Snes Review: Front Mission

NL:

In short, Front Mission is Fire Emblem with giant robots. That alone would be enough to warrant a purchase, regardless of the year in which you are reading this review, but the game manages to be much more than a simple trade of medieval fantasy settings for mech science fiction scenario. It is a beautiful, masterfully-crafted package that can turn people who are not fans of either turn based strategy or mechs into diehard followers overnight. It was a shame Squaresoft never went ahead with the planned western localization of this game; such a well-crafted product would surely have found an audience among SNES owners in 1995 beyond the niche collection of Gundam fans. And much like Gundam, the whole game carries a notable anti-war message with a surprisingly mature storyline. Still, all is not lost – in 2001 the aptly-named Front Mission Translation Project ROM hacking group released a complete English translation for the game that you can use – along with the original cartridge – on the RetroN 5 or Retro Freak. Front Mission is just shy of the perfect score considering its balancing issues, but time has done little to change the fact that it remains a one-of-a-kind release, offering the perfect balance of artistry, storytelling and execution. In fact, Squaresoft set the bar so high on its first attempt at mech warfare that the series has had a hard time surpassing this game's brilliance ever since. If you have a Super Famicom collection, make sure you reserve space for Front Mission on your shelf.