0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Armored Core Master of Arena

   

Armored Core Master of Arena (アーマード・コア マスターオブアリーナ) is the third entry in the Armored Core series and the final game to appear on the original Playstation, like the two previous entries in the series Master of Arena is a third person mecha shooter.

The game was developed by Japanese studio FromSoftware and was published by them for the Japanese release of the game on the 4^th of February 1998. The game also released in North America a full year later on the 29^th of February and was published by Agetec. In addition the game received a PSN release in Japan in late 2007.

Armored Core Master of Arena as you can probably tell from the title takes the Area section from the previous game Project Phantasma which was optional and makes it into an integral part of the game. Like previous games you still play out various missions in order to earn currency to buy new mech parts.

And like the previous game the save transfer feature is available for the player to transfer parts and funds from the previous game in order to help the player get going when starting a new game. Master of Arena is the first in the series to be split into two disc, the first contains the missions and the story based arena sections of the game.

The second disc contains the EX Arena, which is a large scale arena which allowed the player to face off against multiple opponents, in multiple arena. It was very used for the player to play this mode of the game as many secret parts could be unlocked by competing in EX Arena.

The main missions in the game are your usual destroy certain structures, and bases to battles against other mechs, the game features 27 new parts to help you customise your mech as well as hidden parts throughout the levels. In addition to the story and missions the game offers a 2 player split screen mode and link mode for two Playstations/tv’s.

The game is set in Isaac City, behind the scenes two massive corporations fight over control of the city and its population. During one of the many confrontations things go very wrong when many innocent civilians are drawn into the corporations conflict, resulting in many deaths.

One survivor a young man who has lost his entire family as a result of the two warring corporations decided to take action by hunting down the Armored Core pilot that killed his family. Simply known as Hustler One, the games protagonist must track down his pray, to do so he seeks to be recruited into the Raven’s Nest a mercenary organization that Hustler One is a part of.

Critically the game had a couple of peaks but over all the game generally reviewed average to above average, as usual though we will start with the best which comes from Absolute Playstation, who started their review round up with. The Armored Core series is one of those "either or love it or hate" type of titles for many gamers. Luckily it seems that as the series has progressed, AC has been picking up new fans along the way. Any way you look at it, the series as a whole has continued to improve with each successive AC game release.

Like the previous Armored Core games the review had plenty of praise for the customisation options on offer when it comes to building your mech to round up they had a very simple conclusion. Bottom line, if you liked the first two installments you will like this one as well…it's basically more of the same fun and enjoyment.

IGN were the next highest review for Master of Arena with an 80/100, calling it a good game and a definite improvement over its predecessor Project Phantasma, even with the ageing graphics there is enough here to still make it the fun and addictive experience, they also praised the series as a whole as being one that will be remembered as the Playstation hands over the torch to the PS2.

PSM were the next highest review with a pretty significant drop to a 70/100 with the review critical of the lack of graphical improvements while. GamePro who scored the game a 70/100 as well felt that the game was more of an expansion than a new entry in the series, they did say fans of the series will enjoy it however they concluded for most games Armored Cores day had passed.

At the other end of the review scale we find the 58/100 review from Gamers’ Republic who said if you are looking for an enhanced sequel you may as well wait for the superior looking PS2 game which is due out in the near future. They concluded by saying Like Project Phantasm before it, Master of Arena is more of an update than a whole new game, sure to please Armored Core faithful, but leave casual fans scratching their heads.

GameSpot also commented on the game seeming more like an add on like the previous game Project Phantasma concluding with Master of Arena provides new missions, arena opponents, and other assorted bits, but the interface, graphics, and overall feel are essentially the same in their 63/100 review.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who will give you $7 for your copy of Armored Core Master of Arena if you are looking to trade in, if on the other hand you are looking to buy a copy from Gamedude you will be looking at an outlay of $16.

Heading to Retrogames.co.uk next who sadly do not stock this title, no surprise really with this being a North America and Japanese only release. So quickly moving on to eStarland.com who have the game listed, but at the time of writing the game is currently out of stock. With a usual price ranging from $7.25 up to $14.50, eStarland also offer a trade in and will pay $6 for a copy of the game.

Finally on to Amazon.com where we find both the North American and Japanese versions of the game available, starting with the North American release first, and like the first in the series the cheapest copies currently on the market are incomplete ones, either disc only or missing either the case or manual.

For a complete copy you are looking at a minimum of $22.97 this is for a like new copy of the game several very good condition copies are around this price range as well with prices for a complete used copy in very good condition or better reaching a high of around $28

A single new copy of the game is currently on the market this will set you back $28.75 once you have added in the shipping costs you are looking at more like $33. Moving on now to the Japanese version of the game which is much more abundant with multiple copies in good or very good condition priced between $13.77 and the $20 mark several coming with free shipping as well.

For a new copy of the Japanese version of Armored Core Master of Arena this where the price really does shoot up, significantly over the North American release with a new copy starting at $67.02 and raising as high as $93.53.

Written by

P J Gibbon