Here the game’s site.

Well, things have gotten pretty crazy, with me having just started college. Taking a programming class, so who knows, if it’s successful I may make a mecha game. Anyway, today I bring to you one of my favourites, tied with just Silver Knights. Second Age is a mecha space combat game, featuring a cast of 8 unique robots. The video for Silver Knights on my first post here wasn’t mine, but the guy who did it sure made an amazing trailer. From now on, though, I’ll be bringing you all the mecha game video joy! So here’s a video showing some rough gameplay and showcasing all of the robots.

So with that, I’ll talk some about the gameplay. There’s no other way to play other than ‘Practice’, which really should be called something like ‘Skirmish.’ It’s a mode where you fight with up to 8 mechs, and you can split into (several) teams. Actually, there IS a mission mode, but it doesn’t work past mission 1…

So you choose mechs, teams, and from 5 maps. The gameplay has quite a few buttons despite its simple appearance. You move your aim with the directional button, and hold a button to boost in the direction you’re pressing. It works really well, actually, so you can easily aim while moving. You have a shield button, boost, main shot, melee, secondary shot, and shield+backboost. Many mechs have different attacks depending on the direction you’re boosting, and different melee when and when not holding a direction. There’s also special attacks, which are done by pressing certain two buttons at once.

It’s a simple concept, and maybe the graphics will throw you off (I think they’re superb for an old indie game, but others would disagree…), but this game is actually very good and fun. It also has LAN play, but I can’t figure out how it works, because of a language barrier. The rest of the game is totally in English, though. It may be me, the nostalgic music (surprisingly catchy), or the mech designs, but this is definitely one of the best once you really get into it. I may be a little biased, as this was my first (and best) foreign mech game find, aside from Silver Knights, which already had a little English fanbase.

So, you can download it from the website I made for it (Yeah, I really do love Second Age ;-;), or from the main site. Thing is, the main site has a latest version, which is more of a test build and incomplete… While from my website you can pick up an older and fuller version with all the mechs. Also, I made a whole picture manual, with explanations of the game and movelists.

So my fan-site is: http://www.freewebs.com/the-second-age/

Or you can check out the (Japanese) official website, which has actually been abandoned for years, but surprisingly still up… My point is, just try this old little gem.

http://www.geocities.jp/anno_sa/ar

Hey, hey, everyone! From this point forward, I’ll be a new author here, thanks to Jonathan Sharp who asked me and gave me a chance to write here. So, I go by many names, none of which you will know, except Claxus, so just call me that, alright? Especially because my first name is the same as a certain other someone here. So as what I’ll be doing here? Well, giant robots are my passion, and I love finding freeware mecha games, so that’s what I’m here to share. So let’s super-mecha-fly into overdrive!

I’ll be starting with the basics, which probably most mecha fans know, or maybe not… This one is an obscure little gem.

Silver Knights!

This is the one that started it all for me. At first, I was thrown off by its subpar graphics, but the gameplay was really the heart. Now, though, the game has developed much more, with more content, and pretty impressive graphics. In this game, you pilot a mech in a 3rd person shooter styles, but you lock on to enemies rather than aim. Each mech has two weapons, and a special function, plus melee, and there’s a lot of’em. Your main form of movement is boosting, in short bursts. Really, the gameplay is simple, yet the game can be really intense.

It’s made up of only a skirmish mode, but you’ll soon realize that it’s all it needs. You can play with up to 8 mechs per game, and there’s many maps to choose from. Every mech has an unique playstyle, like setting up bits that shoot laser beams in sync with your mech, transforming into a plane, a sniper with 4 different main shots and a sniper mode, and a lot more.

But probably the best thing about the game is the ability to play online, it’s just so fun. One on ones against another human player can get really crazy, or you can team up and fight AI mechs together, or have team battles with other players. The game is pretty skill and timing based, despite its simple mechanics.

So if you’re interested, check out the fan-forum. It’s like my home forum… We’re a really small community, but we’ve been active for years, and we really need more mecha fans who want to play this online. Also, this game is actually still in progress, although the creator has taken a break from it, mostly because of lack of inspiration because of the small fanbase. So if you want to see this game grow further, show your support!

Official Webiste/Download: http://www42.tok2.com/home/silverknights/download.html

Fan-forum: http://s2.excoboard.com/Silver_Knights_Olympus

Oh, and, if you wanna contact me, ask about mech games, or whatever, I’m always on MSN, and sometimes on AIM. My MSN/E-Mail is Axyko@live.com , and my AIM is Audikura.

