Mech games AKA GIANT ROBOTS RULE!!!

[JoeQ]

Giant robots are awesome, so let's discuss games featuring them! What better than to climb into a cockpit of a battlemech and lay waste to all your enemies with lasers and rocket fists and shit? Nothing, that's what!

I'm also compiling a master list, mostly for my own amusement. The links direct to Moby Games, HG101 articles or other relevant sites.

Simulation

Mech Warrior series - These were my first introduction mech games, specifically MW2: Mercenaries. MW2 and it's expansions are generally considered the best in the series, amazing atmosphere. Wish they were rereleased them on GOG...
Earthsiege series -  Started out as MW clones (Dynamix developed MW1), but eventually became it's own thing. Tribes games started off as a spin off of this series. Check the link if you want to try the series for free!
Heavy Gear series - What Activision did after they lost the BattleTech license. HG1 actually runs on the MW2 engine, while HG2 has it's own Dark Side engine. The mechs (Gears) in this series were pretty small, so the emphasis was more on stealth. There were even some super hard space missions in HG2 were you had to use thrusters to maneuver three dimensionally.
Shattered Steel - BioWare's first game! More of a shooter really.
G-Nome - Don't know much about this one. It had very agressive marketing where it directly attacked Mech Warrior and Earthsiege.
GunGriffon series - Have few of these, haven't gotten around to playing them yet.
Armored Core series - From Soft's big series. I have several entries, but to my shame haven't yet managed to make time for them.
Chromehounds - This one had really good customization, but suffered from being mainly mainly multiplayer focused, the single player campaign felt like an afterthought.
Steel Battalion - Wish I could justify buying this...
Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri  - Cheating a bit, since technically you're using powered armor rather mechs in this game, but it's a lot closer to 90's mech sims than FPS's, so it deserves a mention.
Metal Head
Battlecorps
Iron Soldier series

Strategy and RPG

Super Robot Wars series - The Big One. I'm a big fan of the Original Generation subseries especially. Really appreciate that Bamco is finally acknowledging fans outside of Japan and including English subs in the newer games.
Front Mission main series - Played first one on DS a while ago and really liked it, despite the kinda poor gameplay balance. There have lately been rumors of a new entry.
Cyberstorm series - Little known spinoffs of the Earthsiege series.
Mech Commander series - Microsoft's BattleTech RTS series.
BattleTech - A new turnbased BattleTech game from Harebrained Games (Shadowrun Returns). I have high hopes for this one.
Sakura Wars series
Ring of Red
Bionic Dues - Roguelike mech game by Arcen.
Ironcast - Roguelite/match-3 hybrid.
Gearhead 1 & 2 - Roguelike mech games. Check the link for downloads!
Greed Corp. - Turnbased strategy with emphasis on terrain destruction.
Xenoblade Chronicles X - Apparently you have to work quite a bit before you get your mech, but I'll allow it.
Getter Robo Daikessen - Need more information about this one, seems interesting.
Steambot Chronicles
Cyber Knight series
Titans of Steel: Warring Suns - Deep and hardcore strategy inspired by BattleTech, now freeware.
Vanguard Bandits
Cruise Chaser Blassty

VS Fighter

One Must Fall series
WarTech / Senko no Ronder series
Tech Romancer
Cyberbots
Galactic Warriors
Schmeiser Robo

Arena Combat

Virtual On series - Never could get used to the controls. Watching two masters go at it is really awe inspiring.
Phantom Crash - Korean games with smaller mechs and heavy emphasis on stealth. The first game is XBox exclusive while the second one is PS2 only.
Custom Robo series
Frame Gride
Robo Pit
Hyper Reverthion
Steeldom
War World: Tactical Combat
Hawken
RIGS Mechanized Combat League

2D Action

Battleclash / Metal Combat
The Great Battle 4
Cybernator / Assault Suits series
Metal Warriors
Front Mission: Gun Hazard
Gigantic Army
Armored Hunter Gunhound EX
Armed Seven
Metal Storm
Ranger X - Would love to see this rereleased.
Arrow Flash
Bangai-O series - The DS entry Spirits is AMAZING!
Iron Blood
Gatling Gears - Twinstick shooter set in the Greed Corp. universe.
70s Robot Anime: Geppy -X
Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser
Metal Mech
Walker
ALLTYNEX / ALLTYNEX Second
Spriggan series
Aleste series
Mad Stalker: Full Metal Force
Veigues: Tactical Gladiator
Armored Warriors
Wolf Fang: Kuuga 2001

