Armored Core...The Board Game?!





In yet another suprising revalation, a board game company has announced an adaptation of a video game. This time, the giant mech game Armored Core gets the board game treatment. What is interesting is that the board game developer decided to take a game that is known for its third person action/shooter series and turn it into a real time strategy board game.




 As we discuss in this month's podcast about Age of Mythology: The Board Game, the challenges faced by board game developers to recapture the feel of a Real Time Strategy video game. What intrigues me about this game is that the developers claim everyone LITERALLY plays the game in real time, and that each game takes about 20 minutes. Further, one's ability to multi-task and move quickly in the game is rewarded because you can move faster, fight quicker, and upgrade your mech to get an edge on the competition. Additionally, your mechs are on a base with a small laser light which quite visually shows the line of sight of your mech and whether you can engage your competition or not.

This game gets me excited to play it, but the price point, though understandable given the detailed plastic (something else we address in Episode 03 of the podcast), size of the board, and lasers, it is still enough to give one pause. Maybe Arcade Castle is just used to thrift store prices. That being said, I do think the price reflects the amount of cardboard and plastic in the game.




BREAKING NEWS!

Apparently due to licensing issues or essentially the constriction of the creative liberties of the board game developers, the license has been dropped and the game is now known as:




A decidedly less exciting name. Quite bland and forgettable. Whether they were unable to obtain the IP, or decided to free themselves from the creative constraints of the IP (as From Software had final say in all elements of the board game), Bad Crow Games dropped the Armored Core license during the middle of the Kickstarter Campaign. Bit of bad form there. Despite the change, the game still intrigues me for it's attempt to capture RTS, but with the loss of the IP it is a generic mech game vs. being able to play some of the iconic mechs of the franchise. I would also say the moniker "Real Time Strategy" is also possibly inaccurate. I would say that this games seems more like a Real Time Combat game vs. the recourse gathering, tech-trees, and combat that typifies a Real Time Strategy game such as StarCraft or Command and Conquer. 

That aside, the kickstarter ends August 16th, 2016 and is worth checking out, despite no longer being a video game board game. 


Armore....err....Mech Command Kickstarter





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