Retrospective: Steel Battalion

By Matt Edwards Published 10 January, 2010

Don't forget to eject.

Videogames have always had the capacity to spark anger, fear and joy in me, and although I've never been so enraged as to damage a controller by hurling it, I have felt the exhilaration of an epic Street Fighter win and the agony of a crushing boss defeat. But one thing games have never made me do is cry. Aeris' death made me feel a slither of remorse, but nothing game-related has ever persuaded me to secrete anything from my lacrimal gland. With one notable exception.

A long time ago - two years prior to the very first Guitar Hero, in fact - there was a peripheral-driven game that managed to bring me to a profound state of hysteria, and that game was Steel Battalion. When it was first announced for global release, it seemed like Capcom was taking a substantial risk. Although Japan's obsession with mecha guaranteed its success in the East, quality mech sims like Heavy Gear and Armored Core had only secured a niche following in these parts. The only obvious difference with Steel Battalion was the bundled cockpit. The, uh, whu...

Even before playing it there was no denying that the behemoth controller was the star of the show. It made the comparatively feeble Virtual On twin sticks look like designer amateur hour, bristling with buttons, joysticks, switches and peddles. Who could forget the first time they went through the lengthy start-up sequence, involving no less than three buttons and five switches, before shifting into first, grabbing both sticks and then edging shakily out of the hanger to take down their first Vitzh Vertical Tank (VT). It was the first tear of gaming ecstasy I ever shed.

'Retrospective: Steel Battalion' Screenshot 1

Caption 1 - Unlike the adrenaline pumping antics of Armored Core, Steel Battalion's approach to mecha was far more clunky and methodical. Doing a full 360-degree rotation in a first-generation heavy VT could take up to 10 seconds!

But alas the euphoria wasn't to last, as once you began the campaign mode a number of critical flaws emerged. Archaic design. Pitiful draw distance. A perfect example of the latter is on the third mission where you're tasked with breaching a city, only to find that said city is populated by N64-grade buildings which only become visible at close range. Add to this the fact that half the screen is taken up by various gauges - especially on the first-generations VTs - and Steel Battalion virtually demanded a 30+ inch widescreen setup. There was also atrocious wingman AI, a wafer-thin plot, and a bland selection of missions that rarely deviated from "destroy enemy forces".

Yet despite these issues, Steel Battalion was all about the simulation experience, and in many ways the steep learning curve is as hardcore as they come. You can start a mission with confidence, only to run out of fuel and ammo halfway, and as replacement VTs cost supply points, and running out of supply points means you have to start the game from the beginning, developing an effective strategy wasn't as simple as hitting 'continue'. Then there was the penalty of a failed ejection: complete loss of progress. Tear number two.

But for those willing to take on the challenge there was a real sense of accomplishment at the end of those 10 initial missions. You really had to work to get there. By taking down the Juggernaut VT you'd gone from a rookie who had to keep checking the manual to a fully fledged mech pilot who knew their own capabilities. It was like passing an automotive test and in the end that's part of the appeal, because if you take the controller away Steel Battalion is a poorly designed game with terrible production values. With it, the game offers an unrivalled level of mech immersion.

The decision to make Steel Battalion a solitary experience meant the final challenge after completion was either getting a good trade-in price or finding somewhere inconspicuous to store it. But when the promised expansion did eventually arrive a year later, it felt as though Capcom had taken something hardcore and made it even more exclusive. Steel Battalion: Line of Contact was one of the first Xbox games to be "Xbox Live-only", and arrived at a time when online console gaming wasn't nearly as popular as it is today.

Nonetheless, if you were privileged enough to own the expensive controller and a large telly, in addition to having an Xbox Live account with a decent broadband connection, the opportunity was there to battle other VT pilots in the online campaign mode. And this in itself was an interesting proposition, as players had to enlist with a faction, each with a different range of VTs, before fighting for territorial control of a fictional island. But despite claims of 5v5 matches the netcode often struggled unless all players had a flawless connection. Something which didn't happen often.

'Retrospective: Steel Battalion' Screenshot 4

Although the campaign mode has long since been taken down, you can still play online in free mission. Lineofcontact.net is a good place to start if you're looking for a game.

