Game: Mech Battle Arena

With the recent surge of World of Tanks-inspired games hitting mobile devices, it was only a matter of time before tanks sprouted legs and we got to see the return of mech battle games. Between popular series like MechWarrior and Gundam, the giant robot battle genre has carved a significant niche, but has still been a non-factor on mobile devices. With the release of Mech Battle Arena, Glu Mobile aims to change that. Sadly, the final product is a game that's unpolished and outright bad in all the wrong places.From the start, something didn't feel right with Mech Battle Arena. When I first booted up the game, I was greeted with a tutorial that summarized the controls in battle. Combat uses a simple dual-analog style of control where the left side of the screen allows you to move your robot while the right side lets you aim, fire your weapon, and switch between weapons. While the controls are standard, the weapon switching buttons are unfortunately placed next to the fire button, where I found myself accidentally hitting them with frequency."The simplicity of combat should be charming, but the execution isn't there. In particular, aiming is one of the biggest hassles. It's difficult to line up precise shots or even effectively run and gun thanks to the aiming and firing control overlap. This doesn't necessarily have to be troublesome, but matters are made worse when aiming itself feels over-sensitive and floaty. I came to dread firing long-range weaponry because it meant missing often as I tried to hit my target.