Senko no Fun

by Keith Di Giannantonio

Fun factor: Boring

Worth to: Avoid

Nothing more than an overpriced, frustrating heap of flashy nonsense full of (Japanese) sound and fury.

What can I say about WarTech: Senko no Ronde? The answer is, “nothing good.” A ported arcade shooter, Senko no Ronde attempts to give players the feeling of being a tiny little anime character flying through the air in some sort of jet powered mech whilst doing battle with another tiny little anime character flying through the air in some other sort of mech. The problem is, trying to have fun with this game is just as frustrating as trying to build your own flying mech in your garage to do battle with your neighbor’s mech.

They’re all so busy, but why?

Well the story is, um…..well you see, what’s happening is… I have no idea. The lack of story in Senko no Ronde adds to the “I really don’t want to play this game all the way through,” factor. There is no given background as to just who the characters are, or why they happen to be hopping around the sky in these little mech suits. They have their reasons, I’m sure, but the game chooses not to share them with the player.



There is constant dialogue going on before and during every match, spoken in Japanese. I can’t tell you if the voice acting is good because, I don’t speak Japanese. There are English subtitles on the bottom for us monolinguistic types, but there are two problems with them. The first problem is, the gameplay is way too hectic to glance down and read what is being said. The second problem is, even if you do manage to read the subtitles, they make zero sense. I’m not sure if it’s bad translation or if it’s just poor writing. Either way, the story, or lack thereof, is atrocious and mind-bending.

A shower of chance

Story aside, there still isn’t much to write home about. The view of your battle is from the top down, so you will never really feel like you’re inside of the mech you’re controlling. It’s more of a setting for a shooter like Raiden, but you’re fighting just one enemy. You basically choose one of eight characters, each of whom has a different weapon, and you try to kill the opposing mech.

Each character has his or her own unique basic weapon, charge weapon, and a special attack. Getting the basic weapon to hit your opponent requires a combination of timing and luck. You cannot directly control the exact angle you shoot, so shots fired will never land exactly where you want them too. Some attacks and charge attacks shoot an array of shots in a wide field, which have a better chance of hitting, and I mean by chance.



The “special” attacks, which are available to you once a small bar charges up, will make your tiny mech join with a large mech, and will give you a short amount of time to unleash a confusing rain of attacks on your opponent. This is done by randomly mashing on all of your attack buttons while somehow keeping your fingers crossed that something actually gets hit.

Each character’s special mech will fire a different assortment of shots, most of which resemble giant glowing ping pong balls. Using a special attack also gains you back a little bit of life for your regular little mech which, much to your dismay, will make the round last even longer. There will only be about 7 rounds per character, making your time to complete a characters storyline about 20 minutes. Normally this would be a bad thing, but in this case, the faster the torment is over, the better.

Don’t use your B.O.S.S. against the Boss

As for boss battles, there are two. One is broken down into three parts, all of which are fairly easy depending on the weapon your little mech is using. Some are easier than others, but none are fun. Another boss battle only applies to two of the characters for some reason and is, as far as I’m concerned, one of the most unbalanced and frustrating boss battles I’ve ever encountered in a video game. I should also note that you will not have access to your special giant mech attacks (the game refers to them as B.O.S.S.) during boss fights. Makes sense, right?



I should also note that there is a time attack type mode, aside from the story mode. This is your basic time attack type deal, where the game pits you against all other characters one at a time, and they get progressively harder as you advance stages. You will start each round with the same amount of life that you finished in the previous round, though it doesn’t matter much since you seem to have unlimited continues.

There are two boss battles thrown into the mix, but these are bonus rounds, and you advance past them regardless of whether you win or lose. The only perk to winning them is that you gain a higher score, and can earn a higher spot on the worldwide online ranking, which no one really cares about.

Summary

If you’re looking for an arcade type shooter, I strongly suggest you look elsewhere. There are many, many other games, both in Japan and the US, that offer a lot more fun and depth for the arcade shoot ‘em fan. Unless you are a 360 achievement point junkie, a huge fan of not being able to dodge giant glowing ping pong balls, or just a glutton for self punishment, I recommend staying as far away from Wartech: Senko no Ronde as humanly possible.