Remember Air Force One, that movie where Harrison Ford was like, the kickass President of the United States? ... Japan saw that and they were like "We can do better than that!"
0% Approval Rating: In his brief reign as President, Richard has re-established slave labor, completely militarized and fortified the country's major metropolises, flooded the city of Chicago with poison gas, installed a Wave Motion Gun on Alcatraz Island, and terrorized New York with a giant mechanical spider. To his credit, he at least subconsciously acknowledges that everyone hates him and runs a Narmtastically hilarious propaganda campaign to boost his approval ratings out of the .000%-range.
Affectionate Parody: Specifically of From's other series Armored Core, but also of mecha shows, American action movies, and politics in general. Some people claim it's satire, but it's much too cheerful about everything to count as that.
Beyond the Impossible: Just...everything. Taken to unbelievable absurdity. At one point Michael destroys an orbiting space station and then rides a piece of debris back down to Earth like a surfboard
Catch Phrase: No less than five - "Believe in your own justice," for the game as a whole, "Because, yes! The pen is still mightier than the sword!" for Peter MacDonald, "I, Richard Hawk," for, well, Richard Hawk, "Because I am the President of the United States!" for Michael and "The password is ______" for the Government Policy Promotion Department. No, really.
"Owkay... LET'S PARTYYYYY!!!"
Card-Carrying Villain: We never hear any of Richard's motivations beyond some incomprehensible propaganda near the beginning. He just hates freedom for some reason.
RICHARD!: What do you think of my cute lil' pet? Thanks to him, the people of New York City are right now festively... uh... Running around and trying to escape! Uh, it's like a big ol' carnival, it's like Mardi Gras, in New York or something, heh heh heh...
The Evil Army: Though they are always referred to as the "coup d'etat forces", pretty much the entire United States Military seems to be in on the coup.
Evil Chancellor: Richard demonstrates once again that "Vice President of the United States" is a modern way to say "Grand Vizier."
Fighting Your Friend: Michael ends up fighting a lot of his old friends from the army. They don't come out well.
Foe Yay: Richard and Michael's relationship is very... charged to say the least. Richard even points this out during one battle. Later that same battle, he sounds like he confirms this with the line "I'll...hug you to death!" However, his delivery of this line might suggest that he's just running out of effective tauntsto begin the fight with, especially because he delivers this line late in the game. But then again, that theory gets thrown out of the window later in that same fight...
...Are those mechs arm-wrestling? Over the podium with the President's seal? While onlookers cheer them on?
For the Evulz: Richard pretty much does all his evil crap just to show us he's evil.
Fridge Logic: If you kill any Metal Wolf sympathizers (and their family up to four separations, and friends and co-workers, and their friends,family, and co-workers) Won't you have to pretty much kill the entire nation at that point- Oh wait Metal Wolf Chaos. Nevermind then.
Fridge Brilliance: Would you really put it past Richard Hawk? He did try to nuke America from orbit after all!
Gratuitous English: While most of the English is quite good, the song titles on the soundtrack are just strange. "The President Spirit"? "Moduration City"? "Assign Monk"? "Dept Blue"? Yeah...
There are a few mistakes outside song titles, however. "Kill the legs, that's an iron-clad battle tactic" indeed.
I Got Better: Characters regularly survive helicopter explosions, hand waving it by saying "we have thorough knowledge of how to escape", or even just "I have somehow managed to escape!".
Ludicrous Precision: Jody flat-out guesses it will take the Alcatraz Cannon four minutes to recharge. This turns out to be accurate to the nearest hundredth of a second.
Monumental Damage: Richard tries to do this to the Statue of Liberty. And while it's more of a Weaponized Landmark, Jodie and Michael consider the Fight House to be this.
Moral Dissonance: Who knows who many perfectly innocent Americans, not to mention soldiers just doing their jobs, Michael blows up in his fight for freedom? More importantly, who cares? Go blow more of it up!
And don't worry about killing innocents. Only the really evil people die. Barring Richard himself, presumably.
More Dakka: No one can EVER have enuff dakka, but between this and all his Macross Missile Massacre goodness, Metal Wolf sure does make a mighty effort towards having almost enuff.
Noodle Incident: While it's hinted at that Michael's presidency, Richard's evilness, and nearly every involved party's past is connected to a conflict called the Arizona Conflict or the Arizona Insurrection, we are never shown or told about what exactly happened there. All we are told (as an aside, no less) is that Michael received a Congressional Medal of Honor during that conflict.
Patriotic Fervor: Only because it's a Japanese video game, it's more like Hot Blooded translated into the world of politics.
Propaganda Machine: This trope has been an announcement from the Government Policy Promotion Department, where our motto, "Justice over Theory," is your motto.
Psycho Supporter: While Jodie doesn't really do anything outside her support role, her Ax Crazy tendencies reach a new high when shooting down and capturing all of the game's Easter Egg UFOs nets you her alien-themed rendition of "Ten Little Indians." (Which begs the question: How did Jodie know the aliens were boys?)
It's so over the top that it's the more sublime moments that really jump out at you.
The game starts with the President in a Mini Mecha bursting out of the White House with a extremely Engrishy "LET'S PARRRTYYYYYYYYY!" and goes up from there.
Among other things, the massive assault helicopter/floating fortress is named Olajuwon, after Hakeem Olajuwon, the star of the Houston Rockets during the 90's who led the team to winning back-to-back world championships.
Sky Surfing: More like atmospheric reentry surfing.
And later From Software game Ninja Blade is the spiritual successor to Metal Wolf Chaos, doing to Ninja Gaiden what this did to Armored Core. The game is set chronologically earlier than MWC, and Michael Wilson gets a Previous Player Character Cameo as the player's boss. He's taken hostage by a villainous ninja halfway through the game, and an entire cutscene is devoted to him breaking out of his bonds and beating the shit out of the ninja with his bare hands.
Super Drowning Skills: A real pain in the ass when dealing with a cruiser off the coast of Miami requires you to take aim from perfectly destructible gunboats parked just outside the shallow water Metal Wolf can safely navigate.
Wave Motion Gun: The Alcatraz Cannon, an anti-terrorism weapon. As the narrator on the Let's Play video above comments on it:
"I just love the idea of building a massive particle cannon to fight terrorism. I can just picture some poor sap with a dirty bomb in a shopping mall, blown to smithereens by giant laser artillery. Wouldn't be out of place in this game."
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