Front Mission on SNES is one of those games that makes you realize how much strategy can hurt your brain—in a good way. You start off with a squad of clunky Wanzer mechs, and right away, you're thrown into this war-torn future where every decision matters. The first mission? Not too bad. Then you realize you can swap out arms, legs, and weapons like some kind of mech mad scientist, and suddenly you're spending way too much time in the garage.

The story hits harder than you'd expect—political backstabbing, shady corporations, soldiers just trying to survive. It’s not just "blow stuff up," though that’s definitely part of it. The grid-based combat feels slow at first, but once you lose a pilot because you didn’t check enemy ranges, you learn real fast. And those boss fights? Brutal. You’ll be reloading saves more than you’d like to admit.

If you like your tactics with a side of existential mech drama, this one’s still worth firing up decades later.