Metal Wolf Chaos XD

Metal Wolf Chaos XD is an exercise in pure Americana filtered through the cheesiest anime imaginable. The banter between President Wilson and his assistant Jodie Crawford is rarely serious, Vice President Hawk is a pure cartoon villain with a character design that would almost be at home in Metal Gear Solid, and the action starts off over the top and escalates from there. Each level is its own unique challenge, whether it’s carefully dashing from one side of the Grand Canyon to the other and back again, dodging bombs as they fall on Miami Beach, or racing against time to prevent the giant raygun of Alcatraz from frying San Francisco.

Metal Wolf Chaos XD is a bare bones HD upgrade that brings the bonkers cult classic West for modern consoles. Unfortunately, that includes all of its cumbersome gameplay and outdated designs. This re-release is very clearly a 15-year old game that’s really only good for some simple, mindless shooting without much else to offer beyond cheap gags and nostalgia.

Metal Wolf Chaos XD is definitely a child of its time. It's an over the top action fest that has a few issues with it, but can provide a decent amount of entertainment. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the game is seeing FromSoftware's early work and recognising the systems the company would settle on to make the big leap to the more famous follow-ups in the Soulsborne style of games.