Xbox

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System

Alas, all the eye candy and hopped up weapons made the 40 levels go by quickly, or at least seem too. We are left wanting more, and hope we see another title featuring Glitch again in the near future.

All in all, Metal Arms: A Glitch in the System is a remarkable game. It is fun, fast-paced and smart. Unfortunately, it won't get the credit it deserves from the gaming public since it doesn't come with all the glitter, glitz and hype. And that's a damn shame too, since it is a genuinely good game. Look for this one to sit right next to ICO in the 'Best games you've never played' list. Heavily recommended.

Droid Town and an exploring group of small druids find an unknown and badly damaged deactivated machine lying in a heap of rubble. They return to the labs and though some of the memory chips are fried, the droid remembers its name – Glitch.

Anyone looking for an intense and rewarding shooter should give Metal Arms a try. With so many games coming out lately, it wouldn't be hard to miss a gem like Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. The game is an unassuming shooter starring cutesy robots, and on first glance it might look convincingly like a shallow children's title. But spend a few hours with Metal Arms and you'll find that the kiddie exterior hides mission after mission of surprisingly hardcore combat action. Though its balance is a little questionable at times, Metal Arms has quietly come onto the scene to offer one of the most visceral and most satisfying shooting experiences in quite a while.

From the maker of Hydro Thunder comes Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, a third-person action-shooter that centers on a storyline involving small droids, big guns and huge battles. This title, complete with an arcade-quick play style, was developed to be intuitive from the start -- the type of offering that anybody could pick up and play with little practice, and for the most part it succeeds in that lofty goal. Players will have fun as they blast their way through the wealth of environments in Glitch's extraterrestrial robot world, and there's enough variety in weapons and gadgets to keep the carnage fresh and exciting, if not downright strategic. But too-loose controls and an overall unforgiving difficulty definitely put a kink or two in the machine hero's otherwise shiny armor.

While Metal Arms: Glitch In The System may not offer anything new, the elements it takes from other games are integrated into a focused style of gameplay, something that is often lacking when a game borrows heavily from others. This strong gameplay base is given particular quality with the entertaining story and voice acting. Now available for anywhere from $5-$20, Metal Arms proves a great value.

Med humor, närvarokänsla och ett omväxlande spelupplägg är det här en riktigt positiv överraskning. Det är också debutspelet för nystartade spelutvecklarna Swingin' Ape, som med Metal Arms har gett sig själva en storstilad introduktion i branschen.

Flying in under the radar, this massive third-person shooter from newcomer Swingin? Ape Studios features an epic scope, boffo production, great controls, and thoroughly enjoyable gameplay propelled by a somewhat clich?-ridden yet ingratiatingly humorous story.

It seems like there was a rule passed under the table that every third-person action title needed to feature either a cute mascot or some over-competent military hero. So how about a nice little title that features an amalgamation of both? Metal Arms: Glitch In The System serves up a capable, attractive little robot in loads of bullet-riddled action. It's challenging and twitchy, with enough variation to keep the most distracted player hooked for the duration.

Im Einzelspielermodus ist Metal Arms ein netter Actiontitel für zwischendurch. Die einfache Steuerung und die abwechslungsreichen Maps sind gut gelungen und machen von Beginn an Spaß. Auch die humorvolle Geschichte rund um die putzigen Roboter bringt Laune. Was dem Titel neben einer besseren Grafik fehlt, ist etwas mehr Spieltiefe und Abwechslung. Im Mehrspielermodus dagegen überzeugt der Titel auf ganzer Linie: Hier können sich bis zu vier Spieler fetzige Schlachten liefern. Einzig eine Xbox-Live-Unterstützung fehlt gänzlich.

Intense, satisfying and totally out of left field no, I’m not talking about a date with Barry Bonds, I’m talking about the odd little shooter currently in the GR crosshairs. We aren’t often surprised by games - unless, of course, it’s so bad we want to kill it. Which isn't to say that we were expecting Terminator 3 to rock. We just weren't entirely prepared for exactly how bad it was.

Voilà un jeu qui ne provoquera pas des émeutes mais qui malgré tout est bien sympa à parcourir. Les graphismes sont honnêtes malgré pas mal de tearing, l'action est assez diversifiée (passages à pied, en véhicules, phases de plates-formes) et pour que vous aimiez le genre, vous ne devriez pas trop vous sentir lésé d'autant qu'un mode multijoueur rallonge un peu la durée de vie. Cependant essayez de vous le procurer en occasion, vous l'apprécierez d'autant plus.

Outside of a few minor bugs and difficulties, Metal Arms is a great debut title for Swingin' Ape. Taking over different robots adds some a different dimension and some nice variety to the game. Plus, it's very satisfying to take control of huge robots that were previously a real pain. Altogether, Glitch is definitely worth the buy.

How annoying must it be to work tirelessly on a game for several years only to find that it gets released to virtually zero fanfare at a time of year when literally dozens of big name (EA) games are piled high on the shelves, elbowing everything else off regardless of quality? Very annoying, we'd imagine, for the developers at least. Christmas 2003's case in point no.75, Swingin' Ape's charmingly frantic klepto-blastathon Metal Arms - yet another game you won't play this year because of the screamingly annoying practice of failing to realise that the market can't cope with 300 simultaneous new releases.