Pacific Rim is an Xbox Live Arcade title based on the movie (you guessed it) Pacific Rim. Instead of your typical video game version of a film, Pacific rim is a fighting genre where you can pick either side and battle it out in various missions to gain experience and unlock customization abilities for your mech/monster. Each character (is that the right word?) has different strengths and weaknesses to consider before venturing into a mission. You could pick someone with higher defence but weaker attack or vice versa. It is also possible to have monster vs monster or mech vs mech.

During my first playthrough of the game I was rather surprised about the lack of speed that the fighters posses, but really when you think about it, monsters and mechs that size won’t be the fastest fighters around. Because of the lack of speed though, this does mean you are going to have to plan your attacks a little bit more before you go full force on your enemy. With a very simple control scheme (seen further down) it’s very easy to leave yourself open to attack. On the bottom of the screen in-between or underneath your health bar (depending on which side you are) is an energy bar. This energy bar is increasing constantly throughout the match but every punch you throw decreases the bar slightly. Leave the bar to pass certain percentages and you will be able to unleash more powerful attacks. If you manage to get your energy bar over 90% then you are able to unleash a one hit kill attack. Game over.

The scenery within the battles do really give the effect on how big your mechs/monsters really are. Although most of them aren’t the most detailed stages you will ever come across, I mean, the sea stage is just water, a couple of rocks and boats. But it really gives you the affect that you really are huge and can cause some major damage.

The ability to customize your own mech/monster is a nice addition to the game. Although you need to accumulate enough experience points to buy just the ‘basic’ model of one of the characters. From then onwards you will need more experience points to customize different features within your chosen characters arsenal. I chose the basic model of the mechs as it left me with the most experience points to play with afterwards. I was given the choice to change the parts of the mech, so I could mix and match styles to possibly create a unique looking mech, instead of the seeing the same style everywhere. You are able to increase the stats of each part of your mech to improve a number of other stats. These include hit points, attack, defense, ranged power, speed, energy charge and ability slots. And just to make it that more personal, you can give your character his (or her) own name. Should expect that really these days.

It has been really hard to focus on a final score for this Xbox Live Arcade title. Purely because of the speed of the characters. Sometimes I can be playing it and really enjoy taking my enemy apart punch by punch, but other times I just want to let loose and destroy them with flurries of punches and blasts. But that is never the case and I lose my interest in it rather quickly. If you enjoyed the film (I can’t comment as I haven’t seen it yet) then this might be worth a look, but I highly recommend giving the trial a go before purchasing the game, as personally, I wouldn’t spend my MSP (or money with the coming updates) on this title.

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