Some games have a way of going right for the very core of our most cherished childhood memories. Super Smash Bros. played on the idea of pulling random action figures from our toy boxes and making them battle it out much to our insane delight. Do the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really have any business fighting the X-Men? No…but neither does Mario and Samus Aran. Minecraft captured the magic of all of our most creative LEGO creations but without the pesky hangup of running out of colored bricks to play with. Like these games, Override: Mech City Brawl hearkens back to that simple era of our childhood, when plastic toys were king, and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots were just about the best thing ever. Only this time instead of a one-punch, two-punch combo, you can use all your limbs to do the only thing that matters: beating the socks off of your opponent.
Building off the the idea of dueling robot boxers, Override: Mech City Brawl ups the ante with a wide variety of bots to choose from, more limbs to be mindful of, and massive arenas to duke it out in (complete with buildings to ahem…carelessly trample). The control layout is pretty straightforward: L1/R1 are your Left/Right Fists and and L2/R2 control your mighty feet of fury. Now at this point I’m almost positive that your inner child is asking that all-important question: “can you punch with both hands?!” And the answer is a resounding YES! To add a touch more depth to the moveset, you can hold down the Square Button in combination with any of your limb attacks making for four distinct special attacks. These includes classic mech-brawler tropes such as giant laser beams, flurries of blows, and a volley of mini-missiles. And even though your opponent’s hitbox may cause some attacks to completely whiff when they feel like they should have hit, overall the combat works well.
Like any good 1-v-1 brawler, there’s an underlying rock-paper-scissors mechanic at the heart of the game: shields best regular attacks, charge-up strikes shatter shields, and regular attacks interrupt charge-up moves. There is also a counter attack you can take advantage of and only super/desperation move unlocks once your health has dwindled into the dreaded danger zone. Also – random weapons occasionally drop into the arena to help mix things up. What’s that you say? You think that doesn’t quite mix it up enough, huh? Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Override: Mech City allows you to live out your best Voltron fantasy by allowing you and three other friends to take control of a single mech. Yes, it works exactly as you think it might as each player is assigned to a different limb; how nuts is that? If you’re going at it with only one friend, one player takes command of the top half while the other controls the bottom half. Whatever configuration of pilots you go with, you can test your skills in online brawls and even the game’s surprisingly robust Arcade Mode, the latter of which has you punching giant aliens until they are nothing but space goo. Arcade Mode is also packed with a fair amount of mech-customization options, which is a nice inclusion.
You can play dress up with your favorite mech by applying snazzy new paint jobs or throwing any of the many hats on their metallic heads that you earn after every battle. Not that the robots aren’t already pretty enough, mind you, but no one is above accessorizing. Speaking of those mechs, each one absolutely oozes with personality, hitting all the fighter tropes with creative, cartoon-like flair. There is a heroic bot with a cool and excessively-long scarf, a muscle-bound pro wrestler fish-bot, and a Fu Manchu-wearing, kung fu bot just to name a few. Each is a delight to look at and they look even better in motion.
Graphics wise, Override: Mech City has a great tilt-shift effect going for it. This particular photo-editing technique makes great big landscapes look like something out of a cartoon and leaves the impression the battles are happening not in a real city, but in the wildest reaches of a child’s imagination. This look works really well for Override: Mech City as the most heated of battles can flatten entire city blocks in the blink of an eye. It’s not all eye candy though.
The buildings sort of clatter apart weightlessly like clay models, which is a bit unsatisfying. A ton of detail went into the look and feel, so when buildings kind of just…fall apart…it leaves much to be desired. What’s worse, the game does experience some minor slowdown/hiccups when too much is happening on screen at once. Also, the absence of custom control layouts is noticeable. I found it a bit cumbersome to use face buttons to modify attacks mapped to the shoulder buttons – really sounds like that should have been the other way around, but that might just be me. The latter two issues here could be something addressed in future updates, but I digress. As it stands, some optimization could be in order.
Override: Mech City is an entertaining game with fun mechanics and awesome style. Unfortunately, its pesky hitboxes, occasional gameplay stutter, and general lack of polish keep it from the joining pantheon of great casual brawlers. It’s a real shame because most of the execution is seriously on point. So while even though its $29.99 asking price ($39.99 consider the Season Pass and DLC mechs) is considered something of a budget price, it might be a little too much to ask for what is ultimately a fun couple of hours with friends.
A review key was provided by Evolve PR for the PlayStation 4.
