Fortunately for giant robot fans, there are lots of games out there that let you pilot robots—known and unknown. Super Robot Wars turns your favorite mecha anime into a tactical, fully voiced visual novel. Armored Core lets you take on missions and square off against fellow pilots. But what if you just want a good old-fashioned brawl with some of your anime faves? For that, there’s Iron Saga VS.
We had a chance to test out this 2D mecha fighter, spun off from the Iron Saga mobile game. How does the game stack up? Read on and find out!
Playing the Game
Fighting game aficionados and button-mashers alike will feel right at home in Iron Saga VS. The setup is very similar to a classic fighting game, using a series of basic attacks and combos to defeat your foe in timed matches. We played on a keyboard, which was surprisingly comfortable, but there is controller support and you can re-map your buttons/keybinds into whatever feels comfortable for you.
Each character has a tutorial, taking you through the basics and combos of your chosen robot. You don’t have to complete these to venture out into the game proper, but it doesn’t hurt. Learning combos, blocks, and power-ups will significantly boost your odds of beating your opponent. (Expert players aside, the AI gets brutal in later Story Mode levels.) And speaking of opponents, there are several ways to play. You can team up locally with a friend, play versus the game’s AI in story missions or regular challenges, or go online and fight against other players.
The Bots
The biggest appeal of Iron Saga VS, at least for mecha fans, will be the appearance of familiar robots. The game features official crossover content with Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and Dancouga. If you’re alerady a fan of Iron Saga‘s mobile game, you’ll also recognize bots (both friend and foe) from there. Story mode also offers up familiar faces and voices. For example, Mazinger series fans will find themselves facing down Dr. Hell—at least in the visual novel sections!
The collab ‘bots look and move utterly fantastic in this game. And the move sets are solid, meaning it actually feels worthwhile to spend time mastering your fave. We’ve got some special love for Boss Borot as he appears in this game. While Mazinger and Great Mazinger are fantastic, the cartoonishness of Borot is a great litmus test for how well the game embraces the source material.
And the Rest
The interface for Iron Saga VS takes a little getting used to, but it’s mostly intuitive. Controller users will have an easier time than keyboard users on that front, but even we keyboard preferrers can get things in check pretty easily. One thing I personally look for in games like these is the playability of local and single-player. Not all of us are fighting game champs, so the ability to play solo or with local friends can mark the difference between a good time and constant curb-stomping from actual fighting game heroes. The story mode is fun enough, but it’s the challenges that feel like they’ll keep the game fresh and playable for solo players.
Just about everything is going for this game: the art, the music, the interface, the promise of community, and the regularly updated challenges. If there is a flaw, it’s that the translation in the visual novel sections is a bit rough. While that’s not a big deal in a game where the primary goal is to kick robots with other robots, it’s still a quality issue that we hope to see fixed in a later patch. That aside, Iron Saga VS is a perfect title for mecha anime lovers and fighting game fans alike!