Mech Platoon is probably one of the most underrated games of all time, and extremely impressive for a release game. Its also one of the few RTS on the GBA, sadly. It's a strategy game, similar in both idea and execution to the Age of Empires series, however it uses futuristic mechs. The game has few faults, one being the extremely generic storyline (yeah, you're one army, trying to defeat the others to take over the world) and no unique characters (nope. No heroes, or Joan of Arc to save your a$$ here.) However, the implementation of the game is superb. When I first picked up the game, I must admit, I was quite dubious over how it would, and was surprised in a good way. The d-pad is used to move around the screen, and A to select, B to cancel. Start will bring up the objectives and option to abandon the mission (while pausing the game) and select shows the map. The L and R buttons do nothing on their own, but when combined with the B button, it can be used to skip through your units. This game has a wide variety of mechs (over 40 of them) each with their own unique graphics. This allows you to distinguish between units with ease. The game also has a few more unique ideas. First of all, players gain new mechs by destroying other mechs, and salvaging their parts, which can be combined with pre-existing parts to create new mechs. Another would be the abilities that some units have. These add much more strategy to the battle, with abilities such as building demolition, or anti cannon guns. Most of the missions have the standard idea of taking out all enemy troops/ the enemies' base, however some are more unique, having you play escort to a transport, or destroying secret mechs from enemy forces and salvaging their parts.
Overall, the game is an impressive game, and quite frankly I've seen few games that top this. However, some matters such as the HORRIBLE sound (there's a basic tune for a given planet, and each mission you'll hear the same crappy melody boring into your head...) the the in-ability of saving during a mission could have easily been changed. The game presents much value, with a wide variety of mechs to collect, and three different armies to play with, all with their advantages and strengths. I'd say you'd be hard pressed to finder a better RTS, forget a portable one.
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There are very few RTS games that make it to a handheld, let alone ones that actually work out well. Mech Platoon is a prime example when showing that RTS games can be on other non-pc platforms. Well lets face it, the... Read Full Review
