Retro revival
WarTech Senko No Ronde won't cater to everyone's taste, it's for a particular type of gamer, perhaps those who are currently enjoying the revival of retro games or those who are seeking a new twist on the standard shoot 'em up. I could have seen WarTech being released as a classic title for the Xbox live arcade, but to be fair, and after giving the game a fair crack of the whip, I can still see why it has received such high praise in Japan and why it's such a popular arcade game. There's far more to the battles then just randomly pressing buttons in the hope that you'll just get lucky and kill your opponent; you need to keep your wits about you, be aware of everything that's going on around you, use perfect timing in executing your attacking and defensive maneuvers and use all of your strengths to your advantage before your opponent uses theirs.
Click for larger imageThe single player story mode begins when you choose one of the eight Rounder mechs, each of which has their own unique fighting ability, as well as a few special tricks up their sleeve. You then step into an arena where you battle through 5 stages of aerial combat against a single opponent, before reaching the end of level B.O.S.S, who aims to provide the toughest challenge. On screen you whizz around in your mechanical suit circling each other, dodging your opponent's barrage of bullets, dive bombing straight at each other for a mid-screen tussle, or unleashing a volley of visually appealing attacks with the likes of laser guns, homing missiles and reactive bombs. The aim of the game is to deplete your enemies armour gauge before he grinds you down, but aside from scoring these vital hit points there's still plenty more to keep you interested.
Both mechs in each battle are encompassed by two circles, indicating the range of close-up and ranged attacks. Underneath the armour (or health) metre is a charge gauge that depletes when you use certain attacks and refills before you can use them again. Aside from having a main weapon, such as laser gun, there are secondary weapons, shields that can be activated, a dash function, which allows you nip out of the way of the incoming rain of bullets and a B.O.S.S mode, which can be activated a few times in each battle.
