Price: £19.99 Players: 1, 2-8 (online) Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes Xbox Live-enabled: Yes This is the only game (other than GBA games) I play on a regular basis. It's a game girls can play - wow! im so impressed!! If, like me you can only concentrate on walking forward and pressing one button at a time then this is for you. Online-enabled too! You get to plough through stuff in a massive robot (theres loads to choose from with varying pros and cons). In the game missions you have various tasks to do - like getting from point A-B via points C, D, E, F and G (yes, you send a lot of time looking for where the hell you're meant to be going), killing all the bad guys along the way and smashing stuff for the good of mankind - well for the good of the good people! There are basically three different bars to look out for when in a mech: health - the green bar (d'oh! - kinda obvious), flying ability - the blue bar (if you have it) and your other power one that stops missiles hitting you for a bit or makes you invisible - purple bar (really funky this power). The levels all look amazing to begin with but get a bit sameish as you go through them - its either rocky, arctic conditions, cities or volcanic stuff - but the game isn't based on the scenery as much as most games as its not something of vast importance.

Controls are easy for this game - analogues for walking and targeting, trigger to shoot - wow - i can play! And as you go through the game you destroy buildings and enemies to get pick-ups to regain your health or power up your weapons (there's really pretty purple lasers when you reach level 3). Some mechs are more suited to certain conditions than others and each has their strengths and weaknesses, eg. you sacrifice strength for speed (like all games) and each has different weapons that will use different pick-ups. The 2 lava mechs are not avaliable until you complete the game - the Ragnarok and the Ymir, which spew lava over everything so if you're in a small mech you can quite easily die in one or two hits if they're powered up! Tactically, you can play the first few rounds with a light quick moving mech and pick people off from a distance (ooooh its like a sniper rifle but giant-sized) but after that you're really going to have to use the bigger mechs that can take more of a beating as the enemies get tougher and more frequently appear. Once youve destroyed everything and killed the Ragnarok you've basically finished the game. There's fantastic playability and the life span of the game is endless if you have online capabilities on your Xbox.

With 2-8 players Online, there are several modes and it begins to sound like Unreal with capture the flag modes, "you're it", giant killers, destruction and team destruction. Destruction matches make the best games (yes, in my opinion so if you dont agree write your own review!) and it's just utter chaos half the time you don't know whose shot you, its really easy to stand at a distance and pick people off - wow I'm a sniper rifle again. Giant killers is really, really silly! One person is a giant and all the rest in the game are elementals (tiny little robots about a 20th of the size of a normal mech) and they all have to shoot at the big person - you only gain points when youre the big mech killing the little ones - never be an elemental in any other type of game as they generally die in 1 hit! But they're an utter bastard to spot! New download content has just been released for the online game, however it will cost as its not free - boo hoo! - a little over £3 will get you two new game modes which really aren't worth it - one where your team have to control all of the bases at the same time - its damn hard! And one where you have to control the other team's base, steal something then get it back to your base - I wouldnt bother unless you're a master at the game though... and I'm not :( By far the most entertaining game online for me, personally, with simplistic controls - many nights ive realised its 5am and thought "Oops, I was only meant to play this for 30mins!" you will become addicted - go and get it today - go on - now, go - really - click on the Amazon link above to get it... if your still here you better already have the game!

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Review copyright © Kirsten, 2003.