How much do you value a robust customization system in your mech game over everything else? That is the question and the highlight in Custom Mech Wars, the new shooter from D3 Publisher, makers of the Earth Defense Force series. It’s easy to think of this as a spin-off of sorts, silly and simple, but incapable of reaching cult classic status like the aforementioned games. Exciting for die-hard EDF fans but throwaway action for the others, Custom Mech Wars is the spitting image of its developers – simple, campy, but extremely undercooked.

Mech Donald’s

The highlight of the game is right there in the name, the customization process that gives you many possibilities to go nuts on your war machine, including an ultimate edition that ramps up the weirdness by collaborating with anime games. The results can be quite appealing or distressing (pick your favorite option), as anime girl heads sit atop of hulking behemoths, ungodly creations that may hit the right spot within a certain segment of gamers, and nothing but cringeworthy material for others.

Speaking of the ultimate edition, even the base game seems quite pricey for what it offers, admittingly a straightforward and somewhat engaging experience, but the low-production values and overall outdated look and feel don’t do it any favors.

Playing the campaign rewards you with many parts with different stats to customize your new mech (although many end up being very similar), or you can go with the available selections instead. Obviously, it’s a lot more enticing to quickly build something from the ground up, selecting vital parts such as chest, head, arms, and legs, adding flourishes like accessories and colors afterwards, with a test function to give your Frankenstein’s monster a spin before getting in on the action.

With many rotating and positioning options for each main part, it’s not hard to see that something very weird can come out of this. Powerful may be a word to describe this creation tool, but silly would be the designation for some of the parts the game offers, from buses as legs and other options that are available almost for wackiness value, not for the quality or ease they bring to gameplay.

If piloting a weird, off-putting mech is your thing, then Custom Mech Wars gives you that possibility. However, the rest of the game feels hugely outdated and raw, from characters to environments and animations, and it wouldn’t be unfair to say it seems to harken from the days of PlayStation 2, looking on par with the recently released Earth Defense Force 6, if not worse. Textures are simple and very repetitive, models for mechs and humans are basic, buildings and other assets come from another era, with the only saving grace being the level of destructibility showcased in the cities – something that EDF already did anyway – despite the low detail on the destroyed assets, and a few decent visual effects.

Granted, looks aren’t everything, but the obsolete graphics coupled with a bland user interface don’t make for the most appealing calling card for anyone who isn’t familiar with the backlog of the developer. The unintuitive way of navigating through some panels and the overlapping text for the parts description during mech customization are but a couple of examples of a lack of polish that can’t be justified with tradition or any other claim.

There’s only Japanese audio and plenty of banter between pilots and managers, part of which you won’t be able to keep up with. Reading the subtitles diverts your attention from the action and results in unwarranted deaths, so while sticking to the original voice work is a good option for the purists, catching up to the story takes a serious hit without English audio to ease comprehension.

Blast From the Past

Playing Custom Mech Wars is exactly what you would expect by looking at it, or by knowing how an EDF game plays. It’s a succession of waves that frequently spawn right in front of you, your mech tasked with taking them out and moving to glowing objectives, collecting loot, dashing and boosting around for some aerial combat. It’s basic fun, not very exciting but good enough to kill some time if you’re not looking for a more involved experience.

Locational damage is a good thing but expected in this case; losing your weapons or arms will deprive you of all your firepower, forcing the pilot to exit and take matter into his own, tiny, and quite frankly not very capable hands. Online multiplayer supporting up to four players in cooperative story missions could spice up the action, but unfortunately we couldn’t try it before the game went live.

Custom Mech Wars is the kind of game that leaves a sour taste, because it feels like it’s banking on a single feature, albeit a solid one (despite the love it or hate it results), and doesn’t bother with other important aspects. This technical mess of a shooter enthusiastically embraces its many flaws and campy nature, overly relying on the developer’s loyal followers to remain trapped in the past, delivering some decent old-school gameplay for non-demanding mech fans, but not offering much value over a game such as Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon. Just like the Earth Defense Force series, maybe it should aim to keep up with the times and leave the past behind.

Score: 5.5/10

Pros:

• Solid mech customization system
• Simple but far from remarkable gameplay
• Cooperative mode with potential to be fun

Cons:

• Technically stuck in the past
• UI is ancient and basic
• Custom mech results can also border on ridiculous
• Hefty price tag

Custom Mech Wars review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.