Much like Koei’s ubiquitous Dynasty Warriors, Japanese developer From Software continues to create new games in the Armored Core series. These titles are then shipped to all parts of the world where a small niche of gamers eagerly snap them up. The rest of us just scratch our heads and move on.

If you’re one of those Armored Core fanboys, congratulations! You just bought the same game...again. I’m sure you’re going to love it. For everyone else, move along. There’s nothing to see here.

Because the world needs more giant robots.

If you’re unfamiliar with the series, Armored Core is a giant robot combat game where you trick out your “Core” with hundreds of customizable parts. Different combinations of parts can dramatically alter the offensive and defensive capabilities of your Core.

However, you can’t just equip the best of everything. As in other mech-style games, movement and combat generate heat. And too much heat causes your Core to shut down for a brief period of time while it cools. So players must strike a balance between movement, weapons, and other options. Once in combat, the expert Armored Core player will learn how to push his giant robot buddy to the limit, without overheating.

Pimp Your Ride

In previous installments of the series, you’d spend time modifying your Core, take it out on a variety of missions, and earn credits that you use to buy new parts. In Nine Breaker, the developers have thrown out the missions in favor of an extensive training mode and arena mode.  Veterans can import data from Armored Core: Nexus and use the parts they accumulated in Nine Breaker. All other parts that come with game are unlocked and ready to use from the get-go.

Arguably the most interesting element in the Armored Core games is the insane amount of customization it offers in creating and outfitting your Cores. Nine Breaker is no different. Lest you think that a compliment, allow me to rephrase. Nine Breaker brings nothing new to the table.

Fun with Spreadsheets

Passionate fans of the series will have already mastered the admittedly robust customization options and will dive right in creating powerful and versatile Cores. New players will be hopelessly lost in a sea of lists, numbers, and options that are not immediately understandable. 

The interface used in creating your Core is hideous. You’ll spend the better part of an hour sifting through parts with names like WSX9537-Bx (which, of course, only a noob would use. The WSX9537-alpha is waaaaay better.)  For a game that lives or dies on the player’s ability to customize their in-game character, Armored Core: Nine Breaker is user-hostile.

Training Day

But even die-hard fans of Armored Core will likely find little to love in Nine Breaker. There’s just not much of a game here. In training mode you go through a series of exercises designed to test you Core’s ability to perform certain actions like move, shoot, and evade. The entire endeavor is awash in trial-and-error. You’ll constantly be heading back to the garage to tweak your core before attempting new training exercises. This wouldn’t be a problem if anything about the training was remotely fun. It’s not--it’s tedious and pointless.

King of the Heap

That leaves arena mode. Some kudos must be given to From Software for doing away with what would most likely have been yet another sucky story about giant robots and the pilots who love them. Replacing that with a simple one-on-one deathmatch ladder is, in many ways, a smart move for the series as many fans prefer arena-style fighting.

Here you’ll see the best aspect of Nine Breaker. The game is still an interesting balance of the player’s raw skill and his ability to utilize interesting combinations of parts. But it’s all been done well over a half-dozen times before. And in Nine Breaker, the tournament ladder motif just begs for online play, which the game doesn’t have. Instead, you’ll battle it out against lots of AI enemies until you reach the top of the heap. And that’s it.

Armored Bore

From Software has been re-issuing the same game for years now. It must be making some pretty good money or it wouldn’t keep doing it. So we can only conclude that someone is snapping them up as fast as they can churn them out. But here’s a radical thought: if you stop buying, maybe, just maybe they’ll attempt to bring something fresh to the series. Because at this point, Armored Core has become an Armored Bore.