Metal Head (1995). Play online

Summary

Metal Head slams you into the cockpit of a heavily armed mech, and the 32X’s texture‑mapped 3‑D polygons give the city‑scape a surprising level of depth for its era. The on‑screen HUD is a futuristic control panel: a power‑gauge with a percentage shows health, a countdown timer ticks beside it, and icons reveal the current weapon and mission alerts, while a top‑right radar map tracks your mech as a triangle amid pulsating enemy blips. Designed for Sega’s 6‑button controller, you can toggle multiple camera angles to keep an eye on both ground targets and aerial foes. All the while, a pounding heavy‑metal soundtrack pushes the combat into over‑drive, matching the constant barrage of chain‑guns and missiles you fire. Environments range from charred city streets and bombed‑out farmland to scorched forests and bullet‑riddled suburbs, all squeezed into the game’s 24 MB cartridge. The result is a frantic, first‑person mech shooter that feels more like a kinetic concert of laser fire than a traditional console war game.

Storyline

Five years after the World Federation was founded, conflict still erupts across its member states. To enforce peace, the Federation Armed Forces – a branch of the Federation Police – develop fully‑armed, bipedal mechs known as Metal Heads, sparking a wave of militarization throughout the region.

A chaotic terrorist uprising breaks out, with rebels fielding their own Metal Heads and seizing control of an entire nation. The player, piloting a Metal Head, is dispatched with a squad to retake the occupied capital and crush the insurgents.

The mission begins in a modest border town, and the team must fight their way northward, clearing enemy strongholds until they finally breach the capital’s defenses.