@@yours_truly_ I will definitely be doing a RAD review down the road. I have a delisted review I did like a year ago, but I didn't know what I was doing and I think it needs a more comprehensive playthrough for a review then what I did there. As for the other one, I'll be adding that to my Trello immediately!
@@KeiNova it runs quite better than R.A.D, since the robots are smaller, though it loses the simulation aspect by simplifying the controls. It's an interesting case to check out.
While the lack of standardisation among mech games does make adoption more difficult, it also means that each new series is going to be a whole new experience
I owned a Saturn back in the day... Actually, I think it's still at my parents' house. It was so hard to get games for it back then. Only Toys-R-Us carried them and my local store didn't carry that many. This was pre-internet and buying a game was a complete gamble since none of the movie rental stores carried Saturn games either. I had no idea Gungriffon existed, but I'm working on a Mecha novel and this game might provide insight.
I remember that the only place I could get Saturn games was Zellers or pawn shops, so I know exactly what you mean! A mech novel sounds amazing, there needs to be more of those - though I've seen some great ones. I have more updated videos on this series, with more footage and a stronger more formulated opinion - if you're interested. I'm posting the last of the series tomorrow, and that'll be all four.
Absolutely love this game. My opinion, it was the best mech warfare game in its day and was way ahead of its time. And watching this now I think it has actually aged very well. I’m reminded of the manga patlabor series.
I feel like the original games definitely were way ahead of their time and it's a shame I only got to enjoy Blaze when it came out. The original Saturn games I still play for fun, it's a great set of excellent Mecha simulators that, while they are short, are just so fun and immersive to play. I wouldn't mind a rerelease of any of them, don't even need a remaster.
The fact that i had 0 idea what GunGriffon was, but ive been playing HIGH-MACS Simulator on and off all this time its insane. i mean HIGH MACS its the closest thing to my dream of a "Realistic as possible mech game" a mix between Armored Core and War Thunder
I'd say High-Macs Sim does have some features that I'd consider superior in a lot of ways to what was in the original series. But if you want more of that - definitely play these if you can!
My guy!!! I was literally just thinking about this game...I was thinking about making my own mech game because I miss this style of mech combat and milsim story telling. I played this sooo much as a kid. I typed Griffon Mech game into youtube and you are the first to pop up. Thank you for bringing this awesome game to light.
You are welcome! Glad you enjoyed the video and good luck with the game! If you happen to make it, maybe you'll end up seeing it on the channel one day.
A Japanese individual that goes by grape made a pc fangame called high-macs simulator that gets a lot of praise. Also some OG gungriffon devs had a failed kickstarter a month or so ago for a new mech game project called Project MBR. As of rn, they are still gonna go through with development. The early footage didn't look great and they have a small team, but it's still nice to see more mech games in development.
I'll have to check it out, would be nice to see the High-Macs III in something again :) I'm going to look both of these up, thank you for the information!
Nice video!! I've only played Blaze myself, but hearing that the more arcadey elements are mostly exclusive to that entry makes me wanna try the others sometime, as that was my biggest gripe with the game. It's weird, but what you said about Allied Strike almost makes me wanna check it out first lmao
My favorites are probably the first two, but Allied Strike was just a little too focused on strategy and closer quarters. Playing them all side to side, it was certainly the weakest and all - but I definitely think its not too bad a game, just the worst of these four. I'd love to hear what you think of it!
i remember playing this back in the day, actually i still have the game to this very day. I play some i haven't played in over a decade! often go back to my PS2 collection when i have spare time , and very fun game from the mighty PS2 console hahahaha
Yeah Blaze was okay, it was just very bare. In comparison to the other games, it was a little weak but I admit it holds a special place for me. I went back and did longer videos on all of these games - if you're interested!
Thank you for showing this one. I’m not a console gamer, so I had no idea this existed. It is interesting to see how this compares to something like the gameplay in Mechassault a few years later.
@@KeiNova I've used it since 98, I needed an Email when I was 12 and the game was at my feet. I miss spelled it though lol but it's always available. I've used it now for 25 years.
