Mobile Police Patlabor Game Edition PSX

 Patlabor series is probably one the most well known work made by Yutaka Izubuchi and i certainly respect this series alot for having one of the most realistic approach for mecha genre. Little known outside Japan, the series actually had a decent game on PSX which was not too shabby at its time but doesn't age really well at the present with its graphic quality. In any case Patlabor Game Edition offers an interesting experience for a mecha game because it is made by people who understand the series really well.

 The PSX version of Patlabor game is a mecha action game featuring mechas from Patlabor series. Playing as new rookie for Tokyo's Special Vehicle Section 2, you get to pilot Ingram 3 fighting other Labors throughout the game. Faithfully following the source material, the nature of this game's gameplay focus heavily on close combat especially on grappling, not something you see alot from mecha game.

  Patlabor Game Edition storyline roughly takes place after the TV series where you get to see daily shenanigans of SV2 section once again. In the game you take on the perspective from a new recruit of the team joining as Labor Pilot accompanied by a fellow rookie named Midori who serves as your partner. If you watched the series before, the SV2 members are still the same from Gungho as ever Ohta to our carefree but really insightful Squad Leader Goto. As for the new member Midori, she is a sweet girl but rather air-headed and somewhat a pro-wrestling fan.

 In the game, SV2 Squad are investigating cases where Labors are going berserk despite being unmanned and this recent havoc are tied to runaway scientist named Khrisna who happen to be voiced by Wakamoto. Initially the new recruit, Midori encountered him running away from some shady people and rescued him. From what i grasped, Apparently Krishna worked for US Military and create an advanced AI for Labor and for some reason the AI breaks free and begin to hijack Labors to avoid being captured. Khrisna probably got something to do with the reason why his creation got free as he harbors some extreme ideology due to having his families died from War with him being the sole survivor.

  In the game you get to fight various type of Labors from construction Labors to Military Grade Labors to the Infamous Griffon itself! In the game you mainly fight the labors through Grappling which works through Quick Time Event mechanics like the ones you usually see in God of War series. Depending on how well you perform, you are able to dish out some heavy damages with long combo chains of punch and kick and the ones using Baton will deal higher damage though harder to perform. Once the special gauge is filled up, you are able to perform Finishers to end your combo ranging from Cross Counter Punch to Awesome Judo throw. The grappling mechanic may seem awkward at first but it is quite good once you got the grasp of it. As for the difficulty, the begins rather easy as you only fight Construction Labors gets more difficult when you face the Military Grade Labors as you need to be more tactically aware instead of charging blindly when facing them especially the Quad-legged one

 Patlabor Game Edition offers really unique experience of mecha gaming since not many mecha game incorporate Grappling as main part of their game mechanic which surprisingly pulled off really well in this game. This game offers a lot of possible combination of combos which increase its replay value for this rather short game as you try to find the best combos and the coolest finishers. The Graphic Quality is quite for PSX game but unfortunately doesn't age really well, it would be cool though to see some spiritual successor with graphic update for this awesome game someday.

 If you are fan of the anime series, you will definitely enjoy the game despite graphic setbacks since the beloved SV2 team are still the same bunch of misfits that we know in the TV series. Even if you are not familiar with Patlabor, the game is still a good game for a mecha fan with its unique experience. Even if you dont have any understanding of Japanese, at very least you are able to savor the mecha fights since that part is translated at least. Also the game got some interesting presentation at the end of every chapter which also show some shenanigans done by SV2 team as shown below.