Ever heard or played “Metal Arms – Glitch in the System”? I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t. This game was created back in November 18, 2003!  Since it’s close to the end of the 2020 year, “Metal Arms” is going to be 17 years old! Younger gamers probably weren’t born yet – myself, the writer of this article, included!

So, what is this “Metal Arms – Glitch in the System”? This game is about robots, on the surface, but there is much more to it. Well… the back cover of the game says the following…:

“Dismantling the Enemy, One Bolt at a Time… Blast your way to victory as Glitch, the gunslinging, half-ton fearless bot of Droid City. Found as scrap metal, but transformed into destructive machinery, Glitch is determined to free his people from the evil clutches of General Corrosive and his maniacal army of Mil bots. Unleash a world of pain as you annihilate the General’s sinister plan to dominate the world, and savage the robot race!”

By this summary, parts of the game are already exposed. You play as Glitch, the gunslinging, half-ton fearless bot of a robot city called “Droid City”. The antagonist is General Corrosive, alongside with his Mil robots – Mil being a type of robot. And throughout the game, you will annihilate the General’s sinister plan and free your people from him.

“Metal Arms” is an action-adventure game with third-person shooter functions and was developed by two game companies known as “Swingin’ Age Studios” and “Mass Media Games”. This game has both Single-player and Mulit-player (limited to two players). And because this is an older game, it can only be played on Nintendo’s Gamecube, Microsoft’s original XBOX and the XBOX 360, and Sony’s PlayStation 2. The graphic qualities may seem a bit different from today’s video games, but its physics are very specific like the sound effects of metals and how the enemy robots move when they are damaged.

Throughout the 42 missions, there are many weapons that you can find and equip to fight all the enemy bad guys, along with different explosive types to throw at them or destroy props and vehicles to use in running them over. One weapon that I would like to talk about, excluding the ones that shoot laser bullets, is the “Control Tether”. This weapon literally gives you the ability to control enemy bots. You might ask, “Why would that be useful?” Well, you see, when controlling an enemy robot, you can use it as a stealth skill, deceiving the other enemy bots around. They can suspect you to be suspicious and a traitor if you act too obvious for them to see that they need to kill you. But don’t worry! Once you’ve been killed as that bot, you return back to being Glitch.

In some cases, while digging through some internet reviews on this game, people found this game to be difficult to play. Honestly, I don’t blame them. This game is also about skill and “what to do” and “what not to do”. There are many enemy robot minions, big mechanical ones that shoot rockets at you, robot guards that can literally run into you and slashes you continuously, and flying robots that attack you from above. You will probably die a lot. I, myself, have died a couple hundred times, especially my older brother who is a bigger gamer than I am. He said. “Awww, man, I remember playing that. It was hard but so fun.” And yes, he was able to finish the game a long time ago. As for myself, still on my journey to complete the game, I agree with him as well. It may be hard but it’s really fun. And trust me, as a person who loves video games, nothing feels greater than beating a difficult game. It’s like you feel… victorious. 

On the internet, you can see the ratings of “Metals Arms.” 97% of Google Users enjoyed this game. Metacritic, a website that gives reviews on mostly everything, gives this game a rating of 83%. As for IGN and GameSpot, it is an 8.3/10. The reviews on this game are all pretty good!

The one main downfall of the game was it marketing campaign. The commercial for it was made poorly. Due to that, it led to a bankruptcy of the sequel to “Metal Arms.” The second game also wasn’t able to be produced because of Blizzard Entertainment, a game company, taking over the original company that made this robot game. To avoid any spoilers, this second game did have a great story to continue from the first game. Because of the bankruptcy though, the second game was never created.

“Metal Arms – Glitch in the System” is an amazing game that I recommend others to play. Although it has its flaws, the gameplay makes up for that. It has a great storyline, nostalgic graphics and physics of older games, and just being an awesome game in general.

For video of Full Gameplay please check here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJY4qKcZWJA