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MechWarrior 2: Arcade Combat Edition for PlayStation 1
MechWarrior 2: Arcade Combat Edition for PlayStation 1 puts you in a BattleMech cockpit during the struggle between Clan Wolf and Clan Jade Falcon. You choose a war machine, read the briefing and head onto a three-dimensional battlefield. Lasers, missiles and other weapons each have their own range and uses. You decide which available weapon variant to take and can organise weapons into groups, allowing a single attack to fire several systems together.
Heat remains important even in this action-focused console version. Sustained firing can overheat your machine; a short cooling break prevents it from shutting down in the middle of a fight. Each mission's weight limit restricts which BattleMech you can deploy. On the battlefield you find temporary advantages such as invincibility and a higher firing rate. These give you an opening to press an attack, but you still need to watch incoming fire and your mission objectives.
The two clans have 48 campaign missions between them, including sixteen additional console scenarios. There are also six training exercises and Instant Action for a standalone battle. You play alone with a standard PlayStation controller; a special joystick is not required. With a PlayStation memory card, progress is saved automatically after a successfully completed mission, not at an arbitrary point during combat. Without a card, you can write down the password on the debriefing screen to access previously completed missions again.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 1 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
MechWarrior 2: Arcade Combat Edition for PlayStation 1 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of MechWarrior 2: Arcade Combat Edition
Activision released the original MechWarrior 2 on PC in 1995. The game used the BattleTech universe, where warring clans deploy enormous walking war machines. The PlayStation release followed in 1997 under the name Arcade Combat Edition. That addition describes a genuine difference: on console, the emphasis shifted towards faster shooting, button-based controls and battlefield bonuses. The PC game and this PlayStation version therefore share a setting, but not simply every rule and feature.
The console campaigns retained Clan Wolf and Clan Jade Falcon as separate sides of the conflict. Each clan received a main sequence of sixteen missions and two shorter sequences of four. That added sixteen console scenarios to the two original main campaigns. Six training exercises covered movement, weapon use and inspecting targets, among other things. Instant Action removed the storyline from the preparation: you chose a machine, planet and weapon variant to begin a battle directly.
These changes show how an extensive PC series was adapted for a console of the time. Here you choose available weapon variants and create firing groups, making preparation a matter of combining existing armament with the demands of your next assignment. Heat and maximum mission weight nevertheless remain recognisable BattleTech decisions. Automatic saving after successful missions and passwords support separate play sessions. This release does not contain PC network battles: the PlayStation 1 Arcade Combat Edition is a single-player adventure.
Similar games for PlayStation 1
Armored Core for PlayStation 1 also sends you on missions in an armed robot. There, you build your machine from individual heads, cores, arms, legs and weapons while carrying out corporate contracts as a mercenary. MechWarrior 2: Arcade Combat Edition lets you select a BattleMech and an available weapon variant within a mission's weight limit. Preparation and firepower are the common ground; the main difference is Armored Core's much freer construction from individual components.
Krazy Ivan for PlayStation 1 also puts you behind the sights of a large fighting machine. You cross regions of Earth, free prisoners and fight an alien invasion. Live-action scenes and the Russian pilot give that adventure a different tone. MechWarrior 2: Arcade Combat Edition revolves around the conflict between two BattleTech clans and their separate mission sequences. Both combine cockpit action with heavy weapons, but here heat and the choice of BattleMech demand additional attention.
Descent for PlayStation 1 shares the cockpit view, enemy machines and the search for routes through a three-dimensional environment. Your ship can rotate and move freely through mine tunnels, however; after destroying the reactor you must escape in time. In MechWarrior 2: Arcade Combat Edition you pilot a walking BattleMech across battlefields. You pursue different mission objectives and manage weapon heat. Floating through tunnels and walking in a heavy machine give you very different freedom of movement.
CyberSled for PlayStation 1 has armed vehicles manoeuvre around cover and fire at each other. Combat revolves around separate arenas and defeating the other pilot, with head-to-head battles on a split screen. MechWarrior 2: Arcade Combat Edition instead provides a solo campaign with briefings, clans and successive assignments. Both ask you to read an enemy vehicle's position, but a short arena match calls for a different approach from a mission with set objectives and weight limits.
Alien Trilogy for PlayStation 1 also uses a first-person view, different weapons and assignments you need to read beforehand. There, you walk through dark corridors as Ripley and watch a motion tracker, rather than piloting a BattleMech. MechWarrior 2: Arcade Combat Edition emphasises war machines, weapon variants and heat. Both make you weigh ammunition against danger, but Alien Trilogy's narrow passages and approaching aliens create a different sense of distance from the larger machines on a battlefield.
