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Chōsōjū Mecha MG (超操縦メカMG Chou Soujuu Meka MG? ) is a 2006 Nintendo DS mecha action game developed by Sandlot, the studio behind the Earth Defense Force series, and published by Nintendo. It combines the developer's aptitude for larger-than-life spectacle with one of the most innovative and fun uses of the touch screen in the DS library: in addition to standard movement with the D-Pad, each of the game's 100+ playable mecha has its own unique "cockpit" controlled with the touch screen.

Story[]

In a world where giant robots known as Marionation Gear, or "Puppets", are artisanally handcrafted in workshops, a certain boy serves as an apprentice at the Galouye Workshop, dreaming of becoming a "Puppeteer" (mecha pilot) and opening his own workshop with fellow apprentice Kay. But their peaceful daily life is shattered when the autonomous Puppets known as the Automen begin going on berserk rampages around the world. Together with new apprentice Anne-Marie, the hero and Kay are pulled into a conflict that could change the course of Puppet history...

Gameplay[]

You control the unnamed hero, (later called "Jin" in a spin-off manga released by Famitsu) to play through over 120 missions in the game, which are all accessible on a worldmap. Each mission lets you choose the difficulty setting, and in order to unlock new MGs, you'll have to beat some of the missions on harder difficulty settings.

Players can pull levers to swing their robot's arms and hurl buildings at the enemy, flip a switch to transform into a car, punch in launch codes to fire missiles, and countless other imaginative setups. With well over 100 missions, ranging from battle to racing to destroying burger joints, every mecha has a use.

Legacy[]

Some of the Marionation Gears are found in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as trophies and stickers. One of the game's themes, titled "Marionation Gear", is available as a song on the stage Norfair. The song was recreated by Grasshopper Manufacture's Masafumi Takada, one of the over thirty composers for the game.

Fan Translation[]

Despite great reviews, the game wasn't a big seller, and so never got a release outside of Japan. In 2017, ROM Hacker Supper put together an fan translation patch covering the "essential" text, to facilitate English-speaking players journey through the game.

Two years later, joined by translator Phantom and tester cccmar, the translation was completed, and a fully playable patch released.

Trivia[]

  • The protagonists name was previously incorrectly cited as "Martin", believed to have been caused by DS's nickname being used as the default name for the hero when starting a new save file.
  • A spin off manga created by Bunta Hachi was serialized in Famitsu DS + Wii magazine between Oct 2006 to May 2007. In said manga, the protagonist is named "Jin". 'Jin’ and ‘Kay’ being pronunciations of ‘人’ and ‘形’, making Jin + Kay = Puppet (人形). The first few chapters were scanlated and released alongside the English fan translation patch.
  • The name "Marionation Gear" is believed to be a reference to "Supermarionation", a term coined by Gerry Anderson, co-creator of many well-known puppet-based TV series like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, to describe the style of puppetry used in those shows.

External links[]

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