Metal Max (メタルマックス, Metaru Makkusu) is a role-playing video game series created by Hiroshi Miyaoka and his studio Crea-Tech.
Since the trademark issue was resolved by Enterbrain, some games in the series have been released under the title Metal Max again.
In 1999, an official announcement was made for a Dreamcast entry titled Metal Max: Wild Eyes, but was cancelled.
The first title Metal Saga: Chain of Sandstorm was released for PlayStation 2 in 2005 in Japan, and re-released in the next year with a cheaper price.
Metal Saga: New Frontier is a 2010 massively multiplayer online role-playing browser game.
It collected an original story Metal Max Momo which based on the series, along with another three comics.
It was collected in Tokuma Shoten's Super Famicom New Game Sound Museum Vol.7, and contains three soundtracks from Metal Max 2.
[6][7] In March 2011, a live concert of Metal Max 3 with another game Dariusburst was held in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Other related goods contains T-shirt, cup, themed poster and so on, usually packed with limited edition games.
They lack a predetermined story path, but the player is instead given the choice of what missions to follow in whichever order while being able to visit almost any place in the game world at any time from the beginning.
The Metal Max series features several recurring characters, like Dr. Minchi, and several wanted like Kamikaze King.
[25] Atsuji Yamamoto, Hiroshi Miyaoka's secondary schoolmate,[26] designed for characters; and Satoshi Kadokura contributed musics.
The first Metal Max was originally planned to be released before next-generation console Super Famicom's arrival, but it was prolonged.
[29] Compared with Dragon Quest and such games focused on story, Metal Max featured an open world similar as Square's Romancing SaGa.
[27] During this period, the Japanese magazine Super Logo Design rumoured that Crea-Tech would publish Metal Max 3: Heart of Gold for the PlayStation.
[26] In 1999, Care-Tech announced that the sequel would be published for the Dreamcast, and tentatively named it Metal Max Overdrive, and planned to be published by ASCII Entertainment,[32] then later renamed it Metal Max: Wild Eyes and announced to be released in winter 2000.
[33] Wild Eyes was significantly influenced by MMORPG EverQuest in many aspects, which included a full 3D seamless map.
[35] In the late 1990s, Data East ran into financial trouble and sold the games' remake rights to help them survive.
[39] Shinjuku Express was terminated from Data East's bankruptcy trustee and Metal Max Returns Kai was cancelled.
Hiroshi Miyaoka didn't join the project at the beginning,[26] and new character designer instead of Atsuji Yamamoto.
The game producer originally planned to port predecessors, but was declined because Success didn't hold licenses about old titles.
A cheaper edition of Metal Saga was released in March 2006 in Japan with minor changes.
[53] Considered that there were many light new users, and grinding might be boring, the protagonist has a high statistics with game starting.
[59] Japanese video game critics usually praised the series' high degree of freedom and vehicle system.
The first title received a 29 out of 40 from Japanese video game magazine Famitsu, and has sold more than 120,000 copies in Japan.
[60] Metal Max 2's Game Boy Advance remake sold 9,500 copies,[70] and received negative reception due to its bug.
[28][41] Japanese magazine Famitsu and Dengeki PlayStation gave Metal Saga a 30/40 and 330/400, respectively.
[65] Japanese players enjoyed game's free adventure, character customization system similar as Wizardry and Dragon Quest III, and vehicle transformation, but complained about lot of goals and high encounter rate.
Metal Saga got a mixed reception in western media, which ranked 64% and 62% on the review score aggregator sites GameRankings and Metacritic, respectively.
[72][73] While the game's sense of humour, music and solid hours of gameplay won it some positive marks, reviewers scoffed at the dated graphics, lack of plot, and missing feeling of progression.