Just two missions into the Allied campaign and a few skirmishes and already I appreciate the map and balance work from Westwood and company so much more. Completely overstuffed and immediately throws you into the deep end where your guts promptly get sucked out through your anus.

Units do too many things at once. Not sure why the art for every vehicle needed to be replaced with greebled versions that make unit readability worse? The tech tree reorg doesn't make much sense. Lots of unit tweaks, particularly to costs, that upend the feel quite a bit. I do like a few of the changes though, like letting defenses gain veterancy and better garrisoning.

I get a distinct sense that this mod is for someone who isn't me; a player who has mastered the APM micro game of every RTS and is looking for the most intense challenge possible. All the grace and texture of RA2 stripped out in favor of poorly-ramped challenge missions.

This one is shelved for now, after one session. Might try again in the future.

IGDB fucked up the arrangement of this game's ports and it caused my review to get moved to the totally-different PS1 remake

Anyway Mad Stalker kicks ass, like Ninjawarriors but with mechs, which equals out to more weight, more impact, and more jet-inflused velocity. It's the most fighting-game-esque beatemup from this era on both a gamefeel point and mechanics: You got special moves, light and heavy combos, cancels, double jumps, okizeme and mixups. The robots are awesome and the soundtrack kicks ass. Main thing holding it back is how unpredictably cheap the bosses are.

A+ for presentation, there's some really awesome, unique kaiju here and they captured some very authentic feeling physics for all of them. Playing Thundertross in particular is amazing, the way his sword is somehow weighted as if right out of a Megazord fight scene. Very nice music, too.

That said, this is a disappointingly simple fighting game. Every character has unique mechanics, but these mechanics almost come off as 'mash to win' buttons that just make every fight incredibly easy. Whether you're zoning with little limit as Pipiguras or capturing foes at every turn with Woolie, everyone has a distinct skill that adds a lot to their character but has little balance, making almost every character braindead to fight well as. As soon as you figure out your character's cheapest move with no cooldown, you have your win condition and the whole experience is kind of a cake walk.

What a fucking mess. How does a shooter with superpowered furries control so rigidly? My shots don't land half the time because the enemies jitter around like they've got Parkinson's. The upgrades over time went from "+40% Fire DMG" to whatever the fuck this is. Synergies are conveyed so poorly that you can be cleaning house with a character that should logically die to a gust of wind, but get oneshot with a build you were convinced is godly. The item descriptions are so incomprehensible that you have to check the Wiki to see what they actually do. The boss fights are nearly all inexcusable garbage, I can't believe Wind God ever passed Q&A let alone was kept in the game in its current form. The environments are so plain you'd be forgiven for thinking you're playing an alpha version. There's such a strong feeling of complexity creep and lack of direction to the whole thing. What's that? Why do I have 200 hours in it? That's a great question,

This review is for any achievement/trophy hunters out there who were as bitterly disappointed with the list for this collection as I was.

I was looking forward to experiencing this incredible pair of games through a new lens as I hunted down all of the achievements, only to be met with the blandest, trashiest, laziest list I've ever seen in a game.

So I decided to make my own list, and hopefully demonstrate how much better it could have been. If any readers have a great idea for a Battlefront achievement I'd love to hear it!

Battlefront
1. The War is Over - Complete the Clone Wars Story Arc
2. The Circle is Now Complete - Complete the Galactic Civil War Story Arc
3. You Were My Brother - Complete the Clone Wars Story Arc in local split-screen multiplayer.
4. And He Was A Good Friend - Complete the Galactic Civil War Story Arc in local split-screen multiplayer.
5. The Ultimate Power in the Universe - Win Galactic Conquest.
6. Execute Order 66 - Kill 66 Hero/Villain NPCs using any possible method.
7. Meesa Go Boom Now! - Kill 500 Gungans.
8. Not Just The Men - Kill 250 Tusken Raiders.
9. You Are All That Remains - Win a battle as the last man standing.
10. Take It Back! - Win a battle with zero command posts held at the end.
11. How Did This Happen? - Hold all command posts on a map but lose the battle.
12. Pitiful Little Band - Lose a battle to an enemy force of 10 or less.
13. I Shot First - Get the first kill in a battle.
14. Watch Those Wrist Rockets! - Destroy 50 enemy vehicles.
15. You Still Hanging Around With This Loser? - Win Galactic Conquest against another player in local split-screen multiplayer.
16. Not the Droids You're Looking For - Destroy all Health and Ammunition droids on one map.
17. I'm Not Such a Bad Pilot Myself - Destroy 50 Enemy Ships.
18. Your Eyes Can Deceive You - Get 10 kills with a Sniper without using the scope.
19. You Are a Bold One - Amass 100 kills in a single battle.
20. So Uncivilised - Win a battle using only your side-arm.
21. Heroes on Both Sides - Win a battle on every map with every faction.
22. More Powerful Than You Could Possibly Imagine - Get 50 kills with every infantry class.
23. Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy - Die on Every Map.
24. The Best Star-Pilot I've Ever Known - Kill 50 on-foot soldiers from a starfighter.
25. Programmed for Etiquette, Not Destruction! - Win a battle without firing a shot.


Battlefront II
1. Just Like the Simulations! - Complete the Training.
2. The Waning Hours - Complete the Battlefront II Story Campaign.
3. Always Two There Are - Complete the Bettlefront II Story Campaign in local split-screen multiplayer.
4. Trust Only in the Force - Complete Galactic Conquest without using any bonuses.
5. No Match For a Good Blaster At Your Side - Kill 10 Lightsaber-Wielding Characters with a blaster.
6. Vader's Fist - Complete the Jedi Temple level without dying.
7. The First One to See 'em All! - Win a battle on every available map.
8. Flying is For Droids! - Win a Space Battle without dying.
9. Bring Balance to the Force - Play as all available Hero and Villain characters on any mode except Hero Assault.
10. Keepers of Peace and Justice - Defeat 250 enemies as a hero character.
11. The Dark Times - Defeat 250 enemies as a villain character.
12. Once More the Sith will Rule the Galaxy - Win Galactic Conquest.
13. Now I Am The Master - Win Galactic Conquest against another player in local split-screen multiplayer.
14. The Outer Rim Sieges - Complete a run of all maps in Instant Action.
15. Impressive. Most Impressive. - Play all maps in all available modes on Instant Action.
16. Tell Jabba I've Got His Money - Earn a cumulative 10,000 credits in Galactic Conquest.
17. A Million More Well on the Way - Unlock all Clone units in Galactic Conquest.
18. I'm Good at Fixing Things - Slice into 25 enemy vehicles.
19. Vicious, Mindless Monsters - Win a match of Hunt as every available class.
20. It Ought To Be Here - Capture and deliver 25 Flags in CTF.
21. You're Braver Than I Thought - Earn 100 points in a single battle.
22. Have You Noticed The Shields Are Still Up? - Destroy all key points of an enemy Cruiser.
23. Punch It! - Complete the Battlefront II Campaign in under 3 hours.
24. I am a Jedi - Earn enough points to play as a Hero/Villain 50 times.
25. ....To Bring Us This Information - Die 30 times as a Bothan Spy.