Eric Brewster on 3/2/2012 2:41 PM · Permalink · Report

The Love of Shogo MAD of the Single Player type game:

I am no professional Reviewer but Shogo MAD from Lith Tech Productions gets a rating of 5.5 Stars out of 6 Stars from me. I have seen Anime cartoons which came out a little later on such as "Gundam Seed" and "Gundam Destiny", I am uncertain that there is any games in PC ones like those cartoon mech stories that quite compare with Shogo MAD. The actual game story takes place about 2110AD when a spaceprobe launched from UCA-CMC Headquarters finally finds a quadrant of space with unique starsystems and especially one planet called "Cronus" that contains a rare bioorganic volcanic element called "Kato". This element flows underground in rivers under the planet Cronus and is intelligent, though it has about as much intelligents as a one celled microscopic aneba does however the span of it's awareness covers the entire planet, mostlikely the whole starsystem as well. We are told in the story line that within this starsystem of "Cronlithium" (Smiles-I took a little liberity here naming the starsystem too) that there may be atleast 2 other planets that may harbour such fuel sources known as "Kato". However unlike Star Trek's "Dilithium", Kato is unique since within it, it has a lifeform or many which are massive worms semi organic and semi volcanic known as "Cothineals". Though we are shown only one "Mother Worm" I suspect there may be thousands of worms of the Cothineal under the surface of Cronus and each raising a brood of larvae worms.

It seems that in the 20 years or so the UCA and CMC had sent out exploratory fleets of spacecraft that have found the starsystem and established colonies on it. When burned Kato Ore and Liquid provides all the needs of the colonists on the 2 cities they have established, Avernus and Maritropa. We are placed in the life of Sanjuro Makabe whom over time has become a Shogo MCA Commander in the UCA forces, his brother Toshiro Makabe has dissappeared under unusual circumstances 2 years previous. Sanjuro has been finding hints that his older brother has become an puppet of the massive Cothineal Worms under the surface of Cronus. As Sanjuro Makabe follows the paths that are spread out before him he finds love and warfare in his own life which touches his foster family and the entire starsystem of Cronlithium. After a few years the UCA and CMC commands split a part and went in their own seperate directions. S.H.O.G.O Command had apparently been secretly taken over by greedy commerical private business interests whom took it over with their own agendas. The UCA after 10 yrs became the prime military organization in quadrant. There was a devastating earthquake on Cronus 2 years before which caused Sanjuro's 2 older brothers to dissappear as well as making him loose contact with his love interest the younger daughter of Admiral Akkaraju "Kura".

Durning the storyline we find out that the Fallen has taken over the CMC that use to control the planet of Cronus and that the Shogo Industries is trying to undermine the CMC as well as the UCA Special Forces Divisions. The games play of footpatrols and of piloting a 30-40 robot MCA or MEV is quite stunning at what these fantastic robots can do. The games play though abit cheesy but very realistic for what people on the planet of Cronus can expect, many have only 2 choices. They can either join military-business factions or get jobs in the Shogo Industries and work while watch Shogo Inc and the CMC and the UCA battle for control of the planet of Cronus while the Cothineal Worms also battle their enemies to not remain "mere sock puppets" under the feet of whomever wants to use their Kato Fuel and Liquid Oil resources.