Multiplayer

The single player portion of Metal Arms alone makes a solid game, and the multiplayer feature helps to round out the package. Up to four players can play split-screen multiplayer modes, most of which are of the classic deathmatch and domination variety. A mode unique to Metal Arms is Possession Melee, where players are armed only with control tethers and must rush to possess robots to do their killing for them. Things get very interesting when you have more players than possessable machines. Unfortunately, we can only imagine how well this would play out over Xbox Live as there’s no online play to speak of. (Imagine "Bot!" accusations at the literal level!)

Visuals

Some of the environments found in Metal Arms are simply massive. You really get the feeling that Glitch is just one little robot fighting in a big world. Frame rate suffers in large open environments or when there are many enemies on-screen. Perhaps in an effort to keep the frame rate running as high as possible, v-sync is disabled, causing tearing artifacts. Overall, though, the graphics are as nice as you’ll see for a multiplatform game. The visuals are consistent it style, but are varied enough to keep things from becoming too repetitive.

Audio

The music to accompany all the action is appropriate and positively contributes to the experience, though there won’t be any tunes you’ll still be humming after you’ve switched off your console. Sound effects are just what you would expect. The unexpected bit for us was the script and voice acting. Filled with personality and humor, the off-the-wall jokes and bleeped profanity at surprising moments add to the fun.

System shodown

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System is available on PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. All three versions are very similar, with the differences coming down to technical details. The PlayStation 2 version is the baseline with a playable but often inconsistent frame rate and the usual aliasing artifacts. As expected, the Xbox version looks the best with its more fluid and smoother graphics, with the GameCube not too far behind.

The Xbox’s 5.1 Dolby Digital wins out in terms of clarity, but the Dolby Pro Logic II in the other two get the job done.

The four controller ports on the GameCube and Xbox make it far more inviting for multiplayer matches, so keep that in mind if you plan to get more than one friend involved.