Gungriffon on Saturn is still in my top 3 mecha game of all time, those were insane times for a mecha fan who had an opportunity to play it. the rest were ok but holy hell that first one was a revelation.
It really was special and only Gungriffon 2 and High Macs Simulator came close. I don't think this review did these games justice and I'll be starting a whole new round of doing them individually again this year, hope to see you around
I think it was along the lines of Sega games trying to be Arcade at Home experiences, so it was more focused on being a fun game than long or anything.
Man, I remember playing Allied Strike and just getting stuck on Mission 2 or 3. No matter what approach or angle or whatever I took the enemies just absolutely wrecked my shit. Hearing you say that yeah, this game is a bit jank and definitely has the flimsiest mechs in the series reaffirms my memory. I will also blame it a bit on me being kind of a scrub, but I dunno...I played both mech and mecha games before, and Allied Strike seemed fairly difficult or unfair as far as those go. Maybe Blaze will be more my thing.
Allied Strike was unbelievably difficult. I really should have tried to record more footage, because I don't feel I said enough here. Blaze was really fluid and fast, its controls seemed to work perfectly in my opinion. Maybe you're right, you'll perhaps enjoy that?
Update- Play the new Armored Core for the Xbox Series X and or PS5..it is a mech game that has enjoyable movement in a mech game. Yes, it technically tosses realism out of the window but man is it fast and fun. It's the true evolution of mecha games we have all been waiting for.
I don't know why I never heard of this, at the time of this game my only exposure to a game like this was Chromehounds. And even though we never got a second Chromehounds, FromSoftware, the people that made it got it's supposed "spiritual successor" in the Armored Core series
One of my favourite Series wohoo ! I recommend Overblood 2 next (if you‘re into unknown games) also hyper obscure and has some Deus Ex stuff like freeze/vaporize water, fire extinguishers, hookshots and a hillariously bad/funny story while having amazing presentstion.
Pawn shops over the years! I've owned Gungriffon Blaze twice. A long time ago, retro games weren't worth anything at all, so I got the majority of these for a couple dollars.
I THOUGHT NOBODY PLAYED THIS GAME BUT ME! i have literally never seen this game's name come up in anything except for conversations where i told people about it
Good games, and I'm going to be covering both versions down the road. But those were made by Panther Software and the Gungriffon games are a separate series by Game Arts.
@@AeroshogunThat's awesome, thanks for watching this video though! I really thought it wasn't a fleshed out opinion so I redid every game and the final video is released tomorrow.
@@KeiNovaI haven’t heard this take before and I’m curious to hear more about what you feel makes a mech simulation. In what ways does the Mechwarrior series miss the mark as a simulation? In what ways does GunGriffon nail the simulation aspect?
@KeiNova MW5 is fine. Certainly not as good as it can be, but PGI is relatively small and trying to please Microsoft monetary wise. MW5C releases this year, and it seems even better than MW5 in terms of technical ways.
Gyngriffon 2 - Too bad there will never be an English version of this, but it's a mech game and fan translators absolutely will not touch mech games. Ever. I'm not sure why, they just won't.
Believe it or not, there is a fan translation of GunGriffon 2. I did check it out, but when I made this video it hadn't dropped just yet. I'm honestly thinking about re-doing this retrospective with a bigger and fuller opinion this upcoming year and giving the games more attention. I think you are generally right though, they do not like touching them at all. It's a shame because there are so many JP only Mech games that really need a translation.
@@KeiNova Cool, I've made a note of the GG2 translation for the future. :) When I bring up the subject of mech games not being translated, I'm usually told that they're mostly action games and you don't need to be able to read the text to play them. However, without being able to understand the mission briefings, how do I know if I'm just supposed to kill all the enemies, concentrate on the capital ships, protect friendly units, etc? And when a mission fails, it would be nice to be able to understand WHY it failed. A while back, I decided that I was going to figure out to play Mobile Suit Gundam: Perfect One Year War for the PS1. It's a strategy war game, so I reasoned that I'd be able to figure it out.I was very wrong! Half the options don't seem to do anything at all, and while I was able to blunder my way through the first map, which only has a couple enemies, it then goes to screens with tons of options, all leading to more screens of options. Then I got the idea to screenshot some of the text and run it through an OCR program so that it could be translated. I tried doing the text on the Options button on the main menu, since I knew what that one did. OCR was an utter failure wanting me to select between a dozen almost identical characters. And even when one OCR website seemed to recognize them itself, trying to translate the result just gave nonsense like Mechanical Flower. :(
Definitely a 'holy grail' item for me, but right now I don't really have the $500-800 I'd need to get something like that. It'd be a amazing review though, I know that.
