Pacific Rim review (XBLA)

Pacific Rim was developed and published by Yuke’s. It was released on July 12, 2013 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

The Pacific Rim film has been praised for being big budget new IP that isn’t quite perfect, but is a lot of fun to watch. With Giant robots (aka Jaegers) versus giant alien monsters (aka Kaijus), could you ask for anything more in a summer blockbuster? A fighting game tie-in, perhaps? Well that’s what Yuke’s has developed for the XBLA and we check it out to see if it is worth your time.

Here’s what we liked:

Customizable Jaegers – Playing around with the preset characters is interesting, but the biggest strength of Pacific Rim comes in the form of the customizable Jaegers. Being able to mix and match different parts from the Jaegers of the film ensures that each players experience with the game will be unique. Once your Jaeger is ready, you can take it online to duke it out with players from around the world to test your mettle against other Jaegers and Kaijus (note that Kaijus can be upgraded, but are not completely customizable, like the Jaegers).

Tactical combat – While the move set for the game is very basic, the most important thing is whether or not the game lets you feel like one of the powerful Jaegers or Kaijus from the film. In a match you start of with low energy, but if you let it grow a little the game allows you to pull off some pretty powerful moves. Each Jaeger and Kaiju have different power moves to pull off, making them each feel unique. Balancing dodging, weak attacks, strong attacks and even avoiding fighting to build up energy makes for some surprisingly engaging combat, although it is nowhere near as rich of an experience as any of the AAA fighting games.

Here’s what we didn’t like:

Limited options – There are only five preset characters featured in the game (three Jaegers and two Kaijus), although the customizable characters almost make up for the lack of choices. The number of arenas are also very limited, marred even more by the fact that they all feel basically the same. There are some different environmental hazards on each arena, but they come into play so rarely that it doesn’t make up for the lack of selection. Even the number of modes is limited, with a weak single player selection (two modes: normal and survival) and very basic online and offline versus play.

Bland presentation – The graphics are okay, but not crisp or strong enough compared to other games. The story mode doesn’t actually feature any story and is tainted by the fact that Kaijus fight Kaijus and Jaegers fight Jaegers, which doesn’t tie back into the story of the film. Furthermore, it sounds as if the audio department just phoned it in. With no voice acting, limited action sounds, and only one song played throughout the entire game (both during menus and while in fights) the overused sounds makes the whole game feel incredibly repetitive.

In-game purchases – It is hard to justify the 800 MSP when the games asks for more money just to paint your customized Jaeger, this is a small feature that shouldn’t have been stuck behind a paywall, as it immediately cheapens the customization options and without it makes your Jaeger feel not quite your own. The paint feature is not the only one stuck behind a paywall, to get the best customizations, new characters, or new arenas, you’ll have to fork over more money either in-game or by way of DLC. These are things that should have been in the game, but that were probably removed for a quick buck, serving only to degrade the overall experience.

Cheap finishing moves – Later on in the story missions you’ll start to face enemies that knock you out in one hit once their energy reaches max. This wouldn’t be so bad if they had earned the right to beat you, but when you spend a lot of time slowly whittling them down through some clever strategizing, it feels undeserved to keep getting knocked out just for taking your time and being careful.

Video game tie-ins tend to be awful. Once in a blue moon you find diamond in the rough, like the original GoldenEye or Spider-Man 2. Unfortunately, Pacific Rim is not one of those diamonds. The combat is good, but not strong enough to make up for the lack of options or in-game purchases for simple features that should have been in the game originally. The game is essentially a glorified demo, you’re better off saving your money to watch the movie rather than purchasing this missed opportunity.

Score: Skip it