It’s taken a good while, but the classic ‘Armored Core’ trilogy of games on the PSone comes to PlayStation Plus next week.
It’s taken a good while, but the classic ‘Armored Core’ trilogy of games on the PSone comes to PlayStation Plus next week. Read More Gaming
It’s taken a while, but the classic Armored Core trilogy of games on the PlayStation One will be coming to PlayStation Plus next week.
Specifically, the three games are Armored Core, Armored Core Project Phantasma and Armored Core Master of Arena. What’s especially noteworthy is that for the latter two games, this will be the first time they have been given a European release.
A new entry on the PlayStation Blog also goes over other parts of the series, although in a somewhat haphazard fashion. What’s interesting here is that historically, the Armored Core series was always strongly aligned with Sony and the PlayStation.
So the fact that we are getting the first three PSone games on PlayStation Plus is definitely interesting after the release of Armored Core VIback in 2023.
In that, this would be a very good means for Sony and FromSoftware to gauge the popularity of the series as a whole and see if remasters of the older games would be a worthwhile endeavor.
I mean, it’s clear after Armored Core VI’s sales that there is a demand for these kinds of games, and most modern players aren’t familiar with the PSone and PlayStation 2 era of Armored Core.
While it does bug me when a PlayStation Blog post uses the term “mechs”, the correct term is mecha, and doesn’t quite get it quite right on how Shoji Kawamori came up with the idea of an “armored core” in terms of the game’s customization, but I am still very glad PlayStation is even acknowledging that these games exist, especially outside of Japan.
The only thing that’s worth warning newcomers about to the original Armored Core trilogy, as well as most of the PlayStation 2 era of games, is that the controls are quite involved. In that, strafing as well as looking up and down are mapped to the shoulder buttons.
Admittedly, you can remap the buttons, but Dual Analogue support didn’t start until Armored Core Nexus on the PlayStation 2, so the control scheme has a learning curve to it that may take some players by surprise.
My advice is to stick to the base controls and just learn them. Take it nice and easy, and learn how the game feels and handles.
While I have no doubt that modern gamers can learn complex control systems such as this, my advice is definitely to be patient and just apply yourself. You’ll get there in no time at all.
Apart from that, everything that’s old is new again for Armored Core, and as someone that’s been playing these games since 1997, that makes the teenager in me very happy.
The original Armored Core trilogy will be released on PlayStation Plus Classics on March 18.
Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.