@Kei-Nova If you happen to live in the bay area California I'm part of a group that runs local Steel Battalion game nights where we do local 4v4 matches
@@expsharevideogames Sadly, I'm about 6 hours away in the mid-west! That would certainly be legendary, I'll have to keep you in mind if I ever happen to go that way. Thats amazing you and your group are keeping that game alive. Now, we just need a ChromeHounds private server group haha.
@@KeiNova .....hmmm...it was a relatively long comment on holding the current world record for GG2 on hard mode and the scores posted on sega extreme under JDE. The vid of level one GG2 recorded to DVD is on my channel....
How are you all liking the new videos? 🤖
Thanks for covering mech games!
Awesome! I would love to watch your take on Sandlot mechs like R.A.D or Tetsujin-28 from the Playstation 2
@@jessenmarciel You are very welcome 😁
@@yours_truly_ I will definitely be doing a RAD review down the road. I have a delisted review I did like a year ago, but I didn't know what I was doing and I think it needs a more comprehensive playthrough for a review then what I did there. As for the other one, I'll be adding that to my Trello immediately!
@@KeiNova it runs quite better than R.A.D, since the robots are smaller, though it loses the simulation aspect by simplifying the controls. It's an interesting case to check out.
While the lack of standardisation among mech games does make adoption more difficult, it also means that each new series is going to be a whole new experience
Totally, and thats why I love these games :P Thats why I review so many mech games.
I owned a Saturn back in the day... Actually, I think it's still at my parents' house. It was so hard to get games for it back then. Only Toys-R-Us carried them and my local store didn't carry that many. This was pre-internet and buying a game was a complete gamble since none of the movie rental stores carried Saturn games either. I had no idea Gungriffon existed, but I'm working on a Mecha novel and this game might provide insight.
I remember that the only place I could get Saturn games was Zellers or pawn shops, so I know exactly what you mean! A mech novel sounds amazing, there needs to be more of those - though I've seen some great ones. I have more updated videos on this series, with more footage and a stronger more formulated opinion - if you're interested. I'm posting the last of the series tomorrow, and that'll be all four.
Absolutely love this game. My opinion, it was the best mech warfare game in its day and was way ahead of its time. And watching this now I think it has actually aged very well. I’m reminded of the manga patlabor series.
I feel like the original games definitely were way ahead of their time and it's a shame I only got to enjoy Blaze when it came out. The original Saturn games I still play for fun, it's a great set of excellent Mecha simulators that, while they are short, are just so fun and immersive to play. I wouldn't mind a rerelease of any of them, don't even need a remaster.
It is truly amazing to see something like this on the saturn. The developers must have had very intimate knowledge of the hardware.
It was actually made with the Grandia engine. To test it before releasing Grandia!
The fact that i had 0 idea what GunGriffon was, but ive been playing HIGH-MACS Simulator on and off all this time its insane. i mean HIGH MACS its the closest thing to my dream of a "Realistic as possible mech game" a mix between Armored Core and War Thunder
I'd say High-Macs Sim does have some features that I'd consider superior in a lot of ways to what was in the original series. But if you want more of that - definitely play these if you can!
A few days after release of this video a fan made translation patch for GunGriffon 2 was released.
I HIGHLY suggest playing auch.
I'm going to be checking it out this week! I heard all about it and I'm pretty excited to get back into the game.
My guy!!! I was literally just thinking about this game...I was thinking about making my own mech game because I miss this style of mech combat and milsim story telling. I played this sooo much as a kid. I typed Griffon Mech game into youtube and you are the first to pop up. Thank you for bringing this awesome game to light.
You are welcome! Glad you enjoyed the video and good luck with the game! If you happen to make it, maybe you'll end up seeing it on the channel one day.
