Amazing music & story, broken mechanics.
NOTE: this review was written years ago by me, but has not been posted at Giant Bomb. So, enjoy!
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Konami's Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars for the Game Boy Advance should not be confused with its PlayStation 2 big brother; they're similar in name only. Instead of an action game, Fist of Mars is a strategy game. The term "strategy" should be used loosely.
Fist of Mars stars Cage Midwell, who resides on the space colony Bonaparte III. One fateful day, the Bonaparte III is under attack by a mysterious mech(called "Frames" in the ZoE universe), and everyone on the colony is wiped out, except for Cage, an amnesiac named Myona, and a Frame that both Cage and Myona used to escape the colony. The two survivors end up on Mars, and eventually meet up with a group of Martian freedom fighters struggling to right the wrongs done onto them by Earth--yep, we're the bad guys in Fist of Mars...cool, huh? The story is very well written (and mature), and it is entertaining to the very end. Each character looks like they were ripped straight from your favourite anime, but they are quite likeable. The story bits are pretty lengthy--if you happen to space out while reading, you can press the L button to go back as many pages as you need to find out what you missed. Anything that is unknown to you, be it certain characters, terms, acronyms--all of those can be checked in the options menu. Very handy, and should be a requirement for all strategy games of its kind.
Fist of Mars is very story-driven, with no world map to traverse at all, thus making the game very linear. Unfortunately, once you've played through the game once, there's no incentive to play the game again. The gameplay doesn't help things, either; it's pretty shallow compared to Advance Wars, and isn't nearly as addictive. Players move their units on grid-based maps, complete with terrain that adds defense bonuses. However, terrain is never really a factor except for your ground-based units' movement. Buildings and other such obstacles don't even block units...how can you have strategy without being able to use obstacles to your advantage?
Another gameplay element that prevents Fist of Mars from being a real strategy game is the Interactive Action System (IAS). When a unit attacks, the attacker plays a "minigame" where he must shoot his on-screen target. The larger your hit rate, the bigger your target cursor is. The target unit moves around, albeit aimlessly; the enemy AI should have been designed so that the unit is more unpredictable with its movement. It is way too easy to nail your target, even when you have a small hit rate. The only real challenge during an IAS battle is trying to score a critical hit by striking the target's vital area. On the flip side of things, when the enemy attacks a player's unit, the player must move a blue cursor around the screen and avoid the enemy's shots. The larger the enemy's hit rate, the wider the radius of the enemy shots. It is too easy to dodge attacks; one time, the enemy had a 100% hit rate, and I was still able to dodge the attack. All you have to do is move the cursor in a circular motion and avoid the corners. 95% of the time, you won't get hit. The IAS makes Fist of Mars an easy game to beat, but fortunately, you can turn off the IAS. However, doing so will just make the game frustrating--watch as your units get trounced by the enemy, whom usually have superior numbers, not to mention a boss unit who inflicts insane amounts of damage. Using the IAS may be optional, but it'll feel more like a necessity after having it off for a while.
If I could rate Fist of Mars on its story alone, it would get a 9. The story is the only reason I kept playing the game, because it was always interesting to see what would happen next with Cage and Co. Unfortunately, story does not make a game...how would it be a game, then? Fist of Mars' gameplay lacks depth, and that's a shame considering Advance Wars's simple-yet-complex gameplay. Fist of Mars is still worth playing, but expect it to collect dust after it's beaten. Or, you can just sell it afterwards...it's up to you. Advance Wars need not fear its day job.