3D Action

Shogo: Mobile Armor Division  - Monolith's next game after Blood. Featured both on-foot and mech missions.
Mech Assault series - Microsoft's actiony followup to Mech Warrior. Good enough shooters, but still a step down from MW. There's also a lesser known DS game, but I haven't played it.
Gun Metal - Features a transforming mech and lots of awesome weapons. Also a short game, with hard missions and no checkpoints.
METAL WOLF CHAOS!!! - I desperately need to play this some day. Damn region locking!
Gundam games - Catch-all for all Gundam games, at least for now.
Macross games
Transformers games
Zone of the Enders series - Hideo Kojima's other series with really weird looking mechs. There's also a little known strategy entry for the GBA.
Liberation Maiden
Titanfall series
Lost Planet series - There's also a Japan-exclusive spinoff called E.X. Troopers.
Battle Engine Aquila - Need to get around to actually playing this.
Slave Zero
Ghen War
AMOK
Iron Brigade - Tower defense/shooter hybrid by Double Fine, also known as Trenched
Tail Concerto
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter
Strike Suit Zero series
Front Mission Evolved
Robot Alchemic Drive - Seems really cool, not many Super Robot games around.
Another Century's Episode series
Murakumo: Renegade Mech Pursuit - Has a bad rep, but I still want to try it.
Bulk Slash
Vortex
Border Break

I know I'm missing a lot games, so feel free to suggest more. I'm specifically interested if there are any games in the 'Super Robot' genre, where you fight monster with chest blasters, rocket punches and shit. 'Real Robot' seems to dominate in video games.

[mainpatr]

Under the Action category, you can add Liberation Maiden for the 3DS.

There's also The Great Battle 4 for Super Famicom and the entire Custom Robo series.

[akumajobelmont]

I would say maybe add an Arena Combat catagory. Virtual On fits Arena Combat rather than VS. As does:

Frame Gride (DC)
Robopit (SAT, PSX)
Hyper Reverthion (SAT, PSX)
Steeldom (SAT, PSX)

Also, more action games:

Battle Engine Aquila (Xbox, PS2, PC)
Slave Zero (DC, PC)
Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story Series (SAT, DC, PS2, PS3)
Macross M3 (DC)
Assault Suit Series (MD/GEN, SNES, SAT, PSX, PS2, PS4, PC)

EDIT: Just adding stuff as I remember them

[Aoi]

Mmm, so much of my childhood scrubbing out on MechWarrior. I used to love assigning all my weapons to the same burst so they'd all fire at once but overheat me instantly xD.

Others:
Titanfall-
Strong series.

Metal Head (32X)
Pretty bad.


Jeez, lots of shmups have mechs... and are we going to count Metal Gear? I kinda liked the Robotech game on PS2/Xbox as well (several Macross games). In fact, if there's a mech anime, there's probably a video game for it.

[JoeQ]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I was thinking about Custom Robo, but couldn't for the life of me remember the name. Same for Battle Engine Aquila. I think I actually have that one too, it had a really weird looking mech (transforming?) IIRC. Titanfall fits, as does Lost Planet now that I think about.

I wouldn't count Metal Gear, IMHO a mech game needs to have piloting the mechs as the "main dish". Same reason I wouldn't count say Halo 4.

[akumajobelmont]

Nov 17, 2016 6:04:56 GMT -5 JoeQ said:

Same for Battle Engine Aquila. I think I actually have that one too, it had a really weird looking mech (transforming?)

It does, and it's a pretty awesome game to boot!!!

[JoeQ]

Nov 17, 2016 5:50:17 GMT -5 akumajobelmont said:

I would say maybe add an Arena Combat catagory. Virtual On fits Arena Combat rather than VS.

Hmm, maybe. I think Phantom Crash is arena combat based as well, you fight in a sports league rather than a war. There's also that new PSVR game (damn my memory!) about mech combat as a sport that would fit. Also War World.

Might make separate category for 2D shmups/run'n'guns as well. Just remembered Cybernator and Ranger X (desperately needs to be rereleased).

[akumajobelmont]

Nov 17, 2016 6:11:27 GMT -5 JoeQ said:

Nov 17, 2016 5:50:17 GMT -5 akumajobelmont said:

I would say maybe add an Arena Combat catagory. Virtual On fits Arena Combat rather than VS.

