With a show of hands, how many of you picked up Front Mission 3 from SquareSoft (now Square Enix) back in the days when the PS1 was just called a PS? After playing through the many, many, many hours of tactical battles (did I mention it was long?) how many wondered how long it would be till the original Front Mission could be available in the US? Well the answer is 12 years.

With the release of the original Front Mission on the Nintendo DS, I was really excited to get down and dirty with a little wanzer on wanzer tactical action DS style. Wait,…what? Oh, what’s a wanzer? Glad you asked. A wanzer is a big robotic fighting battle suit. Think a battlemech or Gundam battle suit with a German name (“wanderung panzer” or walking tank).

The game takes place on Huffman Island, which is occupied by the Oceanic Community Union (O.C.U.) and the United Continental States (U.C.S.). After a brief tutorial mission the story of Huffman Island is ready to be told. However now you have to make a choice as to who’s story you are going to discover. Do you follow the O.C.U. or the U.C.S.? There is no wrong choice so pick one and dive in.

Released back in 1995 on the Super Famicom (think SNES) in Japan it has been updated a bit for it’s DS release. The game play is your basic console tactics game. A little bit of story, a visit to the village/base/city for supplies and on to the next mission. Nothing innovative by todays standards, but back in ‘95 the tactics type games were still new to the home console systems.

The battles take place in various types of terrain that can both help and hinder movement around the field. Game play is turn based which consists of moving your wanzers and attacking the enemy. This can all be done via the lower DS touch screen. The upper screen will display the current stats of the selected unit or terrain properties of where you are moving the wanzer. Since some terrain slows your movement or provides cover, it is good to reference this screen when deciding where to move. You can also look at the stats of enemy wanzers to decide which one to beat down during a battle. When you attack another wanzer you get to see it played out on the upper screen also. This to me is a plus over most tactics games where you see a small animation of the unit on the small map.

Back at base wanzers can be outfitted with new weapons, stronger parts, more powerful engines, better CPS’s, as well as a new paint job. Short of cash? Make a few credits in Arena battles. This is the sport of kings on Huffman Island. Gear up, pick an opponent and try not to lose your stake.

My only complaint so far has been the mission objectives. So far they have been pretty much the go kill every wanzer that is not part of your squad variety. However they are still fun to play.

Ok, the first 60 wrap up of Front Mission for the DS is this: if you like tactics games and want to play one that is not about swords, magic and monsters, grab Front Mission. I dig it! It’s fun! Once I finish the O.C.U. story and plan on playing it again on the U.C.S. side. Just be careful if you ask someone if they want to see your wanzer. They might get the wrong idea.

My rating for the first 60: 90%

Rent or Buy: Buy! With a two whole stories to play out, Front Mission is well worth raiding the piggy bank to but it.

Prof Venatus, saying “wanzer” as much as I can, just because I can….wanzer