A Japanese individual that goes by grape made a pc fangame called high-macs simulator that gets a lot of praise.
Also some OG gungriffon devs had a failed kickstarter a month or so ago for a new mech game project called Project MBR. As of rn, they are still gonna go through with development. The early footage didn't look great and they have a small team, but it's still nice to see more mech games in development.
I'll have to check it out, would be nice to see the High-Macs III in something again :)
I'm going to look both of these up, thank you for the information!
Nice video!!
I've only played Blaze myself, but hearing that the more arcadey elements are mostly exclusive to that entry makes me wanna try the others sometime, as that was my biggest gripe with the game.
It's weird, but what you said about Allied Strike almost makes me wanna check it out first lmao
My favorites are probably the first two, but Allied Strike was just a little too focused on strategy and closer quarters. Playing them all side to side, it was certainly the weakest and all - but I definitely think its not too bad a game, just the worst of these four. I'd love to hear what you think of it!
Thanks for covering these games. Never would have heard of them if not for you.
I'm really glad I could help you discover some new games!
i remember playing this back in the day, actually i still have the game to this very day. I play some i haven't played in over a decade! often go back to my PS2 collection when i have spare time , and very fun game from the mighty PS2 console hahahaha
Yeah Blaze was okay, it was just very bare. In comparison to the other games, it was a little weak but I admit it holds a special place for me. I went back and did longer videos on all of these games - if you're interested!
What impresses me most about this is that it runs at an acceptable framerate... somehow
You should check out my newer updated reviews if you want a better and fuller opinion on the games. Thanks for the comment!
Another killer retrospective!
Thank you so much!
Thank you for showing this one. I’m not a console gamer, so I had no idea this existed. It is interesting to see how this compares to something like the gameplay in Mechassault a few years later.
Thank you! I have more updated videos on all of these games, if you're interested. It's a wonderful series, truly.
@@KeiNova I just spent the last 24 hours binging your videos. Wow! You have created a gold mine here with all of your hard work! Thank you!🙏
MY FAVORITE SATURN GAME!
Love the name, and I'm starting to think it may be mine as well.
@@KeiNova I've used it since 98, I needed an Email when I was 12 and the game was at my feet. I miss spelled it though lol but it's always available.
I've used it now for 25 years.
That's awesome! Sadly, people have widely forgotten about these games. They definitely need more consideration.
Also idk if you know that already, but there is very cool doujin/indie game inspired by early Gungriffon games. Its called High-Macs Simulator.
I've heard of it, I need to check it out.
Thank you for revisiting this classic series! Good upload!
Not a problem! I hope to revisit a few more as time goes on!
@@KeiNova the first two games in the series were the best and were never matched by their successors. It's a crying shame.
Thank you for an informative look at this series. I was in a resale and wasn’t familiar with this series.
Really appreciate your work.
Thank you so much.
If you pick up the games, I'm sure you'll enjoy.
Gungriffon on Saturn is still in my top 3 mecha game of all time, those were insane times for a mecha fan who had an opportunity to play it. the rest were ok but holy hell that first one was a revelation.
It really was special and only Gungriffon 2 and High Macs Simulator came close. I don't think this review did these games justice and I'll be starting a whole new round of doing them individually again this year, hope to see you around
8:09 the cool thing of "survival" is that you can play as any vehicle as helicopter etc.
I found that out later, when I played the english patch. I really need to redo all these old reviews.
GUNGRIFFON WOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Totally wooo.
I think with the saturns version it was ment to be a rented game. It explains the fact its so short as well as the score board.
I think it was along the lines of Sega games trying to be Arcade at Home experiences, so it was more focused on being a fun game than long or anything.
Man, I remember playing Allied Strike and just getting stuck on Mission 2 or 3. No matter what approach or angle or whatever I took the enemies just absolutely wrecked my shit.
Hearing you say that yeah, this game is a bit jank and definitely has the flimsiest mechs in the series reaffirms my memory. I will also blame it a bit on me being kind of a scrub, but I dunno...I played both mech and mecha games before, and Allied Strike seemed fairly difficult or unfair as far as those go.
