Iron Soldier

You settle into the cockpit of a giant battle mech, the ground rumbles beneath your feet and the whole enemy base suddenly turns into one big, destructible playground. Iron Soldier is one of the most highly prized exclusive titles of the Atari Jaguar and a game that used the console's hardware to give you the feeling that you are truly piloting a colossus several meters tall, capable of leveling buildings to the ground.

The game puts you in the role of a mech pilot fighting against an oppressive regime. You progress through missions, fulfill objectives and, above all, destroy, really quite a lot. A great strength is the destructible environment: buildings, towers and vehicles crumble under your fire, which gives the battles a pleasant heft. The slow, ponderous gait of the mech is deliberate and builds the feeling that you are controlling a mighty piece of steel, not a nimble robot.

Iron Soldier was developed by the studio Eclipse Software Design and published by Atari in 1994 as one of the original, exclusive titles for the Jaguar. The console desperately needed games that would show off its capabilities, and this very mech simulation was among those that reviewers and players received far more warmly than most other output.

The game received largely positive responses and tends to be mentioned among the best Jaguar exclusives. Its success led to the sequel Iron Soldier 2, which was released later, also for the Jaguar and its CD add-on, whereby the series won a firm place among the console's supporters. For a machine that suffered from a lack of quality software, it was a valuable flagship.

The magic of Iron Soldier lies in that satisfying feeling of destruction. Watching the whole base collapse under your fire had, for its time, a peculiar satisfaction that few games offered. It is a title that bet on an atmosphere of power and destruction, and it was precisely through this that it won a loyal audience that remembers it to this day as one of the reasons the Jaguar was worth it.

Why play: For the satisfying feeling of piloting a giant mech and destroying the entire environment. One of the best exclusives the Atari Jaguar can boast.