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    Metal Arms: Glitch in the System

    Game » consists of 4 releases. Released Nov 18, 2003

    Metal Arms: Glitch in the System is a third-person action game developed by Swingin' Ape Studios for the GameCube, PS2, and Xbox. As Glitch you must take up arms with the Droids of Iron Star against the evil General Corrosive.

    Short summary describing this game.

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    Overview

    Metal Arms: Glitch in the System is a third-person action shooter for the Gamecube, Playstation 2 and Xbox. it's also availible as a downloadable title off of the Xbox Originals service over XBL on the Xbox 360.

    Story

    Generally shooters aren't known for their heart-gripping narratives and Metal Arms does't break new ground there. But the tale told in Metal Arms is pretty decent; you play as Glitch, a robot found and reassembled by the miners in Droidtown. This city is the last haven against General Corrosive, an evil maniac bent on ruling Ironstar, the planet on which everything takes place. The residents of Droitown battle Corrosives Milbot army in a robotic civil war and as Glitch you're sent to the heart of Milbot city to try to end it all.

    Characters

    • Glitch: Small, yellow and tough as fried whale balls, this robot can lay the smack down on Milbots.
    • Colonel Alloy: The rough and ready leader of Droidtown.
    • Zobby: A robotic canine, cannot talk but can drive vehicles and operate turrets.
    • Dr. Exavolt: He was the leading scientist on Ironstar before a lab accident crushed his research, his body was never found though...
    • Krunk: The lead engineer in Droidtown, he's the one who brings Glitch back to life. He also has a very bad pottymouth.
    • General Corrosive: He's evil and bent on ruling Ironstar, stop this bastard.
    • Mozer: A large but friendly droid. He helps Glitch and you can play as him for one level, he's very powerful.
    • Slosh: Schizophrenic and paranoid, but he packs a Toaster (flamethrower) and has a handful of magma bombs. You play as him for one level.
    • Agent Shhh: A obnoxious secretive spy that provides the droids with info on the Mil army.
    • Goff: This droid soldier was disassembled, but you gather his parts and reassemble him later on because he has information on Dr. Exavolt.
    • Vlax: This Mil got away from the mines in the opening level and he knows the location of Droidtown, you pursue him in the beggining of the game.
    • Shady and Mr. Pockets: These guys are the "shop". You can exchange washers (money basically) for items whenever you see them; they always will be in some totally random spot but you can locate them when you hear their theme song start playing. Pockets is silent, but Shady does more than enough talking.

    Gameplay

    Metal Arms is very linear and there is little backtracking, so you'll be seeing new locales all the time. Essentially you go from point A to B and, literally, blast Mils to pieces with your weapons. If you have ever played a 3rd person shooter than Metal Arms' gameplay shouldn't throw you for a loop. However Metal Arms is very intense as your foes are tough, sometimes they'll have so much armor/health it feels like you're beating up a brick wall and at times they'll have really powerful weaponry that could turn you into scrap metal just like that. Beating a level on your very first try is highly unlikely, you'll most likely die quite a lot; until you can memorize enemy layouts expect to be restarting at checkpoints every so often.

    Thankfully each firefight is crazy hectic and a blast, thanks to some insane weapons. All the weapons feel really powerful and are extremely satisfying to use. You can blast arms off of Milbots, blow up their torsos and watch their legs walk around aimlessly and if Mils are near death they'll go crazy and run around haphazardly shooting everywhere... they are hysterical enemies.

    Controls in Metal Arms will feel a bit stiff at first, but you'll quickly get accustomed to how Glitch moves about and you'll be as nimble as a robot ninja. In addition the main primary weapons you also have scondary weapons. These are a bevy of devices such as coring charges (grenades), EMP bombs, a scope that's compatible with some weapons and many more. Glitchs whole arsenal is very balanced and everything comes in handy at one point.

    Four-player splitscreen
    Four-player splitscreen

    There is also a multiplayer component that pits players against each other in a regular deathmatch. In these matches, players have a weapon that can take over the minds of milbots sitting on the map, giving the player direct control over stronger or quicker robots while preventing themselves from dying in the event of their puppet's destruction.

    Primary weapons

    • Mining Laser: Standard mining tool, decent against Mils. Has infinite ammo though.
    • Ripper: Shoots razor sharp saw blades.
    • S.P.E.W.: Machine gun with a very high rate of fire.
    • Scatter Blaster: Shotgun, amazing at close range.
    • Barrage Cannon: Rocket launcher, potent weapon.
    • Rivet Gun: Fires bolts with a timed explosive, good in any situation.
    • Slingshot: Used to fire scondary weapons with more accuracy.
    • Control Tether: Can take control over a Mil in which you control it.
    • Toaster: A flamethrower.

    Secondary weapons

    • Coring Charge: Grenades basically.
    • The Cleaner: Can lock on to three targets and when thrown unleashes powerful homing rockets upon them.
    • Scope: Compatible with some weapons.
    • Magma Bomb: Flame grenade.
    • EMP: Short circuits Mils and leaves them helpless.
    • Recruiter Grenade: Rewrites the behavior patterns in a Mil and causes them to join Glitch's side.

    Vehicles

    • R.A.T. (Rapid Armoured Transport): Six wheels, a machine gun turret and a high top-speed make up this solid vehicle.
    • Loader: A mining vehicle with a giant claw and a machine gun.
    • Sentinel: Powerful tank like vehicle with a machine gun and a cannon with tremendous firepower.

    Other

    • Chips: There are two varieties, normal and secret. Former are used in control consoles, latter are used to unlock multiplayer levels.
    • Batteries: Extend Glitch's life bar.
    • Arm Servos: Allows Glitch to switch and reload weapons faster.

    Production Values

    Graphics

    Metal Arms looks very good. The framerate chugs along nicely but in the most intense firefights there may be a very small amount of slowdown. Glitch is very detailed and even has some damage modeling. When he's low on health he'll appear to be rusty and covered in grime and his right shoulder armor plate sometimes is hanging by a single sprocket. But when you pick up health he appears in better shape. Mils and other characters are also well detailed and they animate hilariously. Metal Arms sports a tongue-in-cheek yet gritty vibe simultaneously. The environments don't look as good as the characters but they are decent. Overall Metal Arms looks great.

    Sound

    There is quite a lot of voice acting in Metal Arms and it sounds awesome. The Mils will have German/other Eastern European accents and the voices have a tint of a robotic feel to them, which is nice. Krunk has a potty mouth and the game 'bleeps' them out but they are still hearable, it just helps to add to the atmosphere of the game. Sound effects are nice and appropriate. When you fire a weapon it sounds nice and meaty and explosions are especially loud and robust. The music is also pretty good, especially the main theme song. The soundtrack isn't very large though but there are enough tunes in it.

    Metal Arms may also be known for it's comedic sense. It's style is more along the lines of dark humour. An example; It is possible to dismantle the Mills to the point of when there arms dangle of there sockets, they then run around as they attempt to shoot a target however they don't seem to realize that there gun is pointing to the sky.

    Features:

    On both the Xbox and the PS2, Metal Arms: Glitch in the system features progressive scan support.

    ESRB rating: T for Teen

    Sequel Plans

    The developer, Swingin Ape Studios had plans to develop a sequel. However they were bought by Blizzard Entertainment. There has not been any news of it since.

    Xbox Originals

    On June 2, 2008, Metal Arms: Glitch in the System became available on the Xbox 360's Xbox Originals service for 1200 Microsoft Points.

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