Maybe Blaze will be more my thing.
Allied Strike was unbelievably difficult. I really should have tried to record more footage, because I don't feel I said enough here. Blaze was really fluid and fast, its controls seemed to work perfectly in my opinion. Maybe you're right, you'll perhaps enjoy that?
このゲーム⋆͛🎮⋆͛はセガサターンが未だに現役で時々遊びます。 やり込み要素満載のシュミレーターで、操縦は高速機動中に上半身を戦車砲塔の様に旋回させ､偏差射撃が出来る様になると、非常に面白くなりました。 自分は２の操作感が、節度ある動きをしてくれて好きです。又、新型砲弾VTGは使い易さで航空機、敵戦車、敵ロボットの撃破を容易にしてくれました。
I like Blaze the unlockables are great but I do wish I had the two Saturn versions
Yeah, they are really something to behold. Blaze is more of a remake.
Update- Play the new Armored Core for the Xbox Series X and or PS5..it is a mech game that has enjoyable movement in a mech game. Yes, it technically tosses realism out of the window but man is it fast and fun. It's the true evolution of mecha games we have all been waiting for.
Beat that the first week it was out and did a review!
I don't know why I never heard of this, at the time of this game my only exposure to a game like this was Chromehounds. And even though we never got a second Chromehounds, FromSoftware, the people that made it got it's supposed "spiritual successor" in the Armored Core series
How can Armored Core be a spiritual successor for Chromehounds if it predates it for almost a decade?
Just found your channel. Love your content!
Thank you so much!
One of my favourite Series wohoo !
I recommend Overblood 2 next (if you‘re into unknown games) also hyper obscure and has some Deus Ex stuff like freeze/vaporize water, fire extinguishers, hookshots and a hillariously bad/funny story while having amazing presentstion.
I am currently playing through Relayer for this week, but I do have an interest in the Overblood games. Might be fun to check them out soon!
@@KeiNova I‘ll stick around, have fun! :)
If i recall correctly the guy who was the main creative drive behind gungriffon died in a car accident.
He did pass away, I'm not sure what from exactly. I made sure to mention this in my follow up videos I did on Gungriffon.
I don't know if it is because of my display, but the strong scanline effect was disturbing to the point that I couldn't look at it more than 20seconds
Sorry to hear that
Damn, where the hell you managed to find all these games. Never even heard of them before!!!! My childhood is tragic. 😂
Pawn shops over the years! I've owned Gungriffon Blaze twice. A long time ago, retro games weren't worth anything at all, so I got the majority of these for a couple dollars.
@@KeiNova hope to see more sci Fi games review from you. I wanted to play these old games and see what I am missing but avoid the bad ones.
@@ringring8938 My whole channel is about scifi games, so you are in luck :)
I THOUGHT NOBODY PLAYED THIS GAME BUT ME! i have literally never seen this game's name come up in anything except for conversations where i told people about it
I've played them all! I probably should make a better review though.
@@KeiNova Don't be so hard on yourself, it was a good video!
There used to be a pretty fun fan remake called High Macs Simulator. IDK if it's still a thing though.
It is and I'll be checking it out soon as I can!
Sweet Vid 👍
Thank you :)
Real robot is what best describes High macs (the ones that the player controls), whereas the regular awgs`s are just plain mechs.
HIGH-MACS are 2nd Generation AWGS units :) They are still AWGS, just more advanced.
I could never beat suez once the aces showed up on blaze
The game is really difficult, I agree.
It was called space griffon v7-9 and came out on the Dreamcast in Japan
Good games, and I'm going to be covering both versions down the road. But those were made by Panther Software and the Gungriffon games are a separate series by Game Arts.
Have you tried HIGH-MACS simulator? It's a really good Gun Griffon clone for PC.
Yes I have and I even made a video on it for the channel.
@@KeiNova alright. YT just recommended your channel so I’m new to your content.
@@AeroshogunThat's awesome, thanks for watching this video though! I really thought it wasn't a fleshed out opinion so I redid every game and the final video is released tomorrow.
Do you know what happened to the studio, I can't find any information on them
The head of Game Arts died when he was 45 and they disbanded. It led to the loss of a lot of iconic and interesting series.
