Tetsujin 28-Go Import Impressions

Tetsujin 28-Go, known as Gigantor in the United States, is the latest game to follow the current trend in Japan of bringing old anime and manga characters to video games. We got our hands on the recently released Japanese import of Tetsujin 28-Go to see how the classic 1956 property has been brought back to life on the PlayStation 2 by Bandai.

For those who don't know much about the original anime or manga, Tetsujin 28-Go is a remote-controlled robot that was created as a weapon by the Japanese army during World War I. The story takes place some time after the war in 1930, when a boy detective named Shoutaro Kaneda discovers the robot, Tetsujin 28-Go, which his scientist father had created during his years in the army. Shoutaro, doing what any self-respecting boy detective in an anime would do, takes over Tetsujin 28-Go's remote control to bring peace to the country by using its powers to defeat villains.

Bandai's video game interpretation of Tetsujin 28-Go puts a 3D action spin on it. The game plays out against the scenery of 1930s Japan, when houses were made of wood, and the streets were still paved with rough stones instead of asphalt. During the game, you play the role of young Shoutaro and control the colossal Tetsujin 28-Go, directing him to beat on various enemies in each of the mission stages. The game uses a lot of character art and dialogue, complete with dialogue bubbles, during the action, which gives it an anime flavor. Using Tetsujin 28-Go, you get to fight against robots that were in the original anime series, such as Bacchus and Black Ox. One of the interesting things about Tetsujin 28-Go is that you can toss around just about anything you come across in the game, such as walls, buildings that are 30 times your size, or even enemies, be it a robot or a puny human being. The playfields in the game are all wide, and each map is realistically packed with houses and trees--like any town or city in the day. What's more, each object is detailed when you check it out from Shoutaro's viewpoint.

During the actual gameplay, you're on the ground from the perspective of Shoutaro, and you control Tetsujin 28-Go with the remote controller that's in front of you. The classic-looking remote controller has three analog meters on it. Two of the meters indicate the power level for Tetsujin 28-Go's two fists, and the remaining meter indicates the power for special attacks.

Given that Tetsujin 28-Go is a couple of generations older than Gundam or other well-known mechs, such as Zoids, the robot is primitive and not equipped with fancy gadgets like light sabers or laser cannons. All its attacks are for close quarters, but its raw power can make other robot enemies go flying into the air with a tackle or an uppercut. The square and circle buttons control Tetsujin 28-Go's left and right fists, respectively. You'll press them quickly for a light punch or hold them down to power up your punches. You can power up Tetsujin 28's fists to three levels, so it can pull off different punches of different strengths--a hook on level one, a chop on level two, and a straight or the aforementioned uppercut on level three. You can perform some cool attacks by combining the two buttons effectively; for instance, you can power up the right arm while keeping your opponent busy with the left. Special attacks let you tackle your opponents in four different ways, but you start the game with only the level-one special. In order to use the higher-level specials, you need to accumulate customization points, which can be collected from items that appear when you beat enemies. The customization points also come as a bonus when you beat the stages. The number you get varies depending on the stage's difficulty setting. Aside from being used to acquire new specials, customization points can also be spent to build up Tetsujin 28-Go's endurance or to strengthen the power of his punches.

By pressing the X button, you can make Tetsujin 28-Go pick up any object on the field, such as buildings, enemies, and fences, and you can have Tetsujin 28-Go throw the object by pressing the X button once again, which is useful when attacking enemies from a distance. Tetsujin can also fly around freely with the R1 button, which is a faster way to get around than walking. Also nifty is that Tetsujin 28-Go can pick up Shoutaro, which is convenient when you want to get him out of danger, and Tetsujin 28-Go can fly from one part of the field map to another with Shoutaro in his hands. You can also call Tetsujin 28-Go back to Shoutaro at any time by hitting the R2 button, which is useful when the robot is completely out of viewing range.

If there's a building that's blocking your view to Tetsujin 28-Go, or if you need to move Shoutaro because he's been discovered by enemy thugs, you can press the select button, which will allow you to go into a third-person perspective to move Shoutaro instead of Tetsujin 28-Go. This comes in handy throughout the game, especially when Tetsujin 28-Go is getting out of visibility range but you don't want to call it back.

One interesting aspect of Tetsujin 28-Go is its direction control, which is similar to that in the Resident Evil series. In Tetsujin 28-Go, left and right on your controller rotate the character, while up and down make the character move forward and back. The control setup might not be welcomed by all players, but since Shoutaro is maneuvering Tetsujin 28-Go with a remote controller in the game, the control is set up to simulate the way remote-controlled vehicles are supposed to be operated.

Tetsujin 28-Go has three modes: story mode, challenge mode, and versus mode. In story mode, which is the main game mode, you get to follow an original game scenario where Shoutaro fights against a mysterious gang organization called the X-Cult, which is stealing robots to use them for its twisted purposes. In challenge mode, you get to embark on more than 40 different missions, controlling Tetsujin 28-Go or any of the other robots that you fought against in the story mode. The missions can be played alone or with another player, which makes it easier to go through stages where multiple enemies are coming at you at once. The versus mode lets you fight against up to three other human players in head-to-head combat. There's also a hidden mode in the game, which can be unlocked after you beat the story mode.

All in all, Tetsujin 28-Go is a pretty simple game that anyone can get into, even those who are inexperienced at playing games. If you're a fan of the series and you don't mind all the Japanese text and dialogue, you might be interested in checking out this import. At the moment, it doesn't appear that Tetsujin 28-Go is slated to ship in the US this year.