You yourself don't have to be tough. What you need is intelligence.
A spin-off of the Armored Core series, released in 2004 for the Playstation Portable.
Since its inception 25 years ago, Formula Front, televised battles between unmanned Armored Cores, has become the most popular form of entertainment on Earth. Spectators can't get enough of the mix of destructive carnage, speed, and cunning. Those tasked with assembling and programming these deadly machines are known as Architects, and their victory is well-rewarded.
You are a new architect in the Formula Front league, the highest authority in the sport. As the proverbial underdog, you'll rise from the very bottom of the league to its top – and maybe make a friendship or two along the way.
Formula Front ditches mission gameplay entirely to focus on Arena battles. There is no currency system either, and all parts are unlocked from the start. The game's major feature is that instead of controlling your Armored Core directly (at least until later versions added the ability to do so), you have to program its AI, using a slider-based system to dictate its tactics and behaviours in various situations.
The game has seen various releases:
- The western release, Armored Core Formula Front: Extreme Battle, is translated into English and adds the ability to manually control your AC (something referred to as "Naked" operation).
- The Japan-exclusive Playstation 2 is a Reformulated Game, keeping the basic gameplay and interface but with a new story and format. In this version, you are hired by the owner of a failing team to turn things around within five seasons. Differences include having to go through multiple Grand Prix, exclusive characters, and a shift to sequential 5v5 battles rather than 1v1.
- The final release, Armored Core Formula Front: International Edition adds an English language option (though some menu tooltips and subtitles in ingame videos are untranslated) and adds a bonus arena with more opponents than the base game.
Though no direct continuation of Formula Front's formula has surfaced, the game's interface served as the basis for the later PSP ports of 3, Silent Line and Last Raven, and AI programming returns as an optional gameplay feature in Armored Core: Verdict Day.
This game provides examples of:
- Defeating the Undefeatable: The top ranking team Testarossa Artigiana had reigned over the league for a very long time and foiled over forty challenges to their title. The ending notes their defeat at the end of the player signals the start of a new era for Formula Front.
- Friendly Rival: In the PSP story, Linus is a fellow newcomer in the Formula Front league. Though he's initially unbelieving at your victory over him, he warms up to the player over the course of the story and confides in the emails he sends to you.
- Innocent Bystander Series: Where most Armored Core games focus on the high risk, high stakes career of mercenaries, Formula Front instead is a rare civilian POV of the setting.
- Lighter and Softer: The series usual themes of amoral corporate warfare are absent, instead taking place in a bloodless sports league. The UI follow suit, having a slick Ridge Racer-esque look rather than the more subdued interface from previous games.
- Oddball in the Series: The game's Lighter and Softer nature and largely hands-off gameplay makes it one of the more experimental entries in the series, enough so that it's widely rumoured (albeit
false) that the game takes place in an Alternate Universe. - Interquel: The fourth and fifth volume of Enterbrain's Armored Core EXTRA GARAGE reference book establish the game to be one, taking place during the lengthy time gap between Silent Line and Nexus.
- Programming Game: The original Japanese release did not allow direct control of the AC. As such, you had better learn how to program its AI.
- Updated Re-release: Formula Front International is a reissue for the budget The Best line of releases, adding an English translation and extra content.
- Wolverine Publicity: The western cover features a blue Nine-Ball, who doesn't actually appear in the game.
