"I like big mechs and I cannot lie ..."

(SING IT!)

"I like big mechs' and I cannot lie
You other cockpit jocks can't deny
When that mech walks in with a great big turret
..."

Uh, That's all I've got.

Anyway, I'm a mech (mecha) game fan.

I played a lot of Heavy Gear. Shogo is one of my favorite (and is one of the most under-rated) fun games out there). Heck, I even played Krazy Ivan.

And there was the relatively recent spate of Zone of the Enders/The 2nd Runner (PS2), MechAssault/MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf (Xbox), and Steel Battalion was the Holy Grail of mech simulators for which I was never able to justify shelling out the $200 for the Customer controller.

And though super-talented animation houses like The Animation Farm may say they're "sick of mechs" in demo reel submissions, I never tire of the big bruisers.

And things are looking good for video game mech fans in the Xbox 360 era.

Besides the rumored development of a next-gen MechAssault title (hopefully we'll hear more at E3), Lost Planet has me seriously stoked, and FROM Software Armored Core vets are bringing Chromehounds exclusively to the Xbox 360 (though I am a little concerned that recent movies make it look a little current-gen MechAssault, and less next-gen Steel Battalion).

As if that isn't enough, FROM Software may also be putting their fourth iteration of the Armored Core franchise on both Xbox 360 and PS3 (though I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled this to make Chromehounds an ongoing Xbox 360 exclusive, make Armored Core 4 a PS3 exclusive).

Cap all of this mech goodness off with Bandai-Namco's yesterday announcement of Mobile Ops: The One Year War, which looks to be a gritty Gundam prehistory, and an Xbox 360 exclusive. This is the formal announcement of the previously announced Xbox 360 Gundam game, and is separate from another Bandai-Namco published game under development -- Zegapain XOR -- "a mech shooter exclusive to the Xbox 360".

Sing it with me:

"I like big mechs' and I cannot lie
You other cockpit jocks can't deny
When that mech walks in with a great big turret
..."