The game takes place in 20XX Tokyo, a dystopian future where citizens live in a domed metropolis apart from the ruined, toxic Old Tokyo. These abandoned slums now host the gladiatorial sport of "rumbling," where ten-ton mechanized combat units called Scoot Vehicles, also known as "SVs" or "Scoobees," tear one another apart with chainsaws, missiles, machine guns, lasers, and other lethal weapons. But contrary to expectation, the Scoobee pilots look like they’d be more at home in a hip Tokyo disco than as extras on the set of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. These pilots fight not to survive, but for fame and a few extra bucks for shopping and clubbing.

But the Scoobees are the real star of this game. Weighing in at an average of ten tons and reaching speeds up to 160 km/hr, Scoobees are much smaller and faster than your average giant robot. Each Scoobee also comes equipped with optic camouflage, a device that makes the unit invisible to the human eye. Once activated, only the faintest outlines of your Scoobee are visible, allowing you to take your opponent by surprise. These two factors set apart the combat in Phantom Crash from that in other games of this type.

The game’s Quest Mode contains the meat of the Phantom Crash experience. This mode pits you against five classes of established pilots in three different arenas, and presents a story through static cut scenes involving your opponents, who speak in speech bubbles. These scenes are just static pictures and the dialogue ranges from peculiar to completely nonsensical, but the character designs are nice and lend the game that funkified Jet Set Radio vibe. As entertaining as these scenes are, they’re extraneous to the real purpose of playing Quest Mode, which is to earn money to tinker with your Scoobee and buy music at the game’s music shop.

The Rumblings themselves are essentially endless matches. The game lasts until the player leaves the arena or is destroyed (“crashed”) by another Scoobee. Your goal is to survive long enough to take out the ranker in that match, or to simply earn as much money as you can without crashing. Battles more closely resemble the chaotic multiplayer skirmishes of a quality first-person shooter than a more traditional mech combat sim like Armored Core. The optic camouflage adds an additional element of stealth and strategy, both on the combat and customization sides of the gameplay. A crashed Scoobee results in some heavy repair costs, but does not otherwise affect your Scoobee in any way; once the repair fees are paid, you’re ready to fight all over again.

The controls are polished and responsive - although they require a few minutes of adjustment. They are standard first-person shooter controls (left stick to move and strafe, right stick to aim, trigger buttons to fire primary weapons, face buttons to fire secondary weapons, jump, and activate optic camouflage), but you’ll be surprised at how quickly your Scoobee moves. Once you do adjust, you’ll be jumping and zipping about the arenas with ease.

While the Rumblings are quite entertaining, customizing your SV with the winnings you earn is just as fun, if not more so. There are three basic models of Scoobee and hundreds of different arm, leg, and shoulder modules, as well as miscellaneous add-ons to experiment with. There are weapons and body parts to suit just about every preference, from spider legs to Gatling guns to giant shoulder-mounted lasers. Cosmetic customization options are also available; you can choose from an impressive and diverse array of paint jobs and decals, from WWII-style shark-head designs to pink pastels and animal prints.

It is also possible to tune specific parts of your Scoobee to increase durability, weight capacity, speed, optic camouflage duration, or damage dealt. There are in total 199 points of customization for each component, and a creative customizer can use these points to his advantage. Just about anything is possible with enough tinkering; even a lightweight unit can carry a heavy laser or dual missile pods depending on the modifications. You’ll find yourself playing matches just for the sake of upgrading your Scoobee and seeing what new items are in stock at the stores. Since inventories change every day (with certain rare items available only on certain days), the game provides you with plenty of incentive to play and win.

You can also blow your winnings at SonicAmp, the game’s repository for its excellent soundtrack. You can’t listen to the music tracks saved on your Xbox’s hard drive while you play, but you can compose up to eight customized playlists from the game’s extensive list of music. The game provides an extensive sampling of Japanese pop, rock, techno, house, breakbeat, fusion jazz, and experimental electronic music. Each track is available for purchase at SonicAmp and may be previewed before you buy. Plus, each track comes complete with a short bio (often in charmingly butchered English) of the track’s composer. The tracks are almost uniformly excellent and odds are that just about everyone will be able to find something they like. Some of the tracks recall bands such as Guitar Vader and Hideki Naganuna, but to compare it to Jet Set Radio really does this soundtrack a disservice: in reality it’s much more diverse and experimental. It’s refreshing to see a developer pay this much attention to a game’s soundtrack.

You’ll also build a special relationship with your CHIP, or onboard computer AI. This is one of the most clever and charming elements of Phantom Crash. CHIPs manage your weapon targeting systems and can affect the overall efficiency of your Scoobee. Each one is modeled after a particular animal and possesses certain strengths and weaknesses based on that animal. Dog-based CHIPs have good overall lock-on capability and are very loyal, meaning they are more likely to activate a special repulsion shield that protects you from enemy attacks. Bird-based CHIPs have much longer lock-on range and higher critical hit potential, but mature much more slowly and are far less likely to activate the repulsion shield. If you give your CHIP periodic uplifts, its abilities will mature and improve. CHIP selection adds an additional, welcome element of strategy and customization to a game already replete with options.

If giant robots, endless deathmatches, limitless customization options, and a hip Japanese soundtrack sound appealing to you, you’ll probably love Phantom Crash. It handles combat and customization quite well, and at its best the game has an RPG-like addictiveness to it that encourages you to enter Rumbling after Rumbling in hopes of finding that rare laser arm or tuning your Scoobee into a peerless death-dealing machine. However, with only three arenas and limited modes of play, the game may not hold the attention of some players for long, even devotees of hardcore mech combat games like Armored Core. The game supports up to four players in versus mode, but with only one game mode available and only three arenas available for play, this mode feels like an afterthought. The real value of Phantom Crash lies in the addictive qualities of its Rumblings and its unique atmosphere, two aspects that will not appeal to everyone.

Though a very good-looking and -sounding game overall, Crash also lacks some polish in a few areas. The graphics, for instance, are a mixed bag. The Scoobees themselves are wonderfully detailed and are well-animated, but the environments in which they battle are a little too dusty and washed-out for my taste. The textures in particular look a tad flat and do not appear to tax the Xbox’s programming muscle (unlike the optical camouflage effects and missile trails, which are quite impressive). The sound effects are also a little disappointing. I wish the explosions and weapons sounded a little bit more earth-shattering.

Another touch that sounds a little odd at first, but something I grew accustomed to was the bell sound that rings whenever you hit an opponent. This sound is actually quite helpful, especially when firing an automatic weapon to suss out the location of a cloaked opponent, but it’s contrary to what you would expect to hear after ripping into a mechanized tank with a .50-caliber machine gun.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the game is its framerate. Not only does the game run under 60 fps, it also experiences significant slowdown in certain areas, particularly when your optical camouflage is engaged. Since this is often the time when you most need to make a quick getaway, the game’s occasional framerate drop and bout of slowdown can be frustrating. From what I’ve seen, this problem is confined only to a few areas, however, and doesn’t significantly affect the game’s playability. But it’s always disappointing to encounter problems like this on the mighty Xbox.

Ultimately, Phantom Crash’s winning mix of stealth and style, buttressed by its wealth of customization options, make it worthy of a look from anyone who’s enjoyed a game of Armored Core or Jet Set Radio. For people who enjoy both games, this is definitely a must-buy. Others may wish to rent the game first to see if the game’s technical flaws and lack of arena variety will affect their enjoyment. As it stands, Phantom Crash is a unique and enjoyable game that stands a few steps short of being truly exceptional.

. . . Sleeveboy