Armored Warriors
Armored Warriors (Powered Gear: Strategic Variant Armor Equipment in Japan) is a Beat'Em Up developed by Capcom and released in 1994.
In 2281, the Earth has been battling aliens from the planet of Raia and has only recently agreed to a ceasefire. One year has passed, and the the Raian capital "Melkide" has been seized by a unknown army. The Earth decides to help them out by sending in the Red Shield Unit to save Raia, but unknown to everyone involved, the true purpose of this war was to take over the planet Raia once the army was gone.
The pilots in the Red Shield Unit are the following:
- 1st Lt. Jeff Perkins, Code Name Rash. He pilots the AEX-10M Blodia. While Hot-Blooded, he's a gifted pilot despite lacking in actual battle experience.
- Captain Ray Turner, Code Name Justice. He pilots the SVA-6L Reptos. He's a solider bureaucrat who comes from the planet of Raia as a messenger of peace.
- Major Glenn Reed, Code Name Gray. He pilots is the AEX-10H Guldin. He's one of the few survivors of the Legendary "Squad of Death".
- 2nd Lt. Sarah White, Code Name Siren. She pilots the AEX-12J Fordy. She's half-French and half-Raian, and became the youngest Armored rookie in history at the age of 14.
What this Beat'Em Up has going for it is the ability to pick up different parts of destroyed mechas, such as their arms, legs and on-board weapons, although enemies can make you lose yours as well. If two or more people are playing, and you pick up a radio in the level, you can get a joint machine where you and your allies can become a Combining Mecha for a limited time during boss battles.
The game got a Spiritual Successor in the form of a Fighting Game called Cyberbots in 1995.
- Alien Invasion: Inverted, this time, Humans Are Bastards.
- Battleship Raid: The last stage.
- Bittersweet Ending: If you beat the game without using a continue, you learn that Earth manages to successfully invade and take over Raia.
- Bottomless Magazines: Only in shooting mode.
- Brain In a Jar: M-Brain: the Final Boss.
- Code Name: Your pilots are addressed this way. Their real names are in Attract Mode.
- Color Coded for Your Convenience:
- Blodia: The Hero and Jack of All Stats.
- Reptos: The Lancer and Fragile Speedster.[1]
- Guldin: The Big Guy and Mighty Glacier.
- Fordy: Kid Appeal Lightning Bruiser.[2]
- Combining Mecha: Only possible if two or three people are playing.
- Alpha Fortress: A Giant tank-like robot with drill arm and four cannons.
- Beta Cannon: A Robot with Turbo-Jet legs, two cannons and chainsaw arm.
- Gamma Battler: A Humanoid Robot with tail and two cannons.
- Frickin' Laser Beams: Laser Cannon. Some bosses, especially the last one, attack this way.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Power Knuckle. Your mechas start off with this by default.
- Humongous Mecha: Some of the bosses.
- Hyperactive Maintenance: Health pickups are in the form of gasoline and tools.
- Kill It with Fire: The Napalm and Flame weapons.
- Laser Blade: One of the weapons.
- Mecha Expansion Pack: All robots have the ability to change parts of body stealing parts of the enemy: Right Arm (Death Drill, Force Claw, Chain Spark, Laser Blade and Shield), Legs (Treads, Turbo Jet and Insectoid) and Cannon (Vulcan, BIT, Wide Range Missile, Homming Missile, Bomb, Flame and Laser).
- Mini-Mecha: What you're generally driving and fighting most of the time.
- Mission Control
- Recurring Boss: Azrael, the captain of the Raian army. You have to deal with him in three times in the game. He is the stage 1 boss, the stage 5 mid-boss and the stage 6 boss.
- Rewarding Vandalism: Smashing scenery usually yields items for points or health pickups.
- Second-Person Attack: Blodia does this to an enemy mecha in the intro.
- Shock and Awe: Chain Spark.
- The Smurfette Principle: Siren is the only selectable woman.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Justice is misspelled as Justis throughout the game. It's only spelled correctly in Attract Mode on the character profiles.
- The Stinger: Beating the game on one credit shows what your character is doing after the credits.
- Rash: after learning about the invasion of Raia that was unknowingly led by his unit, he gets angry, makes a sortie and never returns to the army. He races stock cars in L.A. now.
- Justice: he learns the true purpose of this mission he was on was so his home planet could be invaded by Earth forces. After being discharged from the army, he decides to spend time with his family and write a book on his experiences with his unit.
- Gray: He felt so guilty about his unit leading the invasion of Raia that he retires, and now becomes a popular gambler in Las Vegas.
- Siren: She refused to participate in any more missions after learning her unit led the invasion of Raia. She takes up skydiving as a new hobby.
- Stuff Blowing Up
- This Is a Drill: The power drill arm weapon. Turbo-Jet special attack and also Combining Mecha Alpha Fortress have a drill weapon.
- Twofer Token Minority: Siren is half French and half Raian.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Justice. Other Raian males have blue hair as well (the ladies have red).
