Override: Mech City Brawl is the kind of game you hate to hate. At first glance, it’s practically overflowing with the B-movie charm you’d want from a game about giant mechs smashing into one another. It’s also boasting a complex, deliberate combat system to rival the best brawlers in the genre. In theory it all checks out, excites you even. In practice, however, that initial shine to the premise and gameplay rubs off far too quickly. What’s left is an unwieldy combat system tethered to a Switch port that only serves to magnify the game’s visual fumbles and borderline non-existent community.
Override: Mech City Brawl looks to drop you into the pilot seat of gigantic war machines. The aesthetics of these beasts is one of the game’s strongest selling points as the roster of sixteen fighters is equal measures cool and ridiculous. There is your standard array of traditional mechs (imagine the Megazord from Power Rangers but even more anime and you’re getting close) but deeper into the roster are the true gems. My personal favourites being Stardust the glowing pink unicorn and Shifu, a praying mantis turned classic senpai.
Regardless of who you choose to enter the arena, from the bulkiest to the slimmest mechs, you’ll still need to grapple with the game’s relentlessly unique combat system. Override: Mech City Brawl is first and foremost a melee fighter which uses combat mechanics that demand patience and planning. Inherently this isn’t a problem; plenty of games have made their mark on the medium with this same approach, Dark Souls especially springs to mind. The success of this kind of deliberate system, however, comes down to game feel and Override: Mech City Brawl simply does not feel good.
For the most part, each limb is attached to a trigger, right leg to RZ, right arm to R and vice versa. Certain fighters change this up a little but the primary move set remains much the same. Each swing, or kick, can be fired off “quickly” with a simple pull of the trigger or charged up to hit harder by holding it down. I use the term quickly here rather loosely though as even the fastest of hits still requires a wind-up and degree of precision to connect. Even after the tutorial and well into the campaign I never quite felt as though this combat was satisfying. The game is not unresponsive to your inputs as such but performance issues and animation locks weigh down an already glacial paced system.
These standard attacks are complemented by mech specific special abilities, accessed by holding down the Y button while engaging the triggers. These aren’t any less awkward but are at least far more satisfying attacks with a nice variety of visual effects and strategic use. Each mech also posses an energy shield and the ability to parry hits if timed correctly, though dropped frames render this tricky at the best of times. Random items will also be dropped around the field during battles, such as laser swords, guns and shields. These are about as arbitrary as you’d expect, but the ability to ditch them at an opponent’s head is a welcome one.
Exactly how much you get out of Override: Mech City Brawl’s combat will also hinge on which of the game’s modes you choose to play. Let’s get the worst of it out of the way upfront; the single-player campaign is buried three options deep in the menu for a reason. Once you’ve chosen your desired mech, all of whom come with a lightly customised narrative arc and pilot, you’ll be thrown into a by the numbers alien invasion tale. It’s all a bit rote; boss missions are broken up by smaller, wave-based combat missions which reward you with incremental improvements to base mech stats and cosmetic skins. Fatigue from repetition sets in almost immediately and no matter how cute the cheesy dialogue tries to be it never lifts the campaign out of mundanity.
Those seeking a more streamlined version of the game will have more luck with the couch and online multiplayer modes. Override: Mech City Brawl has a surprisingly robust set of options for multiplayer, ranging from your standard brawler to even sharing a mech suit with your buddy. Each player can control a limb leading to the kind of gaming experience that demands true communication to pull off. There is also, ostensibly, online matchmaking for ranked, head to head or brawl matches but several attempts at finding a match returned no results during my time with the game.
No matter which mode you choose to play however the core issues that plague Override: Mech City Brawl are inescapable. Controlling the camera is often a chore as it struggles against your input by getting caught behind level geometry or stuck on an enemy you’re trying desperately to not lock onto. Battles take place in 3D arenas set in cities across the globe (and beyond!) and generally look decent but there is a distinct lack of weight to the environmental objects such as buildings which makes smashing through them feel far less satisfying than it should. The improvements to your base stats also feel rather hollow but there is fun to be found in the game’s extensive collection of cosmetic skins.
The catalogue of unlockable items provides a glimpse into the genuinely amusing heart of the game. Where the campaign merely feigns at having fun with the silly premise of giant robots the array of unlockable skins in Override: Mech City Brawl goes all out with it. Ever wanted to dress up a giant Godzilla inspired mech in a 90’s cap and colour scheme? Go for it. How about a Cthulhu tentacle beard or Cupid levels of pink and glowing hearts? You can do that here too. It does nothing to improve the overall experience of play but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that these skins delighted me to no end.
It’s a shame then that actually seeing these skins in action is such a mess of dropped frame rates and flat textures. Override: Mech City Brawl’s port onto the Switch has not been kind to its performance which was already a noted issue on other more powerful hardware. The sleek UI does little to disguise these issues which frequently caused the game to stutter during intense combat sequences. Handheld mode also suffers from some incredibly tiny text which will cause even the sharpest eyes to squint while docking the Switch only serves to magnify the dulled textures and lighting.
For as much as I wanted to enjoy my time with Override: Mech City Brawl there was just never any escaping its issues. The impressive collection of cosmetic items hints at a game with much more character than the one we got but in almost every other way I was let down. The genre could use a game which pays this much attention to its combat systems but performance issues and a general lack of polish prevent Override: Mech City Brawl from being that game.
Rating: 2 / 5
See how much you did, or didn't play things.