101. The Soukou Kihei Gun Ground|DS|2007|mech sim|3h 36m|7/10
The Soukou Kihei Gun Ground is a Japan-only mech sim/shooter released in 2007, developed for the DS by RideonJapan,Inc., published by D3Publisher. It is part of the renowned "Simple Series", a large library of budget titles that spans many platforms. The Soukou Kihei Gun Ground was created in the vein of such games as Assault Suits Valken or Front Mission: Gun Hazard. Although The Soukou Kihei Gun Ground is not quite as polished as its influences, it is however far more difficult. Which can be considered a positive for the right kind of player.
The Soukou Kihei Gun Ground includes the ability to fully customize your mech, using funds accumulated during missions. This aspect is very reminiscent of Armored Core. You can alter the head, torso, arms, legs, weapon systems, item inventory, and even the colors of your mech. You can choose to focus on melee, ranged, or special weapons, and even expand your mech's radar capabilities. All of this costs cold hard cash though, and doing poorly in a mission means you won't be making much money, meaning you'll only do worse in the next mission due to having ever more obsolete mech parts. Grinding for income becomes a bit of a necessary evil at times, but thankfully there are occasionally replayable missions designed for just this purpose. Also sometimes missions branch, giving the player alternate paths to take, meaning replaying the game will reveal new missions not played previously.
Most of the time you simply have to kill an arbitrary amount of enemy mechs to accomplish a mission. Sometimes there are other objectives like destroying a boss, or defending a friendly unit, and once in a while there are special "hacking" events. These circumstances involve the bottom screen, and ask the player to solve various types of logic puzzles, all within a strict time limit. Even something as simple as investigating suspect cargo on a patrol mission can require the player to quickly memorize eight number sequences, and then punch those numbers back into a keypad in less than three seconds. Get it wrong and the box explodes, damaging or destroying your mech, and you'll have to do it all over again.
The Soukou Kihei Gun Ground has a rather complex story line, told by talking heads and dialogue boxes, with occasional 3D polygon rendered cutscenes. The plot is obviously advanced and a huge part of the game. However, I cannot read Japanese, and I have no idea what anyone was saying. The best I can tell is you're some sort of soldier or mercenary, working with a military front to reclaim an island from a rogue enemy invasion. At the end of the game you end up destroying a reactor, and you continuously fight against a recurring nemesis mech. I really wish I could have played this game in English, but alas, no English publisher decided to pick it up.
One reason this game may not have been localized besides from being a niche genre, is that The Soukou Kihei Gun Ground is extraordinarily difficult. You've got to really love customizing mechs, grinding for cash, and enduring blistering onslaughts of hundreds of respawning enemies. And that's to say nothing of the many huge bosses you'll face. However if that sounds like fun, you'll have a solid side scrolling mech sim-shooter in your hands. With competent graphics, a great pumping OST, and responsive controls, The Soukou Kihei Gun Ground is an addictive play. It's also easily one of the most hardcore DS games available, and will challenge even genre veterans. If you love mechs, love tough shooters, and still enjoy playing DS games, you won't regret importing The Soukou Kihei Gun Ground.
