Metal Head

This page is about the shooter video game. For other uses, see Metalhead.

Short description: 1995 video game

Metal Head

North American cover art

Developer(s)| Sega
Publisher(s)|

* WW: Sega
* BRA: Tectoy

Director(s)| Masahide Kobayashi
Producer(s)| Koichi Nagata
Designer(s)| Ryūtarō Nonaka
Programmer(s)| Masahiro Wakayama
Artist(s)| Kōichi Sasaki
Writer(s)| Ryoichi Hasegawa
Composer(s)| Atsumu Miyazawa
Jun Senoue
Tatsuya Kōzaki
Platform(s)| 32X
Release|

* JP: 24 February 1995
* NA: February 1995
* PAL: April 1995

Genre(s)| Mech simulation
First-person shooter[1]
Mode(s)| Single-player[2]

Script error: The function "nihongo_foot" does not exist. is a first-person shooter mech simulation video game developed and published by Sega, and released in 1995 for the Genesis/Mega Drive's 32X add-on, allowing for fully texture-mapped 3D polygons.[3][4][5][6]

## Contents

* 1 Gameplay
* 2 Story
* 3 Development and release
* 4 Reception
* 5 Notes
* 6 References
* 7 External links

## Gameplay

Gameplay screenshot.

The game's North American box states "1 or 2 Players", but Sega has confirmed that this was a typographical error and that Metal Head is single player only.[7]

Metal Head's levels are broken down into missions, though most of the missions are to destroy all of the enemies in that particular area using the Mech's various projectile weapons. The time the user have remaining for each mission will count down and is displayed below the power gauge health bar. Before each mission a talking head appears of presumably one of the superior commanders in the Federation Armed Forces/Federation Police, and will instruct the user of the objective of the mission, which includes full voice-acting. A summary of the current mission will also appear when the game is paused.

Designed for Sega's 6-button controller, the game uses a first-person view looking through the windshield of one of the game's 'Metal Head' mechs. The player can switch between multiple camera angles.[8] Below the screen is a control panel displaying the remaining health status, represented by a power-gauge and a percentage number, the time the user has remaining for the mission, the weapon the user is currently accessing and a screen displaying various other information for what is required (i.e. a 'miss' when the user does not hit an enemy target).

In the top-right of the quadrant of the screen is a map of the level. The user's vehicle is represented as a triangle and remaining enemies' vehicles are represented as pulsating circles, which allows navigation throughout each level.

## Story

Five years after the 'World Federation' was established strife and war are still on the rise. In order to keep the peace the Federation Armed Forces, part of the Federation Police, build fully armed, bipedal Mechs also known as 'Metal Heads'. The Metal Head's success causes a heavy militarization of the countries of the Federation.

A sudden and chaotic revolution led by terrorists, armed with their own fully armed Mechs, breaks out and the terrorists take control of a whole country. The player character (in a Metal Head) is sent in with his team to liberate the country's capital.

The player character starts in a small border town and works his way in to reach the capital.

## Development and release

## Reception

Reception

| Review scores

Publication| Score
CVG| 87/100[5]
EGM| 5.5/10, 5/10,
4.5/10, 4/10[9]
Famitsu| 7/10, 7/10, 6/10, 6/10[10]
Game Informer| 7/10[11]
GamesMaster| 78%[13]
Next Generation| 2/5[15]
Electronic Games| C+[16]
Game Zero Magazine| 31.0/50[17]
Games World|
Mega| 87%[18]
Sega Magazine| 87/100[19]
Sega Power| 76%[20]
Sega Pro| 80%[21]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP)| 6.25/10[22]
Ultimate Future Games| 71%[23]
VideoGames| 8/10[24]

According to Famitsu, Metal Head sold 8,103 copies during its lifetime in Japan.[25] The Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine ranked the game second in popularity in its June 1995 issue, and it received a 7.2738/10 score in a 1995 readers' poll conducted by the Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine, ranking among 32X and Sega Mega Drive titles at the number 248 spot.[26][27] It received average reviews.[5][28][29][20]