With Line of Contact also supporting System Link a lag-free game was still technically possible. The largest LAN session I ever participated in was with three other players all crammed into a small living room, each with their own Xbox, TV and Steel Battalion controller. Amazing scenes. Despite taking ages to sort out the effort paid off, as with the unlock code enabled we were able to play 2v2 matches with access to all 31 VTs. Needless to say, knocking out an unsuspecting friend with the Gauss emitter from a third-generation Earthshaker doesn't get old quickly.

So then, Steel Battalion. The game that came with an Allen key. Its style of mecha is less anime and more military with a colossal sense of scale and ambition, and although those initial photos of the unfathomable controller never went on to fulfil all our dreams, the end product was at least better than many gave credit. A sequel seems extraordinarily unlikely, but with thousands of controllers collecting dust all around the world I'll never give up hope. I'm just not going to cry about it.

Picture of Matt.

About Matt Edwards

Matt describes himself as a player of games, a rider of motorbikes and a wearer of hats. He's also a Fighting Mania master. "Omae wa mo shindeiru!"

Read more articles from Matt by visiting the Matt Edwards archive page.

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Comments (44) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • KillerMonkey #1 2 years ago

    The game sounds epic. I wouldn't be surprised if there are community remakes of the game with more capable engines?

  • lavalant #2 2 years ago

    The controller was what made the game so epic, not sure if we'll ever see another controller like it for a while anyway, perhaps with NATAL they can do something similar like a virtual cockpit with tons of buttons that we can pretend to press and it can track our motions.

    Not the same I spose.....oxygen on.

  • Darkedge #3 2 years ago

    utterly awesome game - I have a copy and the controller is taking up space in my flat as we speak. My xbox is actually being returned from the friend who borrowed it so soon I will be playing it again :)
    Looking forward to it as now I have a screen to do it justice - wish they had made it compatible with 360 via a usb dongle though, a simple upscalling of the graphics would be nice.

  • Retroid #4 2 years ago

    Vid with the controller in action.

    That's immersion for you!

    Wasn't there a Steel Battalion 2, software only?

    edit: Yes there was.
    Edited by 1 at 10/01/10 @ 01:05

  • costa_k #5 2 years ago

    I am a 40 year old gamer.Playing Line of Contact online has been the best gaming experience I ever had.Luckily at the time I was unemployed and had time to invest in this amazing game.No Mario,no Zelda,no Battlefield,nothing can come close to the experience,and I consider myself very lucky as very few got the game,and even fewer managed to get good at it.
    One can only hope.

  • TriggerHippie #6 2 years ago

    To be honest I felt the controller was a contrivance. There was nothing on the controller that was integral to the game that couldn't have been mapped to the x-box controller. The necessity of the controller doomed what was an excellent game to relative obscurity.

  • Slipstream #7 2 years ago

    Hey, Activition should invest!

    On second thought probably not...not unless they make a Back to the Future 2 game for the Tony Hawk board...

    But yeah! Steel Batallion, what anamazing game with an awesome concept, sure the oot controller seemed cosmetic, but they did an amazing job of making it feel integral. flipping the switches, EJECTING! Yeah add some imagination and you were truly behind a mech!
    They could do so much more with this sort of game now too, maybe Natal could have a say in it's future, or even a similar title, some potential there for sure.

  • corpsicle #8 2 years ago

    I LOVED this game, i think i logged 100+ hours in it, completing the game on every difficulty and unlocking all the VT's.
    I seriously cant think of any other game that i remember so fondly ( ive been gaming since early/mid 80's ), and that i seriously would want to get again, despite the pricetag.
    The problem now is that i wouldnt ever have time or space to play it. Maybe i should just secure a set and wait for retirement.
    If there was a sequel now or on the next gen of consoles i would probably build a shed in the backyard exclusively for the game and then never come out from there again.