I would love a more "technical" mech sim beeing revamped.
So would I!
Robots are cool
Extremely cool.
wait, he knows Mechwarrior 5 came out, right?
Who? Me? MW5, I don't really know about that being a king of simulation. Most people feel it's one of the worst of the MW series.
@@KeiNovaI haven’t heard this take before and I’m curious to hear more about what you feel makes a mech simulation. In what ways does the Mechwarrior series miss the mark as a simulation? In what ways does GunGriffon nail the simulation aspect?
@KeiNova MW5 is fine. Certainly not as good as it can be, but PGI is relatively small and trying to please Microsoft monetary wise. MW5C releases this year, and it seems even better than MW5 in terms of technical ways.
You’ve missed one,there was one set in space that was only released in japan
That's not part of the Gungriffon series, sadly. It's a good game, but not part of this.
Gyngriffon 2 - Too bad there will never be an English version of this, but it's a mech game and fan translators absolutely will not touch mech games. Ever. I'm not sure why, they just won't.
Believe it or not, there is a fan translation of GunGriffon 2. I did check it out, but when I made this video it hadn't dropped just yet. I'm honestly thinking about re-doing this retrospective with a bigger and fuller opinion this upcoming year and giving the games more attention. I think you are generally right though, they do not like touching them at all. It's a shame because there are so many JP only Mech games that really need a translation.
@@KeiNova Cool, I've made a note of the GG2 translation for the future. :)
When I bring up the subject of mech games not being translated, I'm usually told that they're mostly action games and you don't need to be able to read the text to play them. However, without being able to understand the mission briefings, how do I know if I'm just supposed to kill all the enemies, concentrate on the capital ships, protect friendly units, etc? And when a mission fails, it would be nice to be able to understand WHY it failed.
A while back, I decided that I was going to figure out to play Mobile Suit Gundam: Perfect One Year War for the PS1. It's a strategy war game, so I reasoned that I'd be able to figure it out.I was very wrong! Half the options don't seem to do anything at all, and while I was able to blunder my way through the first map, which only has a couple enemies, it then goes to screens with tons of options, all leading to more screens of options. Then I got the idea to screenshot some of the text and run it through an OCR program so that it could be translated. I tried doing the text on the Options button on the main menu, since I knew what that one did. OCR was an utter failure wanting me to select between a dozen almost identical characters. And even when one OCR website seemed to recognize them itself, trying to translate the result just gave nonsense like Mechanical Flower. :(
Hope you cover Steel Battalion
Definitely a 'holy grail' item for me, but right now I don't really have the $500-800 I'd need to get something like that. It'd be a amazing review though, I know that.
@Kei-Nova If you happen to live in the bay area California I'm part of a group that runs local Steel Battalion game nights where we do local 4v4 matches
@@expsharevideogames Sadly, I'm about 6 hours away in the mid-west! That would certainly be legendary, I'll have to keep you in mind if I ever happen to go that way. Thats amazing you and your group are keeping that game alive. Now, we just need a ChromeHounds private server group haha.
Check out Hi-Macs simulator.
I've been looking for that one online, I found a JP one - would that happen to be it?
@@KeiNova Yes, it's fan-made Gungriffon game
p.s. anyone loves VOTOMS? XD
I still need to watch it, honestly.
comments?
Sorry?
@@KeiNova Main comment may be held in your "to be approved" department backslash section because i put a link to sega extreme in it maybe??
No, I just checked. I didn't get anything. Do you want to relink me what you sent?
@@KeiNova .....hmmm...it was a relatively long comment on holding the current world record for GG2 on hard mode and the scores posted on sega extreme under JDE.
The vid of level one GG2 recorded to DVD is on my channel....
@@JDVHS I have no idea why it didn't show up! I'll go over and check it out now.
How is it the King of mech sims when it has less sim than Mechwarrior and Heavy Gear, and way way way less sim than Steel Battallion?
Play the games, and you might find out. 😁
Play only ps2 game
The PS2 game is still pretty good!
King of mech simulation?
Steel Battalion and Mechwarrior don't exist, I guess.
Your opinion is certainly valid.