On the show floor of Tokyo Game Show, space is at a premium, with crowds all over the place, and based on the gigantic lines for most titles, it seems the PS Vita is most popular with attendees. That’s no surprise as this is its public debut in Japan, but it makes getting your hands on a Vita title incredibly difficult. Fortunately, one of the first titles we finally got a shot at was Square-Enix’s just revealed Army Corps of Hell. With over-the-top violence and a heavy metal aesthetic, you might not think it would remind you of Nintendo classic Pikmin, but the similarly light RTS gameplay style quickly made this one of our early favorites planned for the Vita launch.
We began the game as the skeletal lord of demons entered the Underworld with his tribe of 99 smaller minions surrounding him. As our first enemy appeared, a monster that mostly consisted of a giant, purple-lidded eye, we approached him on the circular platform with our brigade of testy demons and began tossing our angry army at the giant. As our team equipped with swords got on top of the beast and stabbed it to death, it eventually exploded into a shower of blood, leaving only its eyeball, which the titular Army Corps of Hell quickly consumed.
As we reached the boss of stage, the strategy got a little deeper as we ran around the platform avoiding his powerful stomp attacks then circling back around to fling our swordsmen at his knees to bring him down. By the way, Army Corps gameplay demands makes the direct camera control a necessity, giving us renewed appreciation for the Vita’s right thumb stick. Once we brought the boss to the ground, our spearmen were all over his face and eventually ripped off his head, which sailed across the stage in a bloody arc. As our satisfied team fed on the spoils of battle (aka the severed head), we were also satisfied with the pretty fun time we had with Army Corps of Hell. As long as Pikmin 3 is stuck in development hell, we may as well have fun in the meantime with this hellish tribute on the Vita.
Sep 17, 2011
