Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Review: Continuing down the path of the non-traditional control scheme that it's predecessors started, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor utilizes a combination of traditional gamepad controls and motion controls with the Kinect.

Mech combat is still really cool

IT'S COMPLETELY BROKEN; Kinect recognition is abysmal and nonexistent; The story is shallow and lacks any real development

If you have fond memories of steering mechs with a 40-button controller in Steel Battalion (original Xbox) almost a decade ago, you may have thought that substituting that monstrous plastic-metal contraption with a Kinect would lead to a gentler, more casual take on the franchise.

+ Clever blend of Kinect motion-sensing and standard controller action; + Really drives home the roughness of warfare and the camaraderie of platoons

? To mirror the original Xbox's

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor is an exercise in trial, error, and exasperation. Unruly controls and vexing missions conspire to make this one of the most aggravating games in recent memory.

Intriguing cockpit-based Kinect control schematic; Some neat crew moments

Controls do not work properly; Missions are poorly laid out; Battlefield intel is scarce; Enemy AI is erratic

I haven't stopped believing in Kinect's concerted gaming potential. A game like Flower , not "casual" or "hardcore" by any stretch, but captivating, clever, and moving, has the listless corners that would fit right into Kinect's approximation controls.

A dismally accurate tank simulation

Kinect controls that plain don't work; Offensive stereotypes; Unreasonable difficulty

Poor: Something went wrong somewhere along the line. The original idea might have promise, but in practice the game has failed. Threatens to be interesting sometimes, but rarely.

Twenty of my thirty crew members died by the halfway point of the game due to my incompetency. Why am I in charge of the platoon again?

I managed to keep a crewmember alive for two consecutive missions.

Kinect-based quicktime events in a timed mission against a boss that can one-shot me

One of the most broken examples of Kinect so far. Read our full review.

+ Interesting concept

Horrible controls and design; No voice controls; Sound mix; I hate my crew

For those of us old enough to remember the first "next gen" console called the original Xbox, the name "Steel Battalion" is the stuff of lore. Nowadays you'll see Street Fighter games release on occasion with special peripheral controllers, or you'll see interesting props that extend the gameplay...

In one of my latest columns, I wrote about how frustrated I have been with the Kinect lately on my 360. At first I enjoyed having that sensor mounted onto my wall, and using it to control my Xbox 360 with just my voice.

Steel Battalion is a battle-mech simulator that lets you seat inside the cockpit of a mechanized VT (Vertical Tank) and enter into futuristic military warfare, where you pilot 20 different mechs in a multinational task force operation in an effort to overthrow the government.