  • berelain #9 2 years ago

    I remember paying an absolute foprtune to get a hold of this game, but I never regretted it. I still whip out the mammoth controlle rand box every now and again, just to relive the experience of playing... yes, the visuals were iffy, the campaign exceptionally hard, and the controller itself... pure bliss. Yeah, the game could have worked on a control pad, but it wouldnt have been the same experience. Even the simple act of having to flick the switches to engage various boot systems, the fact that you had to flip open the cover of the ejector switch, the fact that your screen got dirty and needed wipers to clear it, fires broke out in your codckpit and had to be extinguished with a different switch... utter genius.

    My only regret is that I never got to try Line of Contact, and that noboy made any other games that used the incredibly well-made controller.

  • Fillem #10 2 years ago

    The largest LAN session I ever participated in was with three other players all crammed into a small living room, each with their own Xbox, TV and Steel Battalion controller.

    Pictures please :)

  • prettyboytim #11 2 years ago

    I still have my controller but sadly no longer have an xbox to play it on. *sigh*

  • Vordred #12 2 years ago

    i remember being really tempted to import one for the DC when it first came out. but sadly never did

  • corpsicle #13 2 years ago

    Not that it ever existed for DC, but ah well.

  • lucky_jim #14 2 years ago

    Vordred- perhaps you're confusing this with Virtual On? Steel Battalion only came out on the original Xbox.

    I really wanted this when it came out, I had the money put aside and everything, but I was put off by the reviews. I still think it was the right decision, but that controller is amazing. If I remember rightly, didn't the eject button have one of those caps over it that you had to flip up before you could press the button? That's wonderful attention to detail.

  • corpsicle #15 2 years ago

    Wanna hear a story ?
    I ordered SB from NCSX when it was released, with ground shipping it would take maximum 6 weeks and still be here a month or two before EU release.
    However, after 10 weeks i started calling around, and to cut a long story short it was the shipping company in sweden that had got the address wrong, so it was shipped back to US. >_<
    I got my money back from NCSX and decided to order from amazon UK instead since it was near EU release anyway, and to my fantastic delight they did something wrong and shipped it to me for the shipping price of a normal game. =)

  • TruSmiles #16 2 years ago

    I saw a copy of this and the controller in the shop window of GameStation once for £99. It stayed there for weeks, and every time we walked by, we debated getting it. I really wish we had, always wanted to try it!

  • Toothball #17 2 years ago

    @TruSmiles

    There was one in the window of my local Gamestation for ages. Sadly all that time on display caused the box to fade. A friends who works there told me it was still there a while back, hidden away in storage.

    I got mine fresh when Line of Contact came out. Didn't get very far with it, but really enjoyed the progress I did make. There's a moment when you finally get your head around managing your direction of movement, the direction of the camera and the direction you're aiming your guns. It started to all makes sense after that, and suddenly you were able to leg it across the battlefield shooting at enemy robots while also checking that you weren't about to be ambushed. At that point it became a joy to play, even if you were still getting shot to pieces. I did manage to persuade a friend to cart his Xbox and controller over once for a one on one match. We spent ten minutes wandering around the map unable to find each other. It was good fun though.

    Sadly though I lost the allen key somewhere along the line. Not a major loss, but it made me a little sad still.

  • jmcflash #18 2 years ago

    Oh man I remember touring the country trying to find one of these on release, ending up in Huddersfield (I live in Derby ;o) at a tiny Gamestation buying one then struggling to fit the huge box back in my car :(

    The online in small games (3v3 at most) wasn't so laggy, I remember being very lucky to bump into all the guys from OXM - They must of had the game for a fair bit longer than me as their VTs were so ace! Got into close combat with Monobrow thinking my little cattleprod stick thing would do some damage, only for me to learn a harsh scary lesson about the Jackal C and its extendable chainsaw :(

    From the article, I'm a little saddened that there was no mention of the instruction manual that came with SB and the sear amazing amount of detail that it would go into about the structure and mechanisms behind each VT; none of these cruddy flaps of paper with the controls printed on the inside like so many games today have.

  • coolbritannia #19 2 years ago

    Everyone in here loving this game gets maximum kudos from me, this was for me the highlight of my gaming career. The article doesn't really do justice to the depth of tactical wizadry that was possible with the controller. eg ina Live match, I was in a 1st gen lowly mech, being pursued by all 3 of the enemy team. I was running at speed, the last team member alive on my side, through woods, with the enemy gaining.

