Phantom Crash (full)

System: Xbox

Oddly the tile doesn't give you much of an idea what the game is about, but just so you know. Its a mech battling game, and quite a good one too. This one almost snuck under my radar because of lack of press. After watching the really cool opening, I was looking forward to great battles, and I figured like most mech games that it'd be one on one. Heck was I ever wrong, after about 20 minutes I finally got to choose my mech and what kind of "Chip" I wanted. Later I found out that the "Chip" is an A.I. being that has its own personality and helps you control your mech during battles. Now heres where it gets amusing, battles have a min of 5-6 people at any one given time, so its a kind of melee battle and the more people you defeat the more cash you get, the bad part is that if you decide you've had enough and you want to collect your money, you have to find a "Gate" like the one you came through to get into the level, otherwise the only other way out is if your mech gets totaled. There are literally thousands of combinations for mech parts, and there are few limiting factors on what you can use. Then again there are quite alot of useless things you can buy with you money, the strangest is "Curtains" (you read right) for a certain type of mech. The story doesn't rear its head very often, but when it does man is it strange. During battles you can get a little slowdown, but its not very often and doesn't last for very long (thankfully) Its a great choice if you didn't like the Robotech game. Its mechs can get very amusing looking and you can get some really cool weapons/paint jobs/stickers. Theres no shortage of stuff to do or buy, fact is you can even built your own mech from the parts you really want (if your into that) Now if you do play this game, I recommend that you choose your "Chip" first, then buy your mech, since most people will stick with the first "Chip" they buy its a good idea to buy a good one. (ESRB: Teen)