''Metal Arms: Glitch in the System'' is a

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 ...

action-adventure The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a storyli ...

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, developed by American team Swingin' Ape Studios, published by

Vivendi Universal Games Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...

and their subsidiary

Sierra Entertainment Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, ...

and released in 2003. The game follows a robot named Glitch as he joins forces with the Droids in their fight against General Corrosive and his Milbots.

Gameplay

Plot

Setting

''Metal Arms'' is set on the planet Iron Star, built by an ancient race, Morbots, out of scrap metal and space junk. The Morbots are rumored to still inhabit Iron Star's

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, where none of the surface dwellers venture for fear of deactivation and destruction. As the life of the native Droids evolved, a scientist, Dr. Exavolt, experimented with Droid technology, attempting to evolve it beyond its current limits. Exavolt's experiments were successful, however he could not advance Droid scientists. One of his experiments inadvertently resulted in the tyrannical military mastermind known as General Corrosive. Corrosive began manufacturing a race of soldiers known as Milbots, or Mils, and enslaved the Droid race of Iron Star. Droids who rebelled against Corrosive were deactivated and recycled. Colonel Alloy, a former

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, established a hidden Droid settlement known as Droid Town, where he and the Droid Rebellion make their final stand against the Mils.

Story

Glitch is found deactivated in a ruined city by Droid rebels. He is reactivated in Droid Town, the last stronghold for the rebellion, where it is discovered that Glitch's memory has been erased. When he is brought up to date on the rebellion, Droid Town is attacked by Milbots. Glitch aids in the defense of the city and pursues a Mil, Vlax, that got away, so he could not report the location of Droid Town to General Corrosive. While almost everyone is safely in hiding, one of Glitch's friends, Zobby, was taken by Exavolt. Glitch finds Exavolt on a space shuttle ready to take off. Glitch attaches himself to the outside of the shuttle as it takes off. The shuttle docks with a space station in hiding behind a fake moon in orbit over Iron Star. As Glitch searches for Zobby, he takes control of General Corrosive, and initiates the permanent shutdown of the Milbots. Seeing that the station is lost, Exavolt begins a self-destruct countdown in the station. Glitch and Zobby escape in an escape pod and land back on Iron Star. Once back on the surface, Glitch is challenged by General Corrosive, and Glitch defeats him. Glitch is received as a hero for destroying the Milbots, while Exavolt, watching from his shuttle in orbit, vows revenge.

Development and release

''Metal Arms: Glitch in the System'' was developed by Swingin' Ape Studios and published by

on November 18, 2003, in North America for the

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

and

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. It was released on April 21, 2008, for

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

through

Xbox Originals The Xbox 360 gaming console has received updates from Microsoft from its launch in 2005 until November 2007 that enable it to play select games from its predecessor, Xbox. The Xbox 360 launched with backward compatibility with the number of sup ...

. Swingin' Ape Studios was a video game development studio founded in July 2000 by Steve Ranck, Mike Starich and Scott Goffman after leaving

Midway Home Entertainment Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (series), Rampage'' ...

. They had just completed the water-based arcade racer ''

Hydro Thunder ''Hydro Thunder'' is an inshore powerboat racing video game, originally an arcade game in February 1999 and later released for the Sega Dreamcast as a launch title later that year. It was also released for PlayStation and Nintendo 64 in early 200 ...

''. ''Metal Arms'' was the studio's only release. The company was acquired by and integrated into

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduat ...

in May 2005 after cancelling development on '' StarCraft: Ghost''. The property is currently owned by Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Reception

The game received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game

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Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. IGN stated that "The game successfully merges a light-hearted storyline with some seriously intense combat, a good measure of strategy and a fun multiplayer mode."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metal Arms: Glitch In The System 2003 video games Action-adventure games Fictional robots GameCube games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 2 games Video games about robots Sierra Entertainment games Third-person shooters Video games set on fictional planets Xbox games Xbox Originals games Video games developed in the United States