    As a last ditch effort I legged myself over and powered down (the enemy targeting systems didn't work against a powered down mech). While the screen and gauges go dark when powered down, you can still hear the big mech footsteps coming towards you, so after the footsteps started to fade, I chanced it and powered up.

    To my unbelievable joy, I must have been hidden by the trees as all 3 enemy mechs were right in front of me, facing the other way (they must have walked within inches of my V.T), so i opened fire with grenades and cannons (the lag busting weapons) and managed to take all 3 down just as the last guy got a fix on me.

    My most epic victory, I love this game.

  • Sunyavadin #20 2 years ago

    A box sat on the shelf of one of my local stores for about a week. I nearly cried every day I went in there as I was on the dole, so couldn't afford it. In the end someone could.

    I'm amazed there's not been a 360 remake. The XBox always had low market penetration, the 360 has massively higher sales than it did. And games with massive expensive peripherals are the best sellers nowadays.

  • raion #21 2 years ago

    sigh. I wanted this game so much. but I could never allow myself to spend all that money on a single game (and the console iself for just that game) so I never bought it. and I'm regretting it since.
    I should have bought the game, the console, a big tv, a surround system a comfy chair and given them a dedicated room without windows named "the mech room". shame on me and my responsible behaviour.

  • Clive_Dunn #22 2 years ago

    I bought this online, and missed the delivery. No car so I walked down to the post office to collect, only about a mile and a half. The walk back nearly killed me.

  • TRUTH #23 2 years ago

    I heard Mech Warrior is coming to the 360...Lets hope it's not a dumbed down action game. Strategy is what makes Mech games fun.

  • Dyason #24 2 years ago

    Definitely one of the highlights of my gaming career. I remember being on the SB forums and spending hours playing and discussing this game. The online sequel was a great idea but a huge letdown for anyone outside of Japan. The broadband here barely did matches better than 2v2 but even they were great. I'm shocked that to this day there's not been a USB driver created for it on PC. Think how awesome some homebrew PC games would be for it!

  • JohnnyWashnGo #25 2 years ago

    Great article.

  • berelain #26 2 years ago

    who are the numbnuts going around minussing absolutely every single post in this tread? -_-

    Lucky_jim - yeah, the ejector switch was hidden under a flip-up cover. Build quality on the controller was awesome throughout.

  • Tyronne #27 2 years ago

    picked this up at a carboot sale for 25 quid.

    bargain.

  • penhalion #28 2 years ago

    Blows dust from controller...oh yea the engine start sequence buttons.....stalling a battle mech...heh *wipes nostalgic tear from eye*

  • kingscouser #29 2 years ago

    The guy who designed the joystick actually wanted the plastic casing over the eject button to be made from glass,but Capcom rejected the idea due to health and safety.
    I was lucky enough to buy this game at launch,along with a gameboy advance sp which came out the same day in the uk,
    i will never forget having the choice to play a game on a console that can fit in your pocket,or to play a game with a controller
    so big you have to sit it on a table.

  • zubnut #30 2 years ago

    This is one of the few games that deserves a next-gen remake. Would be fantastic in proper 3D too...
    I was lucky enough to get hold of Line of contact at launch (as missed out on getting the first one), and managed to get my arse well and truly handed to me every time I ventured online.
    But it was great fun, and is still the most immersive online game I have ever played. The start up sequence, the small window, the weighty feeling of your VT- it was sheer genius.

  • Dr_Wadd #31 2 years ago

    I pre-orded this at my local EB quite some time before release. A friend of mine knew that I was on good terms with the manager of that branch. When I was on my way in to collect he phoned the store and persuaded the staff to pretend that they hadn`t been allocated all of their stock and would have to refund my desposit. To his credit, tha manager maintained his bluff very well, but decided it was best to come clean when he said the look on my face made him think I was reaching the limit of my ability to remain calm. I did *not* want to miss getting this.

    And as for an inconspicuous place to hide the controller, the joystick section of mine is proudly on display in my living room.

  • Birchy #32 2 years ago

    I had to use my ironing board to sit the controller on, Was the most use the ironing board ever got!

