Steel Battalion review

It is very difficult to objectively review this game. You have, literally, had the whole world mouthing off about it at some point or, more accurately, the game's controller. Even the, self-confessed, paragon of games journalism that is EDGE succumbed to their own repressed fanboy urges. So if these "professionals" can't get it right, what hope is left for a mecha aficionado such as myself?Disregarding the entire theme of the game for a moment, how does it play? Put simply, very realistically. If you fail to eject in time you, obviously, die and you lose your "game save". Enemies fight just as hard as you and have equally powerful weapons and armor (in some cases, more so). The whole premise of the game is simple, "do or die". You really only have one chance to get it right in each of the 23 missions. Failure is, literally, not an option. The downside of all this is that the game is very hard.Back to the real world for a moment. Considering that the cost for purchasing this game (plus controller), most people might feel a little hard done by when the realise how incredibly hard the game is. Investing so much time in one game is not really all that contemporary."Casual" gamers are pretty well much the entire games market now (even in Japan). So releasing a mightily expensive game on a struggling platform is hardly all that wise. Then again, saying that this game will not sell well is pretty well much a no-brainer. The reason I mention this at all is because it is a crying shame that a game of this brilliance will not be commonly appreciated. Despite the difficulty the craftsmanship that has gone into this game is truly breathtaking. They often say that "God is in the details", and this game is proof of this. There so many little details that have been honed to sheer perfection. The handling, the cockpit, the HUD, the weapons, the ordnance, the sound, the graphics and the list goes on. So I have to come clean, this not so much a review as a plea for people play this game.The likes of Halo maybe wondrously inclusive, but the (singleplayer) game is woefully lacking. In the case of Tekki, it may not at first appear all that inclusive but the sheer wonder that awaits the player almost negates any nitpicking. Even the very high level of difficulty doesn't matter, if anything it catalyses you to play the game more. To beat it. Saying that Tekki is a "great" game is somehow not enough. Even listing all the points that make the game great is much like counting the grains of sand on beach. It is possible to do it, but in doing so misses the point of why you are there in the first place (obviously not to count grains of sand).I hope you can see why I cannot review this game objectively. It is because it is so damn good.