Introduction
doesn't even begin to describe this game.In case you haven't heard of it, Metal Wolf Chaos is a Japan-only XBox game, and it's one of the most insane games I've ever played. The basic plot is as follows: You play the President of the United States, and run around in a giant robot suit blowing up major American cities and landmarks.
MWC features:
* A completely nonsensical plot
* Some of the worst lines ever written
* Horrible voice acting, with Engrish spoken by native English speakers
* Laughably absurd cutscenes
However, these things make the game absolutely hilarious to watch. As a bonus, it's actually a pretty fun game to play. It's kind of like Armored Core in its basic gameplay, only more arcade-like.
The levels are well-designed and highly destructable; virtually anything that's not terrain can be blown up. In fact blowing shit up is really the main focus of gameplay, and you get a huge arsenal of weaponry to do it with.
So, here is our cast of characters:
Michael Wilson
You, the 47th President of the United States, and former hero of the Arizona Insurrection. (I'm not sure what this is; it probably says in the manual but I got this used for less than 500 yen without one) He has been deposed by his running mate and is the pilot of Metal Wolf, a special robot suit with powerful weaponry.
Jody Crawford
Michael's Secretary, who radios in advice and instructions to the battlefield. There's an extremely poorly written love interest between her and Michael. She's the most talkative character in the game and most of the most ridiculous lines in the game come from her.
Richard Hawk
The Vice President, who rather than simply having Michael assassinated and becoming President himself, takes over the country via a needlessly complicated coup d'etat, using the US military itself. Richard Hawk has probably the best voice acting in the game, though that's like saying he's the dog in the kennel whose shit stinks the least.
Peter MacDonald
The narrator of the game, a DNN reporter who is duped by Richard's propaganda and acts as his mouthpiece for the most part, coming into levels and filming Metal Wolf kill things while badmouthing him. He's the source of quite a few nonsensical lines, and is completely devoid of logic, having a penchant for spouting "it's too dangerous to film anymore, we're leaving" only until after all hostilities have ended.
The Resistance Leader
The mysterious ally of Michael, the leader of the guerillas that oppose Richard Hawk's rule. He doesn't talk much so doesn't have many bizarre lines, but is the only character who manages to directly contradict himself in the same sentence.
Metal Wolf has a large arsenal of weapons. After each level you can use the money you win to research and produce new weapons, and you get to decide which ones I'll invest in and use! The weapon types are as follows:
HANDGUN
Your lightest weapon. It has a wide auto-targeting field and usually large amounts of ammunition, but has very poor range and does negligible damage. It is mostly worthless for anything but farming infantry soldiers.
SHOTGUN
Shotguns fire a burst of bullets that can wipe out small groups of enemies at once. The higher-level ones are also acceptable at taking out light vehicles. Like the handgun, shotguns have wide auto-targeting fields and poor range. They have a slow rate of fire though.
MACHINE GUN
Machine guns are light weapons with a high rate of fire and lots of ammunition. Pound for pound they are the most versatile and powerful weapon in the game. They are ideal for intercepting missiles and can drain even the most powerful enemy's health quite quickly. Their only downside is their poor range.
ASSAULT RIFLE
Assault Rifles are like machine guns with less ammo and a slower rate of fire but more range. While not quite as good as machine guns, they're a very balanced weapon and are quite useful in situations where the machine gun's range is not enough.
BAZOOKA
Bazookas are heavy weapons, powerful and ideal for taking out vehicles. However they cannot really be auto-targeted and are slow. During the early stages of the game they're the overall best weapon for taking out heavy armor. They also have a small amount of splash damage.
MISSILES
Missiles are like guided Bazookas that can lock onto targets. They're very powerful and the best weapon in the game bar none for taking out aerial targets like helicopters, but they have a very long reload time, and are slow enough to be shot down if you're not careful.
GRENADES
Grenade launchers do less damage but have better splash damage than bazookas. They're primarily useful for doing property damage, and the most powerful grenade in the game has an explosion that nearly fills the entire screen. Earlier grenades are not really that useful. Some grenade launchers fire drones that attack enemies on their own or place mines on the ground, but these are largely useless.
SNIPER CANNON
Very long-range weapons; some are light weapons and some are heavy weapons. They cannot be autotargeted, but generally do lots of damage. Sniper Cannons rarely have much ammo and as the action freezes when you equip them so that you can aim, they are somewhat annoying to use. The best Sniper Cannon does a ton of damage though. All Sniper Cannons are two-handed weapons.
RAILGUN
Railguns cannot be autotargeted but they have decent range and you can charge their shots to do lots of damage. The most powerful railgun in the game can kill just about any enemy, bosses included, in a single hit when fully charged. The downside is that it takes a long time to charge a Railgun. All Railguns are two-handed energy weapons.
MULTI-MISSILE
Multi-Missiles are just like Missiles except they are two-handed and can lock onto multiple targets and fire swarms of missiles at once. They can do truly massive amounts of damage but usually can only be 3 or 4 times before you run out of ammo, making them less useful than their one-handed counterparts.
FLAME LAUNCHER
Flame Launchers fire a steady stream of flame (or ice, or bubbles depending on the weapon) directly in front of you. They're a lot like two-handed machine guns with less range and (usually) damage. They're not terribly useful against most enemies but are excellent at doing property damage.
MWC is a fairly short game though most (not all) of the levels are fairly long. I'm not going to try to S-Rank every stage; for many stages that requires sitting on your butt at a spawner for 45 minutes farming enemy infantry, which would be really boring to watch. Instead, I'm going to play each level and get all the secret items. (Except for Phoenix, which requires a second playthrough to get one of the Energy Pods) Once you finish the game, a lot of content gets unlocked; you can get bizarre secret weapons like an American Football Launcher or Soap Bubble Gun, get new paint schemes for Metal Wolf, shoot down UFOs, etc, so I'll probably make an extra video after the game ends to show off that stuff as well.
Audience participation-wise, you can decide the order of stages I play, and what weapon categories I should use and invest in. Or if you have any bizarre ideas for how I should play a stage I'm game for that as well!
So without further ado, let's join the insanity!
Videos
| Intro Movie | Vimeo | |
| Part 1: The White House | Vimeo | |
| Part 2: San Francisco | Vimeo | |
| Part 3: Alcatraz Island | Vimeo | |
| Part 4: Beverly Hills | Vimeo | |
| Part 5: Phoenix | Vimeo | |
| Part 6: The Grand Canyon | Vimeo | |
| Part 7: Houston | Vimeo | |
| Part 8: Chicago | Vimeo | |
| Part 9: Miami Beach | Vimeo | |
| Part 10: New York City | Vimeo | |
| Part 11: Liberty Island | Vimeo | |
| Part 12: The Fight House | Vimeo | |
| Part 13: Las Vegas | Vimeo | |
| Part 14: The Space Station | Vimeo | |
| Bonus Material: Suits and gag weapons | Vimeo | |
| Bonus Material: Jodie and the Alien | Vimeo | |
| Bonus Material: Many ways to die | Vimeo |
Various MWC fan-art and the like
From Schizoguy:
PSD
