Metal Wolf Chaos XD throws down at the Fight House on August 6th
You can't war here! This is the FIGHT HOUSE.
The headline does not lie - one of the boss fights in FromSoftware's Metal Wolf Chaos XD is a mech battle against an armoured, armed and re-branded White House. Despite arguably being the most American game on the original Xbox, its tale of a power-armoured US President liberating the nation one state at a time has been Japanese-only until now. Ported to PC by General Arcade, the new 'XD' (cute) version lands on August 6th. As one of the few people to have actually played the original version, some thoughts (and a trailer) lurk below.
Metal Wolf Chaos is a fast, dumb arcade third-person mech shooter, a bit like FromSoftware's better-known Armoured Core series but more scripted missions and less customisation. All you can change is your weapons loadout, but thanks to Metal Wolf's physics-defying weapons pods, you can carry eight guns, and your super move lets you fire all of them simultaneously for a few seconds. A few hidden objectives and unlockable guns give Metal Wolf Chaos' short (but fun) campaign some extra life, but you're looking at six or seven hours of run-and-gun nonsense.
That's selling it a bit short, admittedly, but I'm just tempering expectations. It's gleefully daft stuff, with the original English voice acting from the Japanese version making a return. Between the heroic president's utterly nonsensical catchphrases ("You guys are roast chicken!") and his secretary/mission commander Jody being way too excited to see America burn, it's constantly funny. It's what happens when a veteran Japanese studio try to make the most over-the-top game they can about America. It's hard not to want to bellow 'RICHAAAAAARD!' by the time the credits roll.
Metal Wolf Chaos XD stomps onto Steam and GOG next month on August 6th, published by Devolver Digital. It'll cost £19.49/€20.99/$24.99.