WarTech: Senko no Ronde (Xbox 360) review "Now, judging by what you've just read above, what genre did you think WarTech was in? Shoot-em-up? Fighting? Well, if you guessed one of the first two, you're right."

Things don't look so good when you encounter another mech pilot at a station hovering above Earth. You make your first move, shooting a couple of shots towards her, but obviously, she doesn't just sit there and take it. As she moves to the left, missing all of your bullets, you dash towards her before she has the opportunity to counterattack. But when you near the mech, a Rounder, as it's called, she unleashes a legion of blazing projectiles that blanket almost the entire screen. You try your best to dodge all of them, but due to their numbers, it just isn't possible. Afterwards, you release a batch of heat-seeking missiles to keep her busy as you try to perform a close-up attack to her side. You fail, as evident by the huge knife she sticks through your mech.

This goes on for quite some time, where the both of you exchange absurd amounts of tiny bullets that dominate the screen, until you finally get her armor gauge to zero. You think you got her, finally finished her off, but as you put that final dent in her, something happens. She summons a giant ship out of nowhere, attaches herself to it, and then proceeds to rip you a new one with its gigantic laser beams that knock off a disturbing amount of stamina from your gauge.

Now, judging by what you've just read above, what genre did you think WarTech was in? Shoot-em-up? Fighting?

Well, if you guessed one of the first two, you're right.

After picking a pilot (some of which seem gender-confused... like the android boy that looks and dresses like a girl), you'll go up against various Rounders, one-on-one, like in any fighting game. The only difference here is that you'll be playing it as if you were in a shoot-em-up title, except you're fighting the enemy, one-on-one... like I said in the last sentence. For fans of frantic shooters, they'll feel right at home as they avoid dozens and dozens of bullets with ease, but for fighting fans, it'll be quite an adjustment. With a couple of playthroughs, however, they'll get right into the action, producing intense battles that'll have them and their opponent scrambling to destroy each other.

As if the basic arsenal of weapons weren't enough, G.Rev, the developers, gave each pilot a limited, powerful attack, called B.O.S.S. mode. With the press of a button, pilots will summon their doomsday devices from out of nowhere, unite with them, and unleash a fury that'll make or break your ability to dodge and attack. Each one has a unique look, like the giant sword that swings around or the one that's a huge propeller-ish looking ship that looks like it came straight out of a shoot-em-up title, but they all have one thing in common: they'll easily destroy you with their attacks if you're not careful.

They're pretty neat abilities to have, but they can easily be abused in battle, quickly turning your possible win into a possible loss. After only a couple of playthroughs, players will learn when to use B.O.S.S. mode: when either fighter's armor gauge is drained halfway or almost gone. And that's because, if you perform B.O.S.S. mode really well, you can actually replenish some or even all of your stamina. This can get really annoying during battle when you're actually putting a beat down on your opponent, and in the blink of an eye, they can easily fill up their gauge. Granted, it forces you be strategic during fights, but this still makes combat somewhat cheap.

While I'm at it, the story mode is a mess. Figuring out the story is confusing enough (what does a baby, whose constant crying forces everyone to evacuate Earth, has to do with what's currently happening?), but since Ubisoft was too lazy to dub the voices into English, you can't even tell what the hell people are babbling on about. In a game where crazy fights dominate, I really, really doubt players are gonna stop and stare down at the lower left corner of the screen to read tiny subtitles. Honestly, you get more joy playing the training mode than story mode. So, unless you wanna know the endings for each character, I'd suggest just going into score attack or versus modes and have fun with this intense, slightly flawed title.

Community review by dementedhut (August 12, 2007) My earliest exposure to Dragon Ball Z was when the original Japanese broadcast was still airing, right in the middle of the Androids storyline. So you can imagine my surprise when I heard the English VAs and music for the first time.