Zoids: The Battle Begins

In this game you are a visiting Earthman, caught in the war between ancient enemies. After you crashed, you joined your rescuers in their war for survival. You are the blue side; your enemies are colored red. You control a gigantic battle-robot, called a Zoid, to attack and defeat other Zoids.

The action takes place from within the cockpit. You have to learn a new way of looking at the world, as your only contact with outside is through the instrument panels of the Zoid. This is not intuitive--it takes some reading, some experimentation, and lots of practice.

What you see on the screen while playing is the cockpit control panels. The computer displays your health and the health of your battle robot both visually and audibly. You see your heartbeat and the bot has a similar heartbeat. You also hear you heartbeats, and these tell you how your combined overall health is.

Other features of the cockpit include a radar-style map that shows your Zoid in relation to the world around you. The map includes terrain features, and anything your instruments pick up is put on the map. All your game controls are displayed around the map, the railgun, shields, jamming, missiles, and general information panels.