Are you ready to tread through horrible voice acting and predictable story line to get to the mech on mech action? Hope you are because Robot Alchemic Drive (RAD) for the Playstation 2 contains all the above; developed by Sandlot and published by Enix (not Square Enix you pre-teen gaming mongoloid). RAD offers something different to the mech fans out there as well to those who are nostalgic for bad anime dubbing.

RAD is the definition of bad voice acting and b-movie plot. The game offers the perspective of three heroes, which all play the same, have the exact same background and story – with minor differences. The game takes place in a parallel universe where space travel is impossible due to some space radiation that kills living things and one day some alien race decides to invade Earth with giant robots and you must defeat them with your very own giant robot called a Meganite. The game advances through like episodes in an anime. You are given a news cast about giant robots, then something about high school life then robots – the typical old anime formula. Though the story does get the job done to move the game forward, it’s not in any way interesting and tends to be predictable, but there are some points the game where you can change the outcome of things depending on what you do.

The voice acting is absolutely horrendous. At certain points in the game, I swear they’re just doing it on purpose because it’s nearly impossible to act that badly. If they’re doing it on purpose, does that mean there are people out there that actually like the bad dubbing of old anime from the seventies and eighties? If you like it old school, then it will bring back nostalgia; if you don’t, then you’ll be laughing at it because it’s so bad, it’s like watching Plan 9 From Outer Space; but if you can’t stand it, prepare to endure it as there are no skippable cut scenes, only fast-forwarding, even at some parts you can’t even fast-forward so patience is a requirement. At some points of the game, it really does feel like you’re playing a bad anime as some episodes will have no action all and will deal the story – how boring – it’s just good that these episodes are also very short.

Now the mech fun as RAD offers something different every other mech game and that something different is the fact you don’t pilot the mech, you control it with a remote. What does that exactly mean? It means you better get use to running around as a little hero while in the heat of battle just to get a good vantage point to see all the action. Despite all that, it isn’t actually much of a chore, just go to a high place and you’re good to go. There are two control schemes for the game, easy mode and normal mode. Normal mode is the way to go as it tends to be more precise and overall better for combat, just takes time to get use to. Before going off into this episodic mech anime adventure, you must choose what mech you get and what hero you play. You get to choose from three mechs and characters, balance mech, fast mech and heavy mech. Then the characters, average teenager, the cool suit wearing teenager or the girl; doesn’t really matter, the characters all play the same.

Now once you get to actually control your mech, you will notice that you don’t use the analog sticks or the d-pad to move; instead you control each leg and arm individually. Pressing L1 and R1 alternatively makes your mech walk, each controlling their respective legs while the analog sticks control the arms. Punching consists of pressing down then up or doing semi-circles with the analog sticks. At first, this is going to be very awkward but it does slowly feel fluid and easy. The other buttons shoot missiles, lasers, and transform. Playing around for the first time while make your giant robot walk funny like a five year old making a stop-motion video with action figures. The same goes for the enemies they take damage from your wildly flailing arms, so at first, the action may seem laughable, which may be the case. But it is all very fun to do; the game is genuinely fun as game mechanics make it very different from any other game and the action is great.

Besides the story mode, you can go head to head with a friend and have an awkward game of arm flailing or an intense mech battle – all depending if you know how to play. The head to head mode can be very fun, especially those who enjoy giant robots beating the crap out of each other.

The presentation of the game is a bit cheap, besides the acting. The graphics are acceptable, not atrocious in any way. The environments are destructible so wrecking havoc with your giant robot can be fun all on its own. The buildings are like cardboard though and then break like glass. People can be seen running through the streets which can be squished with an unreasonably amount of blood pouring out. The blood isn’t all the glorifying as it tends to spray out like a giant mist. The sounds in the game are superb as it tends to make it feel like real robots; the music on the other hand is not as great, but not bad either.

Overall the game is good for the game play alone and those who enjoy giant robots in any shape or form. If you’re a big mech fan, go out and get it; everyone else might enjoy the game if they can get past the story and voice acting.