Hmm, maybe. I think Phantom Crash is arena combat based as well, you fight in a sports league rather than a war. There's also that new PSVR game (damn my memory!) about mech combat as a sport that would fit.

Which reminds me, Hawken, that F2P game that's on PC. I thiiiink it may be on PS4 also??? EDIT: Yep, XB1 and PS4 too.

And yeah, Phantom Crash definitely strikes me as an Arena-type game

[elektrolurch]

Cool topic.
I am not familiar with modern mech games, and with most japanese mech games..
That being said, I loved the Mechwarrior and Earthsiege series when those were new. Earthsiege 2 with its flying mechs in particular..that was something that was just unheard of at the time.
After MechWarrior 3, which was dissapointing in my opinion, I stopped caring about the genre, to be honest. I know there was a 4th game, but was there something after that?
And EarthSiege sadly stopped after 2, right?

What's missing here on the action part is Metal Warriors on SNES, the best action Mech game I know.

[JoeQ]

Nov 17, 2016 6:17:19 GMT -5 elektrolurch said:

After MechWarrior 3, which was dissapointing in my opinion, I stopped caring about the genre, to be honest. I know there was a 4th game, but was there something after that?

There's a couple of expansions for MW4 and then Microsoft retooled the series into Mech Assault. I think the standalone MW4: Mercenaries is generally considered the best of the MS-era games.

Nov 17, 2016 6:17:19 GMT -5 elektrolurch said:

And EarthSiege sadly stopped after 2, right?

Nope, there's still Starsiege (and Tribes) after that. Starsiege is easily the best game in the series and elevates it above mere Mech Warrior clones.

[akumajobelmont]

Nov 17, 2016 6:17:19 GMT -5 elektrolurch said:

What's missing here on the action part is Metal Warriors on SNES, the best action Mech game I know.

Also, Metal Storm on the NES. Is Metal Warriors a sequel by any chance? They both look pretty similar!

[elektrolurch]

Nov 17, 2016 6:21:15 GMT -5 akumajobelmont said:

Nov 17, 2016 6:17:19 GMT -5 elektrolurch said:

What's missing here on the action part is Metal Warriors on SNES, the best action Mech game I know.

Also, Metal Storm on the NES. Is Metal Warriors a sequel by any chance? They both look pretty similar!

Nope. Metal Warriors is an american game, developed by Lucas Arts.. It also plays very differently compared to Metal Storm. To me, it feels closer to Cybernator.

Nov 17, 2016 6:19:20 GMT -5 JoeQ said:

Nope, there's still Starsiege (and Tribes) after that. Starsiege is easily the best game in the series and elevates it above mere Mech Warrior clones.

Wow, I totally forgott about that. I played it briefly back in the day. All I remember is, it did not impress me as much as Earthsiege 2.
Don't know why, I should give it another try one day. Thanks for reminding me.

[akumajobelmont]

Nov 17, 2016 6:39:41 GMT -5 elektrolurch said:

Nov 17, 2016 6:21:15 GMT -5 akumajobelmont said:

Also, Metal Storm on the NES. Is Metal Warriors a sequel by any chance? They both look pretty similar!

Nope. Metal Warriors is an american game, developed by Lucas Arts.. It also plays very differently compared to Metal Storm. To me, it feels closer to Cybernator.

Good to know! Will have to check out Metal Warriors then. I have a feeling I've given it a quick spin on SNES9x back in the day, but I don't remember much of it at all.

[JoeQ]

Nov 17, 2016 6:39:41 GMT -5 elektrolurch said:

Nov 17, 2016 6:19:20 GMT -5 JoeQ said:

Nope, there's still Starsiege (and Tribes) after that. Starsiege is easily the best game in the series and elevates it above mere Mech Warrior clones.

Wow, I totally forgott about that. I played it briefly back in the day. All I remember is, it did not impress me as much as Earthsiege 2.
Don't know why, I should give it another try one day. Thanks for reminding me.

You can get most of the series free these days, courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios (Tribes: Ascend).

Hmm, do you guys think Transformers games should count?

[silentstorm]

Well Transformers are robots so i say that they should count.

Transformers Devastation was an fun if short and repetitive game, though many of the problems may be because of budget issues.