GunGriffon: Allied Strike - Review

Added March 7th, 2005 by Dakota Grabowski

Introduction:

Tecmo is among the most beloved publishers on the Xbox with Team Ninja delivering hits such as Dead or Alive 3 and Ninja Gaiden.  So it’s safe to say that GunGriffon: Allied Strike would follow in the same footsteps of other Tecmo titles and become a sure-fire hit, right?  Well, that isn’t exactly the case in this situation as GunGriffon shows us how someone doesn’t take full (or even partial) advantage of a console’s raw power when developing a title for this generation of consoles.

Game Arts, the original developer of the series is still on board.  Sega published the GunGriffon titles for the Sega Saturn while Working Designs published the Playstation 2 title.  So, this time around, another new publisher took over the helm in Tecmo.  What’s sad to say though is that this GunGriffon is the worst game in the franchise.  GunGriffon tries to make mech fans happy with something different from the Battletech universe, but Game Arts did not deliver an overall satisfying game.

Gameplay:

GunGriffon: Allied Strike unfortunately doesn’t improve on the story that started on the Sega Saturn.  The Sega Saturn version is considered a darkhorse favorite by many Saturn fans, so it came as a big surprise that the Xbox rendition of GunGriffon is such a huge disappointment.  The story is essentially what you probably expected.  The enemy is out to kill everything in its path and you, being the hero, must stop these rogues and fight for justice.  The only thing that could possibly hold up this story is that the world is running out of natural resources and the enemies are fighting to claim what’s remaining.  Nothing special here in terms of story if that’s what you are looking for in a mech title.

Many gamers that play mech games don’t simply look for a story.  They’d rather have entertainment and heavy combat.  GunGriffon only delivers on one half of the spectrum, as the game is entertaining to say the least.  The enemies are quickly extinguished with only a few missiles and they become inferior to your mech quite quick.  The missions pretty much suffer from the syndrome I like to call “RGS”.  RGS stands for “Repetitive Game Syndrome”.  Yes, this game is quite repetitive as your objectives merely have you blowing up the enemies and doing little else besides that.  There’s not much to do while playing the game or outside the simple mission modes.

The enemy A.I. is indeed simple-minded and quickly disposed of.  While playing, calling in your allies to assist you doesn’t really matter, as they will be terminated in no time on the battlefield.   The computer A.I., whether it’s an enemy or not, will be stuck against buildings and the environment so they don’t much factor into the difficulty level in GunGriffon.  It’s better to play with friends to create a better experience entirely while playing GunGriffon than by playing alone.  The multi-player is detailed later on, but it’s definitely better than the single player campaign.

Graphics:

GunGriffon doesn’t have a speck of brilliance at all with the visuals department.  They neither shine nor sparkle and it ultimately brought this game down even further than what it could have been.  The graphics are low-quality and deserve to be compared to those of the Nintendo 64 and Playstation 1.  Textures lack detail and it shows when you can’t even identify the object standing right in front of you.  The Xbox is so powerful but yet GunGriffon merely doesn’t employ the raw power of the Xbox at all.  Often times you’ll find yourself walking through objects in the environment as if they were holograms.  Tecmo should have asked for aid from Team Ninja to at least liven up GunGriffon in the graphics area.

Audio:

With the audio, they also didn’t do anything spectacular.  The opening menu has a nice song that goes along with the game, but nothing besides that stands head and toe above the rest.  Sound effects are generic and even laughable when compared to epic games such as MechAssault 2 and Halo 2.  GunGriffon has nothing going for it when matched up against other games this generation.  The explosions seemed to be too soft; the gun fire seemed to be more of what a paintball sounds like as it hits its target;  and it all seems too similar with games ported from older consoles.  Microsoft could have helped ‘beautify’ this game just liked they did with Shenmue 2 but GunGriffon doesn’t have the essentials to be considered a worthy game to pick up.

Controls:

GunGriffon is played in both first and third person perspectives.  Both are sluggish and slow.  First person seems to be slower than the third person but both are essentially the same.  It’s just that in third person, you are allowed to see more of the environment as you pass.  The first person, of course, looks and feels better with all your indicators such as missile count and grids that are located within all other mech games. 

The game controls are responsive enough as you are allowed to call in back up and allies during the game.  There is no tutorial present so adapting to GunGriffon will have to be done through your own hard work.  Not enough here to make this game any more than a sub par attempt at the mech genre with such greats as MechAssault and Steel Battalion currently on the Xbox. 

Replay:

Xbox Live is present on GunGriffon to increase the replay value and that’s a pleasant thing to hear when the game only takes a maximum of ten hours to complete.  You can play the standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch game modes included with all Xbox Live games.  What’s included though that not too many have is Cooperative Mode.  Cooperative Mode allows you to play with a friend over Xbox Live through the single player campaign.  So, in essence, GunGriffon did happen to include something new that not too many have presence with their games.  Unfortunately, they skipped out on improving the visuals and gameplay.  Xbox Live isn’t a saving grace, but simply a filler for those looking for a reason to play a co-op game with a friend.

Summary:

If you must have every mech game out there, GunGriffon isn’t that bad.  It doesn’t meet expectations with such great games on the market that already fill the mech genre for the Xbox.  If you are looking for another hit action game and don’t need to own every mech game, look otherwise, as there are far better options available such as MechAssault, Phantom Crash and Steel Battalion in the mech genre.