Giant flying mechas and full-blown space battles are two of the most enjoyable elements in video games that basically everyone loves, but neither of them are very common in today’s AAA market. Back in the day, we would see a space shooter being released every single week. Nowadays, we rejoice even when an underwhelming mech title such as Gundam Versus makes it to the West. War Tech Fighters is a different beast. This is not a big budgeted title, nor the one with the best graphical and framerate performance I’ve ever seen. Yet, this is probably the best mecha game out there and to make matters even better, you can take it on-the-go as it’s available on the Switch.

In War Tech Fighters, you’re constantly thrown into space in order to fight dozens of enemy ships and mechs while defending your own fleet and squad mates with your customizable mecha. It’s a bit of Gundam, Pacific Rim, Star Fox, and Rogue Squadron all mixed into one. The controls are as simple as you would want a game like this to be, even though your ginormous robot is packed with more weapons than a Fourth of July parade.

War Tech Fighters‘ gameplay is simple and arcadey. It even manages to maintain a somewhat steady 30fps on the Switch, both on docked and portable mode, but the same can’t be said about the rest of the game. Whenever you’re not out in space turning ships into hot scrap, you’re diving into the game’s various menus and customization options. And it’s slow. Very slow.

I need to give the game credit for allowing me to change lots of aspects in my mecha. Whenever I swap a machine gun turret, I can actually see the visual difference whenever I’m flying the damn thing. Those upgrades aren’t just lines of code that make your bullets 0.73% stronger against blue-colored enemies. Those are Lego pieces that will completely change the look of your not-Gundam, as well as provide stat modifiers. The problem is, diving into the menus is really boring. Everything is written in a ridiculously small font, making things hard to see when you’re playing in portable mode. The fact that there are lots of menus and different parts that can either be upgraded or researched makes things even more convoluted. The input lag in these menus is noticeable and don’t get me started on the game’s ridiculously long loading times. As soon as you finish upgrading your big bot, however, you’ll quickly forget about these issues as you’ll be back on the ship-destroying business.

War Tech Fighters showed up from out of nowhere and captivated me with its fan servicey gameplay. Being able to build a mech and throw it into space battles full of explosions and adrenaline-filled maneuvers is something that’s absolutely impossible to dislike. I could have lived without the convoluted upgrading mechanics and the horrendous loading times, but as of now, I highly doubt you’ll be able to find a cooler mech game out there for this current generation of consoles. It sure beats the crap out of Gundam Versus.

 

Graphics: 8.0 The mechs are very well-rendered and the game features great ships designs. The framerate isn’t too bad considering the amount of particles and explosions onscreen.	Gameplay: 8.5 Controlling your mechs in space is unbelievably easy and satisfying, but I could have lived without the convoluted upgrading mechanics and slow menus.
Sound: 6.5 The soundtrack is suitable for this type of game, but the voice acting sounds somewhat amateurish. It certainly doesn’t help that the script looks like it was written by an eighth grader.	Fun Factor: 8.0 You won’t be able to find a better Gundam game than War Tech Fighters. The upgrading system might be confusing at first and the loading times are terrible, but being able to build your mech and fight with it in space (and on-the-go) is great.
Final Verdict: 8.0

War Tech Fighters is available now on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of War Tech Fighters was provided by the publisher.