..
To the Japanease audience, though, these
..
THE JUPFIllESE
..
EDlTlOn .
..
by Stephan Matis
..
Foreshadowed by Japan's Dragon
magazinein early 1992,the Japanese
edition of BattleTech: A Game of
..
ArmoredCombatis a completegraphic
makeover of the FASA classic.
~ d ~ i ~FASA
~ l borrowed
b , ..
and later
licensed the art in BattleTechto give the
' ...
game the proper feelOf "Giant Two
LeggedTanks".FASAsBatHeDroids st
..,
edition and BattleTech 2nd 6 3rd edi-
tiOnS were assembled Using 14 'Mechs
which all originated from the following
three Japanese animations: Macross,
Crusher Joe and Dougram. {the table
below listseach BmleMech with its
original animation name and show)
. animations are ancient, some over 10
years old. To capture the attention of their
market, the Group SNE and Studio Nue
xulpted an image that conforms to the
8
cutting edge of Japanese Mecha.
Surprisingly, the "Japanese Edition" is not a
8 boxed set. Instead,the whole thing is pack-
aged ingeniously in a half inch folder, with
a beautiful Shadow-Hawk on the cover.
This isn't your father's Shadow-Hawk! A
'Mech standing 12 meterstall, with the tiny
pilot leaning on the cockpit's canopy and
all the weapons and amrrio laid out fora
8 photo opportunity. Much like the poster
you see of modern day fighters. Wow!
Inside you'll find two "classic" BattleTech
maps, a booklet and four pages worth of
counters. Thecountersaresmallerthanthose
of FASA and fold into ingenious standing
triangles, with the imagesofthe BattleMechs
.. Morpheus and Colossus, built by Omnitech
front and back depicted in awesomecolors. design studio, in Solaris VII.
If FASA had not switched to plastic minatures '
for the 3rd edition, these cardboard 'Mechs ' The booklet uses the same cover 0 s the
would have shamed their counters! It's 0 whole package, that wonderful-looking
challenge to recognize 011 the BottleMechs
YOU know 50 well
times staggering!
the focelifrs ore some- .
Shadow Hawk. As far as I'm able to verify,
the booklet turns out to be o straight trans-
lation of the well-known 2nd Edition FASA
boxed set. In fact, the headingsof sections
The Japanese artiststruly re-inventedthese are written in English, giving you plenty of
. but a haunting similarity follows. You'll spot
the Locust,Stinger andWasp easily, but you
..
'Mechs. Nothing really remains the some, = indications of what's being discussed. Un-
less you can read Kanji and Katakana, the
bookletwill only offer you a niceglimpseof
.. won't believeit's a Marauder standing next the artistry, so you may as well turn to the
to them! You'll recognizethese four 'Mechs ' section entitled : BAllLEMECH DATA/
.. .
from Solaris VII, where FASAs Art Director. ' BAllLEMECHRECORDSHEET. Here, you can
"Sensei" Laubenstein, painted the rendi- browse through the sketches done by the
.. .
tions that adorn some of the trading cards. 8 artists of Studio Nue. The following 8 pages
They were renamed Koto, Tsunami, showthetraditional 14 'Mechsweallcome
..
I
.
rn
..
..
..
..
.
 to expect in BattleTech and the Chame-
leon trainer. 8

Discounting a little bit of artistic freedom,

the 'Mechs properlyrepresentthe weapons
and equipment found in the Technical
Readout 3025 descriptions. One obvious '
modification is the Chameleon training
'Mech, which now sports a dual cockpit 8

design, much like trainer fighters. Another,

the Battlemaster, has been given a "Teu-
tonic Knight" look, by placing the SRM6
above the head in a "feather" pattern.
Impressive looks! 8

The record sheets themselves are dupli-

catesof FASAs old stock, but the addition of
a recognition silouherte is very nice. If you
want to learn some simple Kanji charm-
ters, the record sheets are areat because
I
8

they seem to be straight translations. So I

now you con write left, right, shoulder and 8

Ammo Explosionin Kanji. Isn'tthatwonder-
8
ful?
8

FASA sold this edition for roughly 25s US at I

conventions, where it was an eye turner. '

Will the internationalgamer audience, es- 8
pecially the American, accept this new
8
look for the aging game?I am unsure. But
the success of the Solaris VI1 boxed set, with I

similar art, at least guarantees an outlet for 8

ARC-2R ARCHER b1r-1G BATTLEMASTER CRD9R CRUSADER
some other art pieces from Japan. 8 >,
*+
"

What else can we expect from the Japa-

nese BattleTech? To paraphrase Scott
Jenkins. BattleTech developer at FASA :
"They have the license and they can do as 8

they please." Already, the aformentioned 8

Japanese Dragon issue had presented a

completeroleplayingpreviewof BattleTech
using Mechwarrior1st Edition rules. Can we
expect more? Surely an RPG handbook
and possibly some Technical readout and
maybeminotures.Inwhat timeframe?FASA 8

doesn't Iknow or isn't telling. GRF-1N GRIFFIN 1ct-1V LOCUST PXH-1 PHOENIX HAWK
8

FASA has been increasingly cooperating

with Japanese interests in the past year or
two. Notice the upcoming SNES and Sego
games, the art for 3055 by Victor Musical 8

Industries and, of course, the Japanese

edition. FASAssistercompony,Vimal Worlds
Inc.,the brainsbehindthe BattleTechCenter
olready has two sites in Japan: Tokyo and
Yokohama. The marketing promo says : 8

"It's better then ridinga cow!" Isure think so! 8

I
BatrleTech has returned to its artistic origin
and re-emerged as an excitinq and em-
bellished product. Now a11 that's left is to RFL9N RIFLEMAN STG9R STINGER TDR-5S THUNDERBOLT
animate it! 8