Hardcore Mecha

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local, Local Wireless, Online)

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Review:

Note: This review has been directly sponsored by a kind donation from Jamie and His Cats. Thanks again for your generous contribution!

Hardcore Mecha is an Action-Platformer released on PC in 2019, ported to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2020, and then ported to Xbox One in 2023. This game puts players in the role of a mech pilot in a mercenary unit hired to locate a missing person, but soon discovering themselves engaged in a conflict with a formidable group of terrorists wreaking havoc on the civilian population in pursuit of their own goals.

The presentation here is decent, making use of hand-drawn 2D visuals in an anime style animated using the “paper doll” method, with characters voiced in Japanese, and all of this backed by a fittingly intense soundtrack. There’s nothing especially noteworthy going on here, but it all works well enough.

As for the gameplay, this definitely leans more in the direction of the “Action” side of Action-Platformers, with a focus on combat with enemy troops, vehicles, and mechs. Your mech has a decent array of abilities, which you will be expanding on and upgrading using RPG-style mechanics as the game progresses. You’ll be attacking with guns and melee weapons, blocking with a shield, dodging, and briefly flying in mid-air with a jetpack.

Moving around in your mech feels a bit clunky, which is perhaps to be expected, but the controls don’t feel as responsive as I’d like, which is disappointing, and has led to me taking damage far more often than I think I should. Thankfully the game is pretty liberal at handing out healing items, so this isn’t an unforgivable flaw. And on the positive side, this game has some really creative and satisfying boss battles.

Overall, I do wish the Platforming side of this Action-Platformer was a bit more well-developed, and I wish the controls were a bit more responsive. However, Hardcore Mecha’s enjoyable combat makes this worth checking out for anyone craving a game with some good side-scrolling mech action.

tl;dr – Hardcore Mecha is an Action-Platformer with a particular focus on combat, with players taking the role of a mech pilot fighting against an army of terrorists, many riding their own mechs. The platforming is lacking and the controls are a bit unresponsive, but the decent combat still makes this worth checking out for players craving a 2D mech Action game.

Grade: B-

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