"War Mechas move to International Sports"

The “Armored Core” series is one of the most successful Mecha Simulation games on the market. The player is given full control of a robot known as an “Armored Core” (AC). By piloting an AC, one is given missions to infiltrate enemy bases and fight other ACs in order to become the best pilot for the group the player works for. The player also stumbles into corporate government conspiracies as they try figuring out what is really happening on Mars (do not worry: there are no aliens involved).

One of the biggest features that the “Armored Core” series offers is the total customization that the player has when it comes to building an AC. All physical aspects of a body, such as heads, legs, bodies, and arms could be brought together to make an AC the player fully created. The customization can be explained with four words: Mecha Mr. Potato Head.

Other than body parts, weapons also come in the hundreds. One could say that the best thing that the “Armored Core” series has to offer is the number of choices the player has. The selection of weapons is amazing: rifles, pistols, missiles, swords, shields, and flamethrowers are just a few of the notable weapons that are used in the series. These weapons all have their own special purposes that give the series a strategic feel. Weapons can even affect how the player's AC is built and how it is used in battle.

Unlike most games in the “Armored Core” series, “Formula Front” is based more on the arena mode of the series rather than the missions. Arena mode is when the player competes against another AC. Whoever wins gains a higher rank, allowing them to face tougher opponents. If one was expecting a game with missions like the rest of the series, they may be disappointed.

When “Armored Core: Formula Front” was released a year ago at the Japanese launch of the Playstation Portable (PSP), “Formula Front” was a simulation game. The player had no control over the AC that they had strived into customizing. Instead, a CPU controlled the AC, and all the "player" could do was watch as the CPU did everything.

“Formula Front's” AI is considerably inept. After testing it out, it was astonishing that this game could have even been brought out in the first place. Evasively, the AI controlled AC is almost perfect: dodging enemy attacks seems to be the AI's forte, though there are still some times where the player will be frustrated to see the AC getting shot from a few hundred feet away without taking any defensive actions.

The biggest problem with the AC's AI is its offensive tactics. It attacks, but not sparingly or intelligently. Instead of attacking when the enemy is open or when the time is right, the AC will throw all of its ammunition it has on the enemy and, to the player's surprise, most of the shots do not hit the specified target. Instead, most of the shots fired hit the objects around the enemy AC. It seems as though the CPU finds the surrounding terrain more dangerous than the enemy AC.

Of course, this would not have flown in America, the place where the closest thing we have to a successful simulation game is “The Sims.” A year after the Japanese release, From Software, the developer, had fully revamped the game to garner America's taste titling it: “Armored Core: Formula Front Extreme Battle.” Now, From Software has included an option allowing the player to fully control the AC they have created. This new feature would be excellent if it were not for some obvious problems.

The controls are unresponsive and hard to manipulate. In fact, there are two serious problems with the controls. The first is the fact that the PSP's analog nub is not precise enough. Instead of the PS2's Analog Sticks, the Analog Nub is too slow to be used for a game like this and also the PS2 version used both Analog Sticks: the PSP has only one Analog Nub. From Software tried their hardest to emulate what the Analog Sticks could do, but they jammed it all into the one nub making the whole moving and aiming experience more of a chore.

The other problem is that the buttons are not only too far from the Analog Nub, making it hard to be precise when it comes to maneuvering an AC but also the PSP's buttons are considerably smaller and close together to each other, making everything too constrained.

While the actual game play is flawed, the graphics are extremely sharp and they look almost identical to the PS2's “Armored Core” games. There are times when the AC is blurry, but most of the graphical elements are perfect.

“Formula Front” could have been a worthwhile game, and it should be known that From Software did try to make the game appeal to American gamers by allowing the player to actually control their AC's, opposed to the original Japanese version. Sadly, the game still is muddled with problems. If From Software worked more on actually smartening up the AI, the game would have had at least one playable mode, but considering the AI is still deficient and the Manual controls are too uneven to have any fun with, the game is not worth the money.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/06, Updated 02/17/06