GameFan's Dave Halverson and Nicholas Dean Des Barres regarded it as an excellent first-generation 32X title and the best game of its kind.[28] Computer and Video Games deemed it as the most impressive-looking 32X title, but felt that it was hindered by weak explosions and slow gameplay.[5] Mean Machines Sega praised the game's detailed polygonal cityscapes, and "called it a "thoughtful shoot 'em up that shows the promise of the 32X".[14] Mega's Rich Lloyd described it as the "the thinking man's Doom", but felt that the latter was better in terms of presentation and gameplay.[18]

Game Zero Magazine found the game reasonably fun and compared its visuals favorably to Iron Soldier, but felt that the boring gameplay failed to create the feeling of controlling a mech.[17] GamePro's Manny LaMancha criticized the visual and soundscapes, calling the digitized talking heads "laughable" and complaining of the rasping quality of the audio. LaMancha remarked that the missions are varied but ultimately boil down to the same actions, and summarized the game as "a promising programming experiment not taken to fruition".[30] Electronic Gaming Monthly's four editors panned the game for its boring gameplay, while Next Generation said that its graphics look good in screenshots, but that the game suffers from slow pacing, glitchy explosions, bad controls, pop-up, a poorly designed change-view feature, and clunky combat.[9][15]

## Notes

## References

1. ↑ Williams, Andrew (16 March 2017). History of Digital Games: Developments in Art, Design and Interaction. CRC Press. p. 178. ISBN 978-1-317-50381-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=xLVdDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA178.
2. ↑ The box cover of the game mistakenly states that up to 2 players can play.
3. ↑ "スーパー32X対応ソフトウェア". SEGA HARD Encyclopedia. Sega. 2020. http://sega.jp/fb/segahard/32x/soft.html. Retrieved 2020-08-08.
4. ↑ "Fact-Files - 32X - Metal Head". Electronic Gaming Monthly (Sendai Publishing) (67): 136–137. February 1995. https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File:EGM_US_067.pdf&page=136.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Merrett, Steve; Patterson, Mark (March 1995). "CVG Review: Metal Head". Computer and Video Games (EMAP) (160): 90–91. https://archive.org/details/computer-and-video-games-magazine/Computer and Video Games 160/page/n89/mode/2up.
6. ↑ "April Release on 32X - Metal Head". New Releases Catalogue (Sega): 28. April 1995. https://segaretro.org/images/5/52/NewReleasesCatalogueApril-May1995AU.pdf#page=28. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
7. ↑ "Metal Head Mistake Caught by Alert Reader". Electronic Gaming Monthly (Ziff Davis) (71): 20. June 1995.
8. ↑ "World in Progress: Metal Head (Mega Drive 32X)". Computer and Video Games (United Kingdom: Future plc) (158 (January 1995)): 26. 15 December 1994. https://retrocdn.net/images/8/84/CVG_UK_158.pdf#page=26.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Semrad, Ed; Carpenter, Danyon; Manuel, Al; Sushi-X (April 1995). "Review Crew: Metal Head". Electronic Gaming Monthly (Sendai Publishing) (69): 36. https://archive.org/details/electronic-gaming-monthly-issue-069-april-1995_202106/page/n37/mode/1up.
10. ↑ "New Games Cross Review: メタルヘッド" (in ja). Famitsu (ASCII Corporation) (324): 42. March 3, 1995.
11. ↑ "32X At a Glance: Metal Head". Game Informer (Sunrise Publications) (24): 52. April 1995. https://archive.org/details/game-informer-issue-24-april-1995/page/n53/mode/1up.
12. ↑ West, Neil (April 1995). "Review: Metal Head". Game Players (Signal Research) (70): 45. https://archive.org/details/game-players-issue-70/page/n46/mode/1up.
