterised Nintendo's title, and events play out on a very small scale; of course, this is balanced by the variety and complexity of each little scuffle between small groups of units, but the game feels a little lightweight, a bit laid back. The battles are also never as long as the epic confrontations later in Intelligent Systems' gem, but there's no real need for them to be. As a whole, this is an enjoyable, varied but fairly short lived title that suits its host system well and is a lot of fun while it lasts. It's more tactical than strategic, which is appropriate, as the game's story is one of local, personal revolution rather than the far-reaching military campaign of Advance Wars. The last words really have to go to the presentation (with its nifty character guides, swift saving and overall clarity) and the music, which rivals Castlevania: CotM in its clarity and expressiveness and loops far less often than the stuff in Advance Wars.