Of the many mech games out on the market today, the Armored Core series has proven to be one of the most enjoyable entries into the genre. Developed by From Software and published by Agetec Inc., Armored Core is known for its amount of customization, as well as its mechanised combat. Surprisingly enough, this series has gained a large following, especially here in mid-Michigan, where players trade tips on customising an Armored Core (AC), hold tournaments and create fan fiction, as well as theorising about the future of the Armored Core series. Fans will have to wait no longer, however, as the next installment has arrived in the form of Armored Core: Nine Breaker.

It's important to note that this game differs from the other Armored Core titles in the series due to its sole focus on arena combat. Players familiar with the series should know that in previous Armored Core games players were tasked with completing a series of missions to advance the plot, while the arena mode was simply a way to earn a bit of extra money participating in arena combat in front of an audience. In Nine Breaker the missions have been shelved and the main objective is to climb to the top of the AC ladder in order to be the number one combatant in the arena. Keeping this in mind, players can enjoy the game for what it is and appreciate its unique direction.

The first order of business that players must attend to is the creation of their AC in the garage. There are a total of 16 different components that make up an AC. This includes everything from the head and torso to back-mounted weapons and power generators. Each of these 16 categories may have anywhere from eight to forty choices, resulting in millions of unique AC combinations. Also, you're not required to purchase parts; anything that is currently viewable may be used in your AC construction. By playing through the game's training and arena mode, you'll unlock many more parts, in order to create that perfect destructive machine.

When selecting parts you should always remember that each has an effect on all other aspects of the machine. For example, the selection of a set of arms will increase the weight on the torso and the weight on the legs, resulting in a reduction of your AC's mobility, as well as creating more of a strain on your booster's ability to function properly. Also, when selecting a part there are three main attributes to watch, those being armour points (basically your AC's life gauge), weight and energy drain. These all affect other attributes of your AC, which you need to allow for if you wish to be successful when the competition increases in difficulty. Finally, each non-weapon part may be fine-tuned, allowing you to allocate an additional ten points within an item's attribute set, such as decreasing an item's weight or energy costs.

The garage also holds many other options that allow you to customise your AC's performance and physical appearance. First, each AC comes with 15 option part slots that allow you to implant numerous bonuses. These bonuses may boost weapon output, defences, decrease your lock-on time, etc. You may also customise the heads up display that is viewed while in combat, changing its colour and turning on or off various non-essential sections. Last but not least you may adjust the outer appearance of your AC however you see fit. Nine Breaker has an extensive paint option that allows you to customise the colour and pattern of each item, as well as place a predefined or custom emblem upon your AC. When you're finished customising, you may give your AC a name, obtain a summary of its overall performance and take it out for a test spin to see how it performs against a few drones.

As you can see, the amount of customisation available is amazing. You can easily spend at least an hour creating an AC from scratch. The interface used to view the individual items and their statistics is very intuitive and what's more, every menu allows you to view the controls on screen in order to best utilise all of its options. You'll be heading back to the assembly function to switch weapons around and fine tune your AC as you pick up new tips from friends, or if you just feel like experimenting with a new design or two, and the friendliness of the menus makes this time much more enjoyable. Fortunately you can have a max of three different AC units in your garage at one time; therefore you may switch out an AC heavy in offence for one that's quick and agile with a simple button click when the need arises. This saves you from having to constantly change out parts, hoping that you remember the correct configuration the next time you need that type of AC.

Once you have your desired Armored Core set up, you may take it directly into battle, or participate in the many available training missions. The training missions allow you to hone your skills in offence, defence and agility. Each of these categories also has subsections, creating many levels of training focusing on a number of unique aspects. Each training level has a specific objective which, if completed within a certain time, nets you a bronze, silver, or gold ranking. Completing all of the available levels within one of these subsections unlocks a new item and may also unlock new search criteria to use within the arena mode.

Because it's nearly impossible to have an all-round best AC when starting a new game, I found that having one AC designated for training was the best method of attack, especially when you're first beginning and many of the most powerful items are still locked. Each of these training missions also vary in their difficulty, providing many hours of replay value alone just attempting to obtain gold ranks in them all.