Game Trailer

I think I should start by saying this is the first point-click adventure game I’ve played in years. But with that said I must say I really enjoyed Jolly Rover. You start the game playing as a dog named Gaius James Rover who is later nicknamed by a pirate Jolly Rover and so for the rest of the game you are referred to as Jolly Rover. All Jolly as ever wanted out of life is to be a clown just like his father. Before he can however, he gets waylaid by pirates and setup by a corrupt Governor who is into voodoo. Yes and before you ask, no this is not a Monkey Island game but it is definitely inspired by them. (So much so that if you replaced Jolly with Guybrush it would be.) You can really tell that the developers are Monkey Island fans, which means that if you are also then you will really enjoy this game. But while you can compare it to a Monkey Island game, it does hold it’s on because how well it’s designed. Like for instance this is an adventure game that never forces you go online and find a walk-though just to finish the game. Instead of having something as lame as a hint button, they integrated a better system. Early in the game you pick up a little parrot named Juan that you can ask questions to and he will then give you hints, if you’re still stumped on a puzzle you can give a cracker [You find them through out the game.] and he will give you the solution or even complete the puzzle for you. That keeps the frustration to a minimum so that’s really a plus. The game is also short, but in this case that is a good thing because it makes it where you don’t get bored with the game before you finish it. Also there are lots of unlockables in the game so it has replay value. Now the things I didn’t like. Well for one thing I thought the end was a little weak, not that it’s bad it just seems a little rushed. The other thing is, it really could have used a quick scene transfer when you double-click, anyone who has ever played Monkey Island 3 will know what I’m taking about. As a whole though I did like this game and I would recommend it to anyone who loves point-click adventure games or just the Lucasarts adventure games. The artwork is good and the character design while not really my taste is still good. I easily give this game a 3.5 out of 5.

Glen

Well, from the moment you start the game, Recettear has charm. It has it in spades. From the cute anime-stlye to the dungeon gameplay, the game charms you from the moment you start to the moment you finish. In Recettear you start out as Recette the daughter of a man who has left home and decided that adventuring is his forte. Because of this he took out a huge loan that you will have to pay back over time in weekly intervals. The game lets you do this in two main ways: dungeoning with adventurers to get items and level them up; and buy and sell items in your store, which is essentially the only way to make good money. For that reason you will spend a lot of time in your store. To me, the gameplay of both the selling and the dungeoning is equally fun although with only one or the other the game wouldn’t feel complete. Dungeoning is a basic hack-and-slash action rpg style but is done well and plays very smooth. The dungeons are random which makes them very unpredictable and also makes them less monotonous, although if you get KOed in a dungeon you can only take limited items back, which can get rather aggrivating after a while. The save system will not allow you to save your current position in the dungeon which means you will most likely re-load your save and do the whole dungeon again. At first look Recettear looks like a game that might have you hooked for the story mode and then it’ll just end there, which is a wrong assumption. When the main story has been completed Recettear shows you that it’s not over. The game has multiple modes including survival, endless mode, and new game plus. Endless mode being the same as the story but without weekly debts, so it’s basically a continue mode. The 2 survival modes are basically you playing with endless weeks of debt piling up, and in normal survival you can keep your items, adventurers (if you have their true card) and shop expansions. New game plus allows you to start the game over keeping your items and adventurers, which is a favorite of mine in RPGs. Overall from start to finish Recettear is a great video game. The only problem I had with the game that comes to mind is the saving in dungeons and ability to only take limited items back. This however does not kill the game’s rating and is just a slight problem, no matter how annoying it may get sometimes. Recettear completely earns my score of 4.5 out of 5.

Jonathan

First off I must say I’m a bit biased just because this kind of game is very rare on PC let alone on PCs outside of Japan. So with that said if your an anime fan that’s been craving some good anime/manga inspired games to come stateside or just in English at lest, then you should thank Carpe Fulgur for doing the hard work of localizing it for the western market. The original developer EasyGameStation released the game back in 2007 in Japan. And it can be said that the game’s 3D graphics were a little dated back then by western PC standards but they are serviceable for the game’s 2D character art which more than well makes up for it. The anime style characters are well drawn, as well as having lots of personality. You will fall in love will the two main characters almost right away. And that alone could carry this game. But it has a lot more going for it. It’s basic gameplay is made up of a buy and sell items mechanic via your shop but it also has a classic action RPG dungeon element which while not very deep, it’s still fun. In the dungeons you can pick some rare items that you can’t buy so you need to play it for a full 100% completion but you don’t have to play it at all to finish the game’s main story. But if you’re a real RPG buff you will want to go back just to collect everything and to level up your characters. I do have to agree with Glen that the save system could be better but I can live with it just because the rest of the game is so good. And I do like the idea of having more modes to play after you finish the main story, which can be finished in just a few hours. Because with these modes it makes the game almost infinitely playable. So I most agree with Glen on this one, it’s a solid 4.5. And I do recommend it to any RPG/anime fan.