Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor uses Xbox 360 controller and Kinect simultaneously

by JC Fletcher on Aug 16th 2011 12:45PM

First announced at TGS last year, the Kinect-based Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor is finally revealed in its first trailer. Like the original game, Heavy Armor has players jump into huge, unwieldy robots called "Vertical Tanks." The above trailer reveals an oppressive World War 2-plus-robots style world in which computers have all been destroyed, and then everyone goes to war.

As revealed by Capcom's fact sheet, Heavy Armor maintains the series' legacy for complicated controls by using two forms of input: both Kinect and the standard Xbox 360 pad. The controller is used for movement, aiming, and firing, while the Kinect camera picks up "upper body gestures" used for starting the engine, using the scope, or operating a turret-mounted machine gun. You can also communicate verbally and nonverbally with your crew members. High fives are specifically mentioned.

Steel Battalion will engage your whole body in robo-warfare next year.

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor (Gamescom 2011)

Tags: capcom, gamescom-2011, kinect, microsoft, steel-battalion, steel-battalion-heavy-armor, xbox

Reader Comments (67)

Bar the Americanism that was a mighty fine trailer!

Looking forward to more footage.

@DarrylKensley
Agreed, why is it always Yanks

@DarrylKensley Who else did you expect to fight back? The rest of the world would take it and ask for seconds.

@DarrylKensley

The trailer specifically states that the U.N. is behind the invasion. I don't think that commie vs demo has anything to do with it at this point. It might later, but you really shouldn't rant until more info is released.

@s1l3n70n3 The UN?

Sweet!

Sounds like the End Times to me! Color me told ;)

@DarrylKensley

Wow, apparently there are a lot of sensitive Americans on Joystiq. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that our country will soon have to invent new numbers to describe how much debt we're going to be in a decade or two from now.

Oh yeah I almost forgot: videogames.

@ToastyBiggins Invent new numbers? Here I thought the world claimed our school system was shit yet at least we know that numbers go past 'trillions'.

@DarrylKensley

Hate to piss on your face, but which country's military do you command? Warhammer 40k armies don't count here.

@dez Systems Alliance then.

@YourMomsLover That must be why billions of dollars are being spent on two wars.

I hope they work on that voice acting a bit. But this may yet save Capcom.

@Fire Walk With Me

If it doesn't, we can always wait 8 months for Ultimate Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Hyperfighting Remix.

@baby sea tuna

Since when did From Software and Capcom become the same company?

@Dreamscape

Nvm, it's just published by From Software. You know Capcom is in trouble when From Software is publishing their games stateside.

@Dreamscape are you sure it isn't developed by From Software and published by Capcom? That makes a bit more sense.

The kinect isn't as cool as the original's controller though.

@Khaos

I agree.

And I am not too wild about doing hand-motions in the air (unless it's something like the high-five mentioned for social interaction with NPCs).

@Space Cobra but you are cool with having an 8 foot controller in the cornr when girls come over?

jk, I know girls dont ever come over.

@Khaos Cheaper though ;)

Hot damn.

Konami and Microsoft just sold me a system.

They had me at "high five" your crew members.

Way too dramatic. So that guy used his spidey sense and tried to get out, but you had to screw things up.

Oh, hell yeah. Who cares why the silicon eating microbes meant everyone had to dress likes its 1944. I want this.

Wow, that was a great trailer. I sure love games that are about defending the great US of A. Never played the original, but I'll definitely keep my eye on this.

If they would've used something similar to the old controller I think the game would sell like crazy. Especially in this generation of consoles, where $150 madcatz joysticks are selling like crazy..

nice trailer, would like to see kinect integration in action tho.

I'd say that's a pretty hardcore kinect game.

Im down for any Kinect title that doesnt involve exercising or children.

@Klearwater Killer

I guess you should probably take Imagine: Tae Bo Babiez off your Amazon wishlist, then.

Ugh... what a disservice to the originals.

Given how Capcom handled it, I never thought I'd see a sequel to my favorite game of all time (SB:LoC).

But leave it up to Capcom to breifly excite me then utterly disappoint me with this reboot.

It looks like crap in comparison to the originals, and those were on the old school xbox. The VT's in Heavy Armor look like Shermans with legs... the originals had so much style and uniqueness.

