90s Mech Games: Giant Robots on PC and Consoles

A mech game specifically puts you in the cockpit of a large, pilotable robotic vehicle, which rules out a lot of games that just happen to feature robots, like Mega Man's action-platforming, which isn't a mech game by this definition.

Simulation vs. action

Activision's MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (released for DOS on July 24, 1995), set in the BattleTech universe, framed itself as a cockpit simulator with weight, heat, and weapon-management systems modeled in detail, distinct from a more arcade-style action approach. Sega's Virtual On: Cyber Troopers (arcade release January 1996 on Sega Model 2 hardware, Saturn port later that year) took the opposite approach, a fast, arena-based one-on-one mech fighting game rather than a detailed simulation.

Controls and customization

Virtual On is specifically known for its unusual twin-stick control scheme, using two joysticks to control movement and weapons simultaneously rather than a conventional single-stick-and-buttons layout, a control choice built specifically to simulate piloting a mech.

Mission styles

Square's Front Mission (Super Famicom, released in Japan only on February 24, 1995) took a third approach entirely: turn-based tactical RPG missions commanding squads of pilotable mechs called wanzers, closer in structure to X-COM's tactical combat than to MechWarrior's cockpit simulation or Virtual On's arcade dueling.

Identifying a remembered title

• Remember detailed cockpit systems and heat management? That's MechWarrior 2.
• Remember two joysticks and arcade one-on-one duels? That's Virtual On: Cyber Troopers.
• Remember turn-based squad tactics with giant robots called wanzers? That's Front Mission, though its original SNES release never left Japan.