13. ↑ Kirrane, Simon (March 1995). "Reviews: Metal Head". GamesMaster (Future Publishing) (27): 68.
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Swan, Angus; Merrett, Steve (March 1995). "32X Review: Metal Head". Mean Machines Sega (EMAP Images) (29): 66–68. https://archive.org/details/mean-machines-sega-magazine-29/page/n65/mode/2up.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Finals - 32X: Metal Head". Next Generation (Imagine Media) (4): 90. April 1995. https://archive.org/details/nextgen-issue-004/page/n91/mode/1up.
16. ↑ Hardin, John Wesley (June 1995). "Consoles: Light Metal — Metal Head fills the mech game niche for the 32X". Electronic Games (Decker Publications) 3 (6): 80–81. https://archive.org/details/electronic-games-1995-06/page/80/mode/2up.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Morris, Evan; Carter, Bryan (December 1995). "The Final Word game review - Double Exposure: Metal Head -- Sega". Game Zero Magazine (Game Zero). https://www.gamezero.com/team-0/final_word/32x/metal_head.html. Retrieved 2025-10-15.
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Lloyd, Rich (February 1995). "Mega 32X Review: Metal Head". Mega (Maverick Magazines) (29): 30–32. https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File:Mega_UK_29.pdf&page=30.
19. ↑ Leadbetter, Richard; Guise, Tom (February 1995). "Mega Drive 32X Review: Metal Head". Sega Magazine (EMAP Images) (14): 80–81. https://archive.org/details/sega-14/page/20/mode/2up.
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Mortlock, Dean (April 1995). "Reviews: Metalhead". Sega Power (Future Publishing) (65): 57. https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File:SegaPower_UK_65.pdf&page=57.
21. ↑ Hill, Mark (April 1995). "Review: Metal Head". Sega Pro (Paragon Publishing) (43): 48–49. https://archive.org/details/sega-pro-43/page/48/mode/2up.
22. ↑ "HYPER MEGA EXPRESS for 16Bit User - メガ・ギアドッグレース: メタルヘッド" (in ja). Sega Saturn Magazine (SoftBank Creative) 11 (3): 129. June 1995. https://archive.org/details/sega-saturn-magazine-ja-1995-03-01/page/129/mode/1up.
23. ↑ "Ultimate Review Sector: Metal Head". Ultimate Future Games (Future Publishing) (5): 79. April 1995. https://archive.org/details/ultimate-future-games-05/page/n78/mode/1up.
24. ↑ Hallock, Betty (April 1995). "Power Reviews: Metal Head". VideoGames - The Ultimate Gaming Magazine (Larry Flynt Publications) (75): 72–73. https://archive.org/details/Video_Games_The_Ultimate_Gaming_Magazine_Issue_75_April_1995/page/n71/mode/2up.
25. ↑ "Game Search". https://sites.google.com/site/gamedatalibrary/game-search.
26. ↑ Nishibu, Masako (June 1995). "メガドライブ" (in ja). Micom BASIC Magazine (ja). Super Soft Hot Information (The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation (ja)) (156): 30–31. https://archive.org/details/micom-basic-1995-06-june-ozidual/Micom Basic 1995 06 (J OCR)/page/30/mode/1up.
27. ↑ "メガドラ読者レース" (in ja). Sega Saturn Magazine (SoftBank Creative) 11 (9): 82–85. September 1995. https://archive.org/details/sega-saturn-magazine-ja-1995-09-01/page/84/mode/1up.
28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `GameFan32Xmh`
29. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `GW32Xmh`
30. ↑ LaMancha, Manny (April 1995). "ProReview: Metal Head". GamePro (IDG) (79): 60. https://archive.org/details/GamePro_Issue_069_April_1995/page/n61/mode/1up.

## External links

* Sega-16.com's Metal Head review and Sega 32X Master's List

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal Head. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software:Metal_Head&oldid=3951530"
*[WW]: Worldwide