Mad Stalker: Full Metal Force
released on Jul 03, 1997
A remake of Mad Stalker: Full Metal Forth
Mad Stalker: Full Metal Force is a PS1 remake of Mad Stalker: Full Metal Forth. It adapts the system so it’s closer to Panzer Bandit, also released by Fill-In Cafe in the same year. With the revamped controls, the action is much, much smoother. Like Panzer Bandit, there’s an auto guard when the controls are left in neutral, and you can also deflect enemy attacks by hitting them at the same time. Dashing and boost jumping have been assigned their own separate buttons, too. A few other things have been added as well, like an “overdrive” power gauge that can be discharged for more powerful maneuvers. Enemies also regularly drop health restoratives, whereas the previous versions only provided them at certain points in the stages. The sprites here are all the same, but the backgrounds are now 3D, and look entirely different. Despite the visual makeover, however, the stages and bosses are all still pretty similar. The music has been rearranged, though, with some tracks taken from a Mad Stalker soundtrack album released alongside the X68k game in 1994.
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Within this relatively short and repetitive action game/beat em up hybrid hides a very competent one on one fighter. It's really a shame that it lacks some kind of arcade mode.
This is so smooth to play, this game is short and it has some rushed or thrown together aspects but it's really enjoyable despite that.
This is a beat-em-up that plays on a single plane, there's fighting game commands, dashes, throws, and a variety of moves that add some depth to the game, there's the usual meter and super moves too.
What makes this worth playing is how fast and smooth it is, linking together attacks and reacting or countering enemy attacks feels very satisfying, dashing into a jump/dash then dashing again into a rushing attack just feels very much like maneuvers from a good fighting game.
The player and most bosses and enemies also have long range attacks at their disposal with multiple levels of attack power based on the input, with air/anti-air versions too.
You can throw enemies around and juggle them, it's cool to find another game that has all the best aspects of something like Guardian Heroes (which I've read was inspired or influenced by this game)
The enemy AI moves around quickly and can counter the player attacks easily so bosses and even most average enemies put up a good fight, it's a difficult game but it didn't feel horribly unfair like many 90s beat-em-ups and didn't rely on boss I-frames, long range grab/throw attacks or overly long health bars like so many games like this do. I personally find most games in the genre kind of exhausting and hopeless to even consider beating on a single credit, it's always great to find a game in this genre that seems like the devs thought more about making the game fun for even casual players and wanted players to have a good chance to beat the game, this game pushes back but not too hard, there's an Easy and hard mode with unlimited continues if the player wants more or less challenge.
So, it's true this game is extremely short, and it ends abruptly
I'm ok with that, in some ways it benefits the fast pace and makes this much more replayable, but it's going to be a deal breaker for the average player and I think the devs knew it would be unacceptable to release this with such light content, so this also features a VS mode and I think that's very important to consider with this game as it does add a lot of value to it.
All the movement and attacks are carried over into vs mode, I've played some games that had this feature as a disposable extra or novelty, often these extra vs modes on games like this are shallow and underdeveloped
however this plays just like any other high quality fighting game, now this isn't just the main 1 player mech vs one of the bosses or something, no they put in every single enemy and boss in this mode with all of their moves, even the small filler enemies that have one attack just.
And of course it's unbalanced but that doesn't stop it from being enjoyable with a 2nd player, it's commendable that there's so many playable characters that all play and move differently.
As if that's not enough, with a simple code the main mode can be played with any of the boss characters, and even more are added to the vs mode, there's a fantastic amount of replay value with so much variety added from this feature, it really elevates this from an alright game to an amazing one.
This is a remake of an old PC game, I actually enjoy the remade music and most of the visuals here despite the basic low-budget feel some of it has.
The robot designs specifically are very appealing, the design in general has a late 80s OVA look to it that I enjoy, there's nothing impressive or deep going on in terms of tech here, the backgrounds are flat and kind of blurry and there's barely any moving parts to it, the custscenes have some nice art in them but they're extremely simple and amateur, it shows how little time or budget was given to make them.
There are some negatives but it's mostly presentation, even so I appreciate that the game is so focused on gameplay and that's where nearly all of the effort and polish went, I'd rather play a really satisfying game with mediocre presentation than a boring one that looks great, anyone looking for a decent story or lengthy campaign should look elsewhere.
