Armored Warriors is an interesting game, being one of the latter Capcom arcade beat em ups and also one of the most polished. Capcom took what they learned worked about their previous brawlers and cut out what didn’t to create a true standout. The game never left the arcades during its heyday, and only saw a release on consoles in 2018 thanks to the Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle, and now everyone can enjoy it and see for themselves why it is so amazing. Armored Warriors is a mech based brawler and one of the most unique ever made. Capcom brought in Street Fighter style inputs to the game. and made the combat much more involved. Far from being a slow one or two button mash affair, you actually had a lot of options as to how you could attack enemies and defeat them.
The game went even further though, by allowing you to customize the mech via what items you choose to pick up. Different items will cause your mech to take a more defensive or offensive approach, and have more long range or short range attacks. You will also attack several soldier enemies not in mechs, and that goes as well as can be expected when you crush them all easily. This customization, and the various different characters you can choose, combine to give the game a lot of replay value in order to get the full experience.
There was an actual story here, and your actions during certain levels affected how the story would play out. Sometimes the game will switch to a gimmick stage such as trying to escape an area, and your success or failure will have an impact on how things go. People often criticize beat em ups as being monotonous, but Armored Warriors was anything but.as the game feels like Capcom was trying to prove something. The attacks have a real weight to them, and the impact can really be felt., and the visuals are also truly amazing in addition to the game being home to some great characters and bosses.
Nothing feels out of place here, even if the game does seem to slow down at some points. When the game gets going though, things get intense and you will be shocked that the game keeps going with more and more action no matter how many times you think the game has topped itself. While there was not a beat em up sequel, there was actually a follow-up game in the form of the fighting game Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness, but that is for another time.
If you can play this game on the bundle, I encourage you to do so, as the game is truly something special. You will not regret it. Otherwise, the game is also coming to Capcom Arcade Stadium on the Switch, along with Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness.
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