The quality overall seems like it's being developed by amatuers. Poor art, poor animations, poor effects, horrible voice acting... even worse, looks like they're trying to set up some dramatic story... yeah, because that's what Steel Battalion is all about...

What else is there to say?
INABAAAAA!!!
God save the Garpike

@Macabre 13 I don't think you played the original Steel Battalion at all.

All the VTs in the beginning looked like terrible mechs save for the one you got thrown into given the circumstances. And even then it was uninspired. Only after progressing the game did you come across the mechs that were truly unique.

@Macabre 13

Somebody failed to realize that these aren't the final game graphics. There was even a warning at the beginning of the video that this is a work in progress. You can read, right?

Geeze I want a kinect now

God... I really hope the Kinect part can be skipped...
The original controller was 9 ways of epic, and I doubt the Kinect is going to make the controls "complex", more likely it'll make things feel clumsy.

And for the love of god, stop acting like voiced communications is anything new! Kinect has nothing to do with any of that, since it was done well before it ever came out on the console.

@DevilSei

The deal with Kinect and voice control is that you don't have to wear headphones with mic. And Kinect can hear you (if you calibrate it right) in a noisy room. But anyway, what else does voice control to the extent of Kinect?

@Migz7 Actually because the Kinect runs it's own bit of Hardware it means that the Kinect can comprehend what your saying which means the 360 doesn't have to use any of it's power to do it.

is the evil superpower russia or china. maybe they will go full on ww2 and bring back the germans seeing its being all normandy landing inspired up in this piece.

I'm ready, GIVE THIS TO ME NOW!!!

@Robborboy

I specifically mentioned LoC (Line of Contact, the online-only game that was epic beyond belief. The original single player game was more like a demo/practice for LoC, which was the goal of the developer.

Even the Vitzh was more inspired than that walking shoebox seen in this video.

I don't think you ever played LoC. The single-player game was not the *real* game.

Why does every game with a future war seem to be fought on US soil? Do you know how much money and manpower it would take to invade? Seriously.

Why not fight on the east coast of China, with more interesting landscapes and cityscapes like Macau, Shanghai or go south to Singapore.

And I'll wait for Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor: Extra Armor Ultimate Edition: Final 2nd. Thanks capcom.

@shadowracer Chinese people dont buy retail video games so why would a company ever bother making them protaganists?

@Fire Walk With Me
There are plenty of Chinese protagonists in various Japanese and Western games. The Dynasty Warriors games are all Chinese characters, made by a Japanese company. Jade Empire is basically a fictionalized version of Chinese culture, based on the creator's experience with Chinese people in Singapore. Chun Li, Fei Long, Kung Lao, Liu Kang are fighting characters from Japanese and American game developers who have Chinese background.

As awesome as the special controller for the Xbox version was, it wasn't used for anything else (that I know of) and took up a lot of room. I'm fine with the kinect version having me press imaginary buttons mid-air and hi-fiving my crewmates.

When this game was announced, I said that this game would work best if the gamepad was the primary controller, while the Kinect was used for secondary stuff. Man I'm good at predicting the future!

Look at me Daddy! LOOK AT ME!

so if a silicon eating microbe ate all computers how do they still have planes, helis, tanks, mechs, and most other current or beyond current tech?

@milliniar
i don't think planes and tanks in WW2 used computers. Just hydraulics ???

@milliniar

maybe it just degrades silicone to the point where it is unusable for fine work such as computer chips.

Also it's a video game and doesn't have to make sense.

@GuardianLegend2 while this is true how many are operational today. and not to mention current manufacturing would have to change to make them operational again. though i suppose could be a couple years or so after the fact.

@milliniar The trailer says the microbe starts in 2020, then the date jumps to 2081, so 61 years to create a silicon based mech seems logical I guess. But everything we have and use is silicon based (electronically speaking) so it'd be pretty hard to basically build from the ground up a complete new technology without any other modern tools to do so with.

is there some advantage to building a clumsy looking slow walking tank in the future instead of just going with the traditional tracks?

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Rumor: Japanese Vita devs jumping ship, Sony responds 124 comments
Buy 2 get 1 free on select Vita games at GameStop starting today 114 comments
Sony's Rohde: proprietary Vita cards 'completely necessary' to combat piracy 112 comments
Sony: Call of Duty blasting onto Vita this fall 89 comments
Asura's Wrath review: Wrecking the curve 84 comments