This game is all about Substance over style (though again the mech designs and settings definitely have some style).
The truth is, if it has a giant blue mech on the cover I'm going to buy it anyway, I can't say it was worth $290 US, but I wasn't disappointed and I'm very glad to have this game, I'll get my moneys worth even if I have to play through this 50 times or play the vs mode with CPU or a friend for hundreds of hours, I don't think I'll get bored of it.
This is a beat-em-up that plays on a single plane, there's fighting game commands, dashes, throws, and a variety of moves that add some depth to the game, there's the usual meter and super moves too.
What makes this worth playing is how fast and smooth it is, linking together attacks and reacting or countering enemy attacks feels very satisfying, dashing into a jump/dash then dashing again into a rushing attack just feels very much like maneuvers from a good fighting game.
The player and most bosses and enemies also have long range attacks at their disposal with multiple levels of attack power based on the input, with air/anti-air versions too.
You can throw enemies around and juggle them, it's cool to find another game that has all the best aspects of something like Guardian Heroes (which I've read was inspired or influenced by this game)
The enemy AI moves around quickly and can counter the player attacks easily so bosses and even most average enemies put up a good fight, it's a difficult game but it didn't feel horribly unfair like many 90s beat-em-ups and didn't rely on boss I-frames, long range grab/throw attacks or overly long health bars like so many games like this do. I personally find most games in the genre kind of exhausting and hopeless to even consider beating on a single credit, it's always great to find a game in this genre that seems like the devs thought more about making the game fun for even casual players and wanted players to have a good chance to beat the game, this game pushes back but not too hard, there's an Easy and hard mode with unlimited continues if the player wants more or less challenge.
So, it's true this game is extremely short, and it ends abruptly
I'm ok with that, in some ways it benefits the fast pace and makes this much more replayable, but it's going to be a deal breaker for the average player and I think the devs knew it would be unacceptable to release this with such light content, so this also features a VS mode and I think that's very important to consider with this game as it does add a lot of value to it.
All the movement and attacks are carried over into vs mode, I've played some games that had this feature as a disposable extra or novelty, often these extra vs modes on games like this are shallow and underdeveloped
however this plays just like any other high quality fighting game, now this isn't just the main 1 player mech vs one of the bosses or something, no they put in every single enemy and boss in this mode with all of their moves, even the small filler enemies that have one attack just.
And of course it's unbalanced but that doesn't stop it from being enjoyable with a 2nd player, it's commendable that there's so many playable characters that all play and move differently.
As if that's not enough, with a simple code the main mode can be played with any of the boss characters, and even more are added to the vs mode, there's a fantastic amount of replay value with so much variety added from this feature, it really elevates this from an alright game to an amazing one.
This is a remake of an old PC game, I actually enjoy the remade music and most of the visuals here despite the basic low-budget feel some of it has.
The robot designs specifically are very appealing, the design in general has a late 80s OVA look to it that I enjoy, there's nothing impressive or deep going on in terms of tech here, the backgrounds are flat and kind of blurry and there's barely any moving parts to it, the custscenes have some nice art in them but they're extremely simple and amateur, it shows how little time or budget was given to make them.
There are some negatives but it's mostly presentation, even so I appreciate that the game is so focused on gameplay and that's where nearly all of the effort and polish went, I'd rather play a really satisfying game with mediocre presentation than a boring one that looks great, anyone looking for a decent story or lengthy campaign should look elsewhere.
This game is all about Substance over style (though again the mech designs and settings definitely have some style).
The truth is, if it has a giant blue mech on the cover I'm going to buy it anyway, I can't say it was worth $290 US, but I wasn't disappointed and I'm very glad to have this game, I'll get my moneys worth even if I have to play through this 50 times or play the vs mode with CPU or a friend for hundreds of hours, I don't think I'll get bored of it.
Thank god they gave us infinite continues and instant respawns cuz this game was a badass 40 minutes that I couldn’t put down. Zipping around, cutting down, blasting the many robots and bosses in your way. stomping down the street all day everyday
Short,sweet and satisfying. Only real complaints are that some bosses make it basically impossible to 1CC and that the final level is questionable at best.
I would think this game was cool as hell if I didn't already know about Ninja Warriors.
pretty cool beat em up/fighting game mix