It’s a good question really. If I were to list the first 5 mech games that came to my mind they would span across several known genres of games, from first person shooters to turn-based role playing games. So can mechs really be called a genre in the first place if it can be applied to so many types of games?
If I were to speak my mind I would say yes. ‘Mech’ can encompass a narrative concept, an art style, game mechanics, and more. But how a player interacts with these things can vary wildly. So maybe mech is a little like Mario is for games.
Nintendo’s Mario franchise has crossed into probably a dozen genres. Platformer, RPG, sports games. But at the core all of them feature something that makes them all distinctly a Mario game. Aside from the characters they all tend to feature a similar art style, usually some form of jump mechanic, power-ups. But I think Mario Tennis is quite different from Paper Mario or Dr Mario. Is Mario a genre as well? If we hear someone say, “it’s a Mario game,” I feel like we all have a sense of the kind of game it is, regardless of which broad genre it is.
Maybe there is something else we can call that. My first thought is to call it a ‘style.’ It’s a Mario style RPG. It’s a Mech style FPS. It sounds a little funny, but maybe we can think of a better ting to call it, but I think you might understand what I mean.
Power cycle complete, see you tomorrow.