Did you know that before From Software became famous for the Souls series, it came out with an interesting little gem in 2004 called Metal Wolf Chaos. Before Devolver Digital announced their remaster of the game at their yearly E3 conference of weirdness, you could be forgiven for not having heard of the game. Metal Wolf Chaos came out as an Xbox exclusive in Japan and eventually became something of a small cult classic. It has now been released upon the world to shine a spotlight on a game where you play the President of the United States trying to save America, in a mech suit. This is our review of Metal Wolf Chaos XD.
The premise of Metal Wolf Chaos XD sounds like something ripped from some 1990’s fanfiction site that glorified combat, mechs and the hero being played by a HELL YAA screaming President of the United States of America. The game starts off with a literal bang as the White House is under siege from a massive Coup D’etat led by former Vice President Richard Hawk and the military. Luckily you have a plan to fend off this insurrection. It’s time to strap into that oh so secretly built mech suit and show them that the President knows how to kick ass and bring back justice, one bullet at a time. The story progresses from there just as crazily as you might imagine, it’s one what the hell moment followed by another; but once you strap into this ride, there’s no going back.
Metal Wolf Chaos XD main dish is served in the combat. You pilot your mech which can house several different weapons you can switch to as needed or if you run out of that ammo type. You start out with some basic weapons (a mech sized magnum pistol, a shotgun, a rocket launcher, etc.), which you can upgrade in between missions with money and materials. I ditched the Dirty Harry style pistol to get my hands on a glorious Desert Eagle that let me gun down my foes faster. You can equip yourself with four different weapons for each hand making for eight total weapons of destruction you can bring to bear. Some weapons require taking up a slot for both hands like the sniper rifle or the multi missile launcher, you can also equip two of the same weapon type in both hands if you have extra. For a while, I was roaming one mission with dual assault rifles letting the bullets fly as I destroyed the enemy. Besides the guns in Metal Wolf Chaos XD, you also have the ability to do a jump up into the air and then slam down doing a good deal of AoE damage. My biggest complaint is that except for the sniper rifle you have no zoom targeting for your weapons and just have to big boxes to try to aim with. It detracts from what is otherwise fun combat.
Most levels have you running around destroying troop transports and the troops that spawn from them. There will be various targets throughout the mission level that are harder to kill and are usually equipped with Gatling turrets or missile launchers. As you go about taking these out you might also come across various boxes that can contain ammo, money, material for making more weapons and hostage cages. Blowing up these will net you new supporters in your war for freedom and help make you extra cash. Get to the end of the level and there’s usually some boss type giant tank or another mech you have to take down to complete the mission. Some mission types will have fail conditions and timers associated with them ramping up the difficulty.
The more you play Metal Wolf Chaos XD, the more you realize that it has some of the craziest dialogue that seems to come straight from some 80’s action flick with tons of explosions in it. The President screams out “Let’s PARTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!” as he’s airdropped into the battlefield. It continues there, from him telling his secretary to cancel his appointments for the day, he’s heading out to save America and won’t be able to make it. In the backdrop of all this is the tight rock and roll soundtrack that fits the game perfectly. It’s the kind of music that’s meant to get your blood pumping as you spewing out hot death to your enemies.
The graphics for Metal Wolf Chaos XD are not the best thing in the world, but this is a remaster of a game that originally came out for the Xbox in 2004. But it works and fits this odd quirky game.
