'Mecho Wars' Sneak Peek
posted by Eli Hodapp on June 2nd, 2009 10:08 PM EDT in Games, Strategy, Upcoming Games, iPhone games, iPod touch games
I’ve had my hands on a semi-exclusive preview copy of Luc Bernard’s turn-based strategy game, Mecho Wars for a while now. I know it’s kind of cliche to compare any portable turn-based strategy game to Advance Wars, but Mecho Wars is hard to liken to anything else. Just like as in UniWars, the touch interface works great in this game, and really feels just like playing Advance Wars on the DS with the stylus.
In the preview copy, there are two factions waging war against each other: The Landians and the Winged Crusade. Each have slightly different units that seem to do the same thing, and included is the standard load-out of different land, air, and ranged forces. While this is all fairly standard for the genre, what I like most about Mecho Wars is how the environment changes depending on the time of day.
One round of combat between both sides progresses the clock one hour, and at night all water freezes, allowing you to send your land units across what was once impassable terrain. This allows for some unique strategy both while defending your base and while you’re on the offensive.
Some of the included maps feature bridges that are only wide enough to accommodate one unit, creating an easy to defend bottleneck. That is, until the water freezes. While I haven’t had that much time to get very deep in to the single player campaign, the potential gameplay elements in a time-aware system are endless, and something I’m very excited to see more of.
The preview build comes packed with single device multiplayer, as well as an “Online” menu option which isn’t active– so, it remains to be seen if Mecho Wars can compete with UniWars’ full-featured online multiplayer.
I like everything I’ve seen so far, and Mecho Wars is definitely a game we will be looking out for in the future.
Do you like pink?
I hate pink.. but seriously what's the deal, this isn't Cooking Mama.
I remember listening to the live podcast where he was making the music on the spot! Nice to hear the finished result!
I can't believe it's coming out. I thought luc bernard would bail again.
Too bad Red Alert is also coming out soon.
Red Alert will probably blow this out of the water.
However, this game will probably get more updates/support
Red Alert is an RTS, this is not. Why not buy both?
it's all very "bright"…
a little bit "in your face" so to speak. Is it just Advance Wars/ Fire Emblem or is there more to it? And don't say there's a story, because both the afore-mentioned titles had stories.
So what makes this any better than the other, original titles? Apart from the fact that it's on the iphone; the saviour of the games industry, yeah right.
lol Simon didn't expect to see you here haha
well it's the day/night feature that sets the game apart from those other 2 titles
Ignore the haters Luc
But it better have online multiplayer :p
lol I know Simon
he told me like a year ago to do a TBS
I love it. But there's ONE little thing that bothers me a little. :/ It's the fact that every unit attack the same way, with the same xfx… That's boring.
I think I'd like it, but its a bit too stylized for my taste. The colours and repetitive animations would appear to make it really boring. Its too bad because the concept seems sound. Maybe the final version will offer more. I have to say… pastel colours… ewwww
oh no damn, a war game that doesnt look like others, lol
I must admit those are weird comments about it being too stylized
Perhaps 'stylized' is the wrong word. A game can, and should stand out from the veritable cornucopia of copycats… In this case, its probably more of a personal dislike of the pastel colours than the content of the game. I was a bit unfair in that statement as well because I don't know for sure that 'all' the locations look similarly. It wasn't meant as a dig. I'm sure you'll have plenty of people who vehimently disagree with my take!
well its mainly night shots that they took, the day the colors arent as purpleish i would say
I honestly cannot believe that some people are complaining about the animation. Uniwars had no animation at all and was enjoyable. The game is going to be great, and will sell well.
Nice a game for me at last.