Zone of the Enders: 2173 Testament / The Fist of Mars

Developers: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, Sunrise Interactive Japan
Publisher: Konami Computer Entertainment

Release dates:
September 27, 2001 (JP)
February 12, 2002 (NA)
June 7, 2002 (EU)

Continuing with the story Zone of the Enders, Konami decided to bring out a chapter in the series that would be totally different from the previous ZOE titles. In order to bring out a more flashy storyline to go with the concept of the previous game, a few KCEJ members teamed up with Sunrise studios for the development of 2173 Testament.

As a result, Konami and Sunrise managed to give birth to a game that would have a totally new and fresh feeling compared to the first installment of Zone of the Enders. In order to get the most out of this new gameplay system, they would also add in a totally new environment, settings and cast.

As for gameplay Konami presents a totally new genre to the ZoE franchise, a sort of RPG Role Playing Game. The player finds oneself in the control of a group instead of one single character, a terrorist labeled anti-Earth league BIS, Born In Space. So thus instead of presenting a High Speed Robot Action, 2173 Testament brings a tactical screen where the player does its turn based moves and attacks as well as other variouse actions.

Once the player finally gets to attack a enemy the player is taken to a IAS screen (Unless one decided otherwise in the previouse screen) where one would aim its attacks against the enemy. Likewise also evading enemy aggressions are made in the same similar manner, in a similar IAS screen the player gets a ”crosshair” which has to be kept outside of the enemies attack engagement rings in order to evade the shot.

This system definately brings a very fresh feeling to playing Zone of the Enders. However it is not the only thing bringing novelty to the game. Most likely thanks to Sunrise the game also harbours fascinating characters that evolve with the process of the game as well as the plot. It might be sayed too much, but the story of Fist of Mars is nearly at the same level as Kojima's other game Metal Gear Solid 2, except for being slightly less confusing. In either case the plot of 2173 Testament is definately one of its strongest points as the novelty of the gameplay vanishes at the end of the game and can become even slightly annoying with the bigger fights at the end.

The musical dimension of The Fist of Mars is very much concidered to be top-notch. Even the sounds of footsteps as well as door openings and the quality of them is quite remarkable for an Game Boy Advanced title. Also the moods of different musics are well planned and it definately adds to the current attmosphere. However the graphics are a bit less magnificent looking like it was made in 2 months, which it propably was, butnevertheless it definately ain’t a big setback for the game itself.

All in all it has to be said that 2173 Testament / FOM is one of the most Solid packages brought so far in the franchise of Zone of the Enders. It is only too bad that it suffers from the so limited resources of the hardware in Game Boy Advanced when being compared to the franchises other titles.

And what would be a better way to wrap this up than a quote from the game itself?

Yukito: ”He propably spent his time on a mountain, shaved off one eyebrow and fighting bears.”

--Review by Caldera