is the seventh entry in the ''

Metal Max is a role-playing video game series created by Hiroshi Miyaoka and his studio Crea-Tech. The first title was developed by Crea-Tech in collaboration with Data East, and was published by Data East in 1991. Due to the bankruptcy of Data East and ...

'' series. It is a vehicle combat

RPG RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...

produced by

Cattle Call An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performer. It typically involves the performer displaying their talent through a previously memorized and rehearsed solo piece or by performing a work or piece giv ...

and co-published by

Kadokawa Games Kadokawa may refer to: *Kadokawa Corporation, the holding company of the Kadokawa Group **Kadokawa Content Gate and Kadokawa Mobile, both former names for BookWalker **Kadokawa Future Publishing, a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the publis ...

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on January 30, 1987, as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strate ...

, and

Crea-Tech Crea-Tech () was a Japanese video game developer based in Koto, Tokyo, Japan, which was founded by :ja:宮岡寛, Hiroshi Miyaoka in 1988. The company was best known for developing the role-playing video game series ''Metal Max (series), Metal M ...

for the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

exclusively in Japan in 2010. In 1993, '' Metal Max 2'' was published by

Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. At one time, the company had annual sales of 20 billion yen in ...

, who retained the trademark rights to the series until its closure in 2003 and the liquidation of its intellectual properties in the following year. In April 2009,

(Kadokawa's subsidiary) obtained the rights and published ''Metal Max 3'' the next year. It is the first numbered entry in the series in 17 years. A remade version of '' Metal Max 2'' for the Nintendo DS was published in 2011, and utilizes ''Metal Max 3''s engine. Similarly to its predecessors, the game is open-ended and

non-linear In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system (or a non-linear system) is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathe ...

Gameplay

Much of the gameplay is similar to its predecessors, ''

'' and '' Metal Max 2''. The game is open-ended and

, with the player given the freedom to decide where to go and what missions to do in whichever order. The player can choose the

character class In tabletop games and video games, a character class is an occupation, profession, or role assigned to a game character to highlight and differentiate their capabilities and specializations. In role-playing games (RPGs), character classes ag ...

es and subclasses, besides a mechanic, soldier, artist or other, for the

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters tha ...

s. The battles are

turn-based Timekeeping is relevant to many types of games, including video games, tabletop role-playing games, board games, and sports. The passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. In many games, this is don ...

, with the characters able to fight either on foot or using tanks. The tanks can be created and customized by the player, who can modify and enhance each part of a vehicle, though there is a weight limit to each tank which mostly depends on an engine. In certain areas where tanks cannot pass, the characters must engage the enemies on foot. The game also features gambling machines where

minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements and is often smaller or more simplistic than th ...

s can be played, including

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...

and

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a motor racing, racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more re ...

Synopsis

The protagonist was picked up and revived by mad scientist Dr. Minch, but he suffered from severe memory loss and cannot remember anything about himself. Therefore, the protagonist decided to travel around the world as a bounty hunter, in order to retrieve his memories and find out his true identity.

Development

Since '' Metal Max 2'' was released in 1993, original publisher

planned to release a new entry which underwent a troubled development cycle. During this time, a

Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...

game named '' Metal Max: Wild Eyes'' was planned, and was set to be published by

ASCII Entertainment was a Japanese publishing company based in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It became a subsidiary of Kadokawa Group Holdings in 2004, and merged with another Kadokawa subsidiary MediaWorks on April 1, 2008, becoming ASCII Media Works. The company published '' ...

, but the game was later cancelled, due to the publisher quitting video game business. There were also other companies interested in developing a sequel for the

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

, but they given up later on. In 2003, Data East went into bankruptcy, and the trademark for the game was acquired by other companies. The series was then published by

Success Success is the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations. It may be viewed as the opposite of failure. The criteria for success depend on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person mi ...

under the name ''

Metal Saga ''Metal Saga'', known in Japan as , is a post-apocalyptic role-playing video game developed by Success and published by Atlus and Success. ''Metal Saga'' is the fifth game in the ''Metal Max'' series and the first one to reach the United Stat ...

''. In 2008,

invited the producer of ''Metal Max 2'' to make a new game in the series, and obtained the original trademark in 2009. The game was published in July 2010 by Enterbrain's subsidiary

Translation

In June 2020, an unofficial English fan translation was released by a translation group known as Metal Dreamers.

Reception

While ''RPGamer'' scored ''Metal Max 3'' 4.5/5, Japanese gaming magazine ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' awarded the game 33/40. The game was praised for its vast degrees of freedom and its tank system, but reviews criticized high encounter rates and slow-paced gameplay.

References

External links

* {{Metal Max series 2010 video games Cattle Call (company) games Japan-exclusive video games Kadokawa Shoten games Metal Max Nintendo DS games Nintendo DS-only games Role-playing video games Single-player video games Video game sequels Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Satoshi Kadokura