Freeware Game Pick: Bootfighter Windom XP SP-2
Review by Gr.Viper
It's time for some wanton destruction - Japanese style! Bootfighter Windom XP SP-2 features giant armed mechs (designs borrowed from Gundam) fighting in dense urban environments. Powerful weapons demolishing city buildings with one shot, jetpacks taking you sky high and special abilities like brief transformation are in common use both by player and AI bots, so battlegrounds tend to get pretty hot seconds after the battle begins.
The game also features Practice mode with disabled enemy AI. The other two modes are large scale battles with AI teammates - either until one team is destroyed or (in Blitz mode) until it loses its motherships which are huge and tough but not invulnerable.
Players are offered a good selection of gear to try on. Some mechs are pure melee types with a neat special ability thrown in (like long plasma whip), while others are designed for sniping and dealing massive damage at medium ranges. Several mechs can transform in flight to gain more speed but jetpacks rapidly drain energy, so long flights are impossible. Luckily, weapons drain energy from a different pool and each of them has its own cooldown counter so you'll never be unarmed even if your mech has no sword.
The default control scheme isn't very convenient to use but keys can be reassigned. Key combinations required to perform different tricks are listed in the manual, which has been translated into English along with readme and the few captions in game.
Mech models and animations are well done. Without shiny armor and plasma beams in the air the streets look pale and boring, although you won't have time to notice it unless you press the escape key and give the shot camera feature a try (controlled by cursor keys, W, A, S, D, Z, X and R for reset). A DirectX 9 video card is recommended, and the installation of .NET 2.0 is also required. With graphics set to full the game tends to get choppy when many mechs get together, although options to disable HDR and shaders are present. (screenshots, trailer in the extended)
Name: Bootfighter Windom XP SP-2
Developer: Y. Kamada
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 60MB
Direct download link: Click here
Comments
looks fantastic for a freeware game, but destructible buildings would have made it a ton better (R.A.D.-style)
Posted by: jeffx | May 5, 2008 1:31 AM
I'll check it out. Mecha games usually are very good or very bad - never in the middle. I hope this is one of the former. :-D
Posted by: Lim-Dul | May 5, 2008 1:36 AM
I played it after seeing this, and I have to say it's pretty good and it free! Yays for good'n free games! I hope the creator improves upon the game, so that it may gain more popularity and praise.:D
Posted by: Gio/Wiidark | May 5, 2008 4:54 AM
Yeah. Now I played it, too. The graphics aren't too good but the controls and the flow of the gameplay are very smooth. Good game - and free. :-D
Posted by: Lim-Dul | May 5, 2008 8:36 AM
Actually, the buildings are destructible (at least some of them), they just take quite a lot of damage before they collapse.
Posted by: x_x | May 5, 2008 10:55 AM
This is a straight-up shameless clone of the Capcom-developed Gundam Vs series.
And that's a good thing, because those were VERY good games, and the chance to play them online with other people shouldn't be sniffed at.
Posted by: Dominic White | May 5, 2008 12:59 PM
On that note, could someone try hosting a server? It seems simple enough, but my firewall doesn't seem to want to allow me to host anything.
Posted by: Dominic White | May 5, 2008 3:13 PM
"they just take quite a lot of damage before they collapse."
Actually not that much - take the bot with a wide array of colourful laser beams as F-button weapon. I once knocked down three buildings with one blast of that.
I really wish the few sniper-bots had longer lock-on range...
Posted by: Gr.Viper | May 5, 2008 4:28 PM
Yeah, some of the mechas are just plain more powerful than others.
The KD-07 BlackComb (the golden one with the big wings) is pretty much death incarnate, wheras the KD-03 (the funny little green one) is cannon fodder.
This is balanced out, though. The green one gets a ton of lives in Survival mode (and in other modes is probably worth fewer points), wheras the BlackComb gets a mere one extra.
Posted by: Dominic White | May 5, 2008 5:04 PM
Exteel
http://www.g4g.it/download/comment.php?dlid=1850
Posted by: FireSword | May 5, 2008 6:00 PM
The buildings are destructible, they just take a few good beatings before they come down.
Great game.
Posted by: StriveMind | May 5, 2008 6:10 PM
I'm trying to work out the specifics of hosting netplay right now. Try joining the server at 87.127.67.60 - it's currently running Interception mode, which is players Vs AI survival.
If you can't join it, say so. Still trying to figure things out on my end.
Posted by: Dominic White | May 5, 2008 6:50 PM
You can´t denie it´s great, being just 60 megs downloadable and preety easy to setup. Exteel´s just online. This has even AI... and I love big mechs!!!
Posted by: Bob | May 5, 2008 7:05 PM
Exteel may be online, but it's also largely a generic shooter with korean MMO elements. This is a really good clone of a VERY good arcade series. Quite nicely balanced, too. Remarkably deep, once you realise just how many play mechanics there are. For a game controlled with 4 arrows and 8 buttons, it's rather complex.
And free. That helps.
Also, please try joining my server! It needs testing.
Posted by: Dominic White | May 5, 2008 7:09 PM
At Bob: ye ye i was just pointing out another good one. I didn 't make any comparison..
Posted by: FireSword | May 5, 2008 7:12 PM
Okay, I THINK I've got this sorted.. Got three servers running off one box. One for each playmode. IP as mentioned is 87.127.67.60 - it works fine on LAN, but can anyone international join? Please test!
Posted by: Dominic White | May 5, 2008 7:35 PM
Tried with that IP. I get to room selection screen and there everything is bare and lifeless. Cannot connect anywhere after that - fails every time.
Posted by: G.Viper | May 5, 2008 7:53 PM
Gah. Thought that there might be problems. Can anyone else try hosting? Anyone? I can't be the only person in the world willing to try this.
Posted by: Dominic White | May 5, 2008 7:57 PM
sorry for the whole destructible thing. I made my comment based on the video... thanks for the clarification!
Posted by: jeffx | May 6, 2008 3:33 AM
To Firesword: wasn´t fighting you too ;) However, Exteel´s good too. If there´s something missing (strangely) in videogames industry is giant robots games. Will try the server!
Posted by: Bob | May 6, 2008 6:37 PM
It says that it can't find a file and tells me to reload it but it still doesn't work. Please help.
Posted by: ??? | May 7, 2008 12:04 AM
Looks quite good :)
Is it just me or does the name seem very familar to something else?
Windom XP SP-2
Windows XP SP-2
Heh, I've probably been to the ms download page to much :)
Posted by: Gustav | May 7, 2008 2:28 PM
All the mechs' names in game are derived from different versions of Windows, apart from a couple of Linux bots.
Posted by: Gr.Viper | May 7, 2008 5:22 PM
says i'm missing the file d3dx9_32.dll when i try to start it please help
Posted by: ??? | May 8, 2008 3:57 AM
You need to download the newest version of DirectX from Microsoft's site. I had the same problem.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 8, 2008 4:06 AM
Or, you can search for the .dll archive on the net. I found it, downloaded it in the "system" directory and voila, it functions now. The dll doesn´t come with the install
Posted by: Bob | May 8, 2008 2:31 PM
You know, this looks a bit like Silver Knights, another indie game that is a bit older than this one. Its not as good, but games like these are always worth a try
Posted by: Non'd | May 10, 2008 1:12 PM
Hey! Great game, I'm recommending it on CrunchGear. :)
Posted by: Devin | May 12, 2008 7:48 PM