Nine Breaker's arena mode allows you to take what you've learned in the training missions and apply it in an actual combat situation. At first you can only participate in test matches, which are basically exhibition battles against a computer opponent. These may be set up at any time by selecting from the unlocked search criteria and then picking one of the opponents returned in the result set. These test matches increase your points, as well as unlocking items, and allow you to obtain invites to participate in official matches. Official matches come in two types: an exhibition type that net you higher points as a reward (but doesn't affect your ranking positively or negatively), and ranked matches, which offer you the opportunity to increase your position in the arena's top 30 players.

When participating in an actual match against a computer opponent, the action tends to be quite intense. The difficulty of your opponent increases as you advance in the AC arena ranks and the battlefield is chosen randomly from the many available maps within the game. These include both indoor and outdoor areas, which vary from sprawling deserts to confined caves. Each level also has a varying amount of obstructions that you may use to avoid enemy attacks. The battles are usually very quick but occasionally may run long depending on the agility of both you and your opponent. Because of this possibility, I always found it useful to carry at least one weapon, such as an energy blade, which had unlimited ammo. Because there's no time limit, if both you and your opponent happen to run out of ammunition then the only way end the match is for you to quit.

Controlling your AC is fairly easy if you're experienced with any other third of first person shooter. Although Nine Breaker offers fully customisable button mapping, by default the left analogue stick moves you around the arena while the right analogue stick allows you to aim. When aiming, depending on your chosen weapon and targeting system, you can lock onto one or more targets. I did find that when I had a targeting system installed in my AC that was set up to lock onto only one object, the artificial intelligence governing the targeting system was sometimes easily confused in the presence of multiple targets. Although it would target to only one object, sometimes it would switch to another target just before it was able to obtain a complete lock. Although this occurs more often in training than arena mode, it is still frustrating because it results in many misses in the accuracy tests.

What's not common in other first or third person shooters is the ability to fly around the area at will. By hitting the boost button without pressing a direction, your AC flies into the air, making it harder for your enemy to obtain a lock. This can only be done for short periods of time, as the boost may cause your AC to overheat and also drains its energy quite quickly. What can be frustrating at times is remembering to let go of the left analogue stick long enough for the game to register that you want to lift off the ground rather than boost along it. In the middle of a heated battle you're usually more occupied with finding cover from your enemy's barrage and it may take some time before this action becomes second nature.

If there is any part of Nine Breaker that falls behind the other portions, it would have to be its multiplayer, simply because it does not utilise the PS2's network adapter to allow Internet play. What this game does offer is the ability to play versus mode with two players split screen, along with an option for a third and fourth added when hooking two to four PS2s up via I-link cables or through a local area network. Multiplayer does offer over 20 maps from which to choose, as well as three different play modes: deathmatch, team deathmatch and leader mode, where the objective is to kill the opposing team's leader. If playing with fewer than four players you may fill the remaining spots with computer ACs so that the teams are always balanced. Also, each player may load their garage of ACs into the game and choose to fight using one of them.

Graphically this game seems to fit right at home on the PS2. There are no lags in play as a result of too many onscreen actions, plus the animation of both the enemies and your own ACs are smooth and crisp. The smoke trails from the missiles are also a nice touch, especially when a cluster of missiles are fired and spiral around in search of their intended target. The game's sound is pretty standard when compared to any other title in the mech genre. My only complaint is that the same 30-second song clip loops over and over while I assembled my AC. Since a great deal of time is spent doing this, the background music got annoying very quickly.

Fans of any previous Armored Core title, or just fans of mech games in general, will definitely want to check out Armored Core: Nine Breaker. The level of customisation that you can put into an AC is simply mind boggling and easily has months of replay value just attempting to find the best combination of parts that will result in the most powerful AC. The game is also full of unlockable features that will leave any serious player trying for hours just to squeak out a few more gold rankings. Although Armored Core: Nine Breaker does lack a mission mode, the game more than makes up for this with its replay value and customisation alone. Finally, even if you're not a huge fan of the mech genre, head on down to your local rental store and take this game out for a test drive at the very least. You won't be disappointed.

Reviewed by Zach Lark for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).