  • anephric #33 2 years ago

    This sat on the shelves in my local Another World (RIP) for months and no-one was buying at their price (something like £150 for the import version). I was a shiftless waster at the time and promised myself when I got a new job I'd buy it. So I did. And happily on that day Another World decided to knock some money off it too, so I got it for about £120.

    Happy times. My girlf got very annoyed that it was set up permanently on the coffee table. Such are the trials of living with a twat.

  • coolbritannia #34 2 years ago

    Ah yes, I purchased steel batallion 2, splinter cell 2, and a crystal xbox all on the same day. What a walk home that was!

  • optimusprym8 #35 2 years ago

    This game was teh awesome - I love the video that surfaced not so long ago of the VJ using a modded SB controller in clubs

    http://ww w.mechadamashii.com/news/news-v...
    Edited by 1 at 11/01/10 @ 09:29

  • FortysixterUK #36 2 years ago

    Ironically, this game would be amazing now. Xbox live is rock solid, and connection quality is more reliable than ever.
    My controller and both games are still languishing in my loft since the days the servers were taken off line ( was it less that a year after the launch of SB2?).
    It would be nice for a new SB to be released with an adaptor for the existing controller to play on Xbox 360.
    Of course, that is NEVER, EVER going to happen...so. now, like all old generation consoles/hardware/games, the immensely expensive controller become virtually worthless, and the games will fetch a quid each at Game on trade in.
    Sod that, I'll leave 'em in the loft for the next 40 years, let the grandchildren find them and let them think there was some massive cyber war they never got told about at school.....

  • busboy33 #37 2 years ago

    God, memories . . .

    One of the most immersive soundtracks I've ever heard in a game. They perfectly replicated the sound of playing a cheap ass tape recorder you have stuffed under your chair. It really sounded like you had snuck a tape player into your VT and hidden the damn thing under your seat so Sarge wouldn't find it. Flat, muffled, mono, bad propaganda music . . it sounded so bad it was great.

    When you finished a 30-minute fight in SB, you FELT like you really just got done driving a big god-damn tank.

  • abcd #38 2 years ago

    I never forget that day I walked in GAME and spotted the hefty box on the floor. Immediately I decided that the game will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

    First things first I had to have the appropriate equipment in the games room. So I nicked a table from work. The controller and foot pedals was such an amazing experience, and I found that people I hardly ever spoke too wanted to visit out of the blue and try out the new super amazing feat of engineering. I was half tempted to charge people for having a go.

    The average survival rate for beginners was about 3-5 minutes, and everyone stalled the mech on the first attempt. I managed to get to level 5, and could go no further.

    Sadly the dream died as the frustration of setting up the controller just to play the game got too much. The old beast had to go. I stuck it on ebay and made a profit of £30. There was certainly a tear in the eye when I said goodbye to the ole girl, and I'm half tempted to track another copy down.

    Such precious memories that I'll always remember.

  • Shadders #39 2 years ago

    I remember picking this up day one and taking it to college where I'd arranged to set it up in an auditorium on a 12 foot projector screen, the bass was so powerful in there that the desk shook with every step of the mech.

    Oh yes, that was gaming nirvana.

  • fredrikpj #40 2 years ago

    Didn't they release pc drivers for this beast? You just need a xbox -> pc wire converter.
    Would be cool once the new mechwarrior gets released to use the controller again :)

  • memeroot #41 2 years ago

    great game but took an age for my girlfriend to give me the time to get into it.... sadly my old xbox has died and this now gathers dust... any way to play it on the 360?

  • symmetry #42 2 years ago

    Absolutley loved this game. An update for the 360 would be fantastic as I now have the space and finances to afford it.

  • ntrs #43 2 years ago

    Hi SB is still run also in LAN near Paris, here a video of last year LAN 5 versus 5 (10 is a maximum lan, in fact 12 pads where present)

    http://ww w.dailymotion.com/video/xbv0ib_...

    a next one is this saturday all the night near Paris

    long live to still battalion

  • Quest #44 2 years ago

    The community is still active for those who want to join us on line. Normally you can catch one of us on line daily. We would love to see some of you dust off your xboxes, controllers and come join us. The excitement is still off the chain