The Xbox's low popularity in Japan led Microsoft to team up with FromSoftware to develop a mecha game for the system.

Publisher Devolver Digital released Metal Wolf Chaos XD, a remastered version of the game, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in August 2019.

[1] The player takes on the role of Michael Wilson, the President of the United States, piloting an armored mech with a large arsenal of weapons, and must fight their way through destructible environments full of enemy infantry, tanks, and helicopters.

Saving hostages unlocks musical tracks for the game and special weapons, while the energy pods give the player additional shields for protection from enemy attack.

The military launches a coup d'état, led by Vice President Richard Hawk, and succeeds in gaining control of the nation's government institutions.

[c] Wilson realizes he is the country's last hope for freedom, and he dons a special mech developed in secret by the military to fight Hawk and the rebel forces, aided by his secretary Jody Crawford.

It's completely fictional, but at the time, it was our idea of this ideology of American culture and comic book heroes, and we pieced that together and it became the president piloting the mech.

Journalist John Sczepaniak believed the game's American satire and themes of terrorism may have given publishers cold feet.

[5] Metal Wolf Chaos remained as part of a small selection of Japanese exclusives for the original Xbox system.

[4] In 2016, American publisher Devolver Digital posted a message on Twitter offering to help localize Metal Wolf Chaos.

The cross-functional team's priority was to release the game as it originally was, while upgrading visuals and potentially adding additional story missions.

[18][19][20] Brad Shoemaker (GameSpot) and Chris Carle (IGN) expressed their opinions of Metal Wolf Chaos based upon a demo they played at the 2004 Tokyo Game Show.

The graphics, music, and characters' vernacular all drip of super-sized Americana, giving the game a surprisingly fresh and fun atmosphere".

Although he agreed with the other sentiments shared by Carle and Shoemaker, Payton found that the game grew worse with repeated play.

He felt that the combo system, which was designed to extend the game's longevity, was flawed due to glitches and interrupting gameplay tips from a sidekick.