Titanfall and its superb sequel Titanfall 2 both have anime and manga deep in their veins. After all, the game series is about soldiers and their giant robots fighting massive interplanetary wars. That more or less sums up pretty much every anime that made it to the US during the 1980s. And it’s something Honest Trailers hilariously brings up again and again in their take on the whole franchise.
The basic thrust of the trailer is that the first game was a dry run for the second game, which really is the truth: the single-player campaign in Titanfall 2 alone shows more creative energy in a handful of levels than you can find in entire games. Also the multiplayer manages to make losing fun, largely because being blown up by a robot is almost as entertaining as blowing them up. Come on, of all the ways to die in a video game, “stomped by giant robot” is the one you want on your digital tombstone.
As usual, the Honest Trailers team is on point with their criticism, but the affection underneath is hard to deny. Now, of course, the only question is whether EA can get the licenses to Gundam and give us the mech video game the ’80s kid inside us all desperately wants.