Metal Warriors

Metal Warriors is a side-scrolling action-platform game with run and gun elements similar to Cybernator, Front Mission: Gun Hazard and Metal Mech, where players assume the role of lieutenant Stone from the titular freedom-fighting group in order to complete a series of nine missions as attempts to overthrow the Dark Axis forces led by dictator Venkar Amon and end the three-year war against Earth. During gameplay, the players are able to pilot six different types of assault suits, each one having their own melee weapons and featuring a distinctive mechanic from another, and can also use more than one suit in the same stage. The six different suit types are the Nitro, Havoc, Prometheus, Spider, Ballistic and Drache. Each unit is equipped with a backpack mount that allows collecting and using side power-ups for their advantage. These backpack power-ups are the rocket launcher, the grenade launcher, the mine layer and a gravity inverter. Players can also collect various upgrades for the suit's primary gun that alters their shot as well as health power-ups, which instantly restore a damaged suit to full health. Both the powered-up ranged gun and the backpack items may be disabled if the suit suffers a significant amount of damage. At any given time or when it is almost completely destroyed, players can abandon their suit and scramble around the stage to find a new one, allowing to remain in the game even if their assault suit was destroyed. All of the mech suits show progressive battle damage when they take on enemy fire, while Stone displays how many hit points he has remaining after taking shots from enemy soldiers. In addition to the regular single-player campaign, there is a two-player split-screen deathmatch mode, where two human players battle against each other in order to emerge as victor of the match. == Plot==

Metal Warriors takes place in the year 2102, where the United Earth Government is under siege from the Dark Axis military force led by the dictator Venkar Amon, who has waged a war against them for three years on Earth, however the titular freedom-fighting group equipped with robotic combat suits are the few remaining people defending the planet. Assuming the role of lieutenant Stone, players control him through a variety of missions that initially are set in space and completing objectives such as rescuing agent Marissa from Axis 5 and capturing both an enemy supply ship and a heavily guarded asteroid base in order to obtain vital resources for the group, with the latter proving to be successful enough to promote Stone from lieutenant to captain of his crew. Once Stone reaches the depths of the center, he confronts Venkar Amon and defeats his super weapon in a battle between fully mobile flying armored suits, however Amon tries to escape with a hijacked Nitro suit but he dies incinerated alongside the base. Stone safely escapes from the explosion but his Nitro suit is wrecked after landing on the ground, marking an end for both Dark Axis and the war. == Development and release ==

Metal Warriors was developed by most of the same team headed by Mike Ebert and Dean Sharpe who previously worked on Zombies Ate My Neighbors at the American studio LucasArts. Ebert had been a fan of mecha anime series like Gundam and Armored Trooper Votoms, whose fascination with said genre would eventually lead him to form the anime-focused magazine Animag: The Magazine of Japanese Animation before venturing into the video game industry and influenced his decision to create a mecha-themed game project. Artist Harrison Fong, who previously worked on Dark Horse Comics' limited series Mecha, was responsible for designing many of the mechs and cutscenes in the game, while Sharpe and Tony Hsieh were also responsible for the programming work in the project as well, in addition to composers David Warhol and Eric Swanson co-writing the soundtrack, among other people collaborating in its development. It was initially intended to be published by Nintendo, who requested the team several features to be implemented before release but Ebert stated that due to the arrival of the PlayStation and subsequent decrease in the 16-bit market for Super Nintendo titles led to the former terminating all upcoming Christmas releases under their brand, including the game and some of its requested features were later scrapped, however there were rumors of Nintendo dropping the deal due to similarities with the aforementioned Cybernator. It is often confused for a direct sequel to Cybernator by many people, as it bears some similarities to that game and both were published by Konami in the west. Sharpe has since stated that a version for the Sega Genesis would not have been possible without his involvement due to several programming tricks used in order to run the game on the Super NES, before the idea was ultimately scrapped after Nintendo picked up the project for release. Shortly after Metal Warriors was published in stores, both Sharpe and Ebert would depart from LucasArts because of internal issues that occurred within the company with Flock's departure to form their own studio, Big Ape Productions. A Game Boy Advance conversion was in development by animator Leonard Robel at LucasArts without the original team but it was never released due to internal conflicts. == Reception ==

Metal Warriors was positively received upon release, earning praise for its level designs, graphics, two-player deathmatch mode, diverse selection of playable mechs and ability to leave one's mech suit. In 2011, IGN placed the title on their Top 100 SNES Games list at #33, praising its originality and two-player versus mode. Most critics described the game's difficulty as extremely challenging without being frustrating, Next Generation stated that "there's not an original thought in Metal Warriors' cybernetic head, but it's done well for what it is." == References ==