The NFL, NBA, and MLB may be popular now, but come 2071 AD no one's going to be tail gating at stadiums or watching cheerleaders parade around a basketball court. Nope, those past times will be replaced by advanced robot fighting, where pilots in tricked out mechs zip around arenas blasting one another into scrap metal. Well, at least that's the future according to Konami and Genki, both of which are readying the 3D PS2 blast fest S.L.A.I.: Steel Lancer Arena International for its September 20 release. But after messing around with a preview I'm not so sure that I want to let go of the football. The developers have some good ideas but I think they're trying too hard.

Despite S.L.A.I.'s technical mumbo jumbo the game's concept is a recipe for success. The owner of an SV (Scoot Vehicle), you can customize it to your liking, adding weapons, armor, and other goodies, then enter it into a tournament where you must vanquish numerous foes to survive. In fact, there are supposedly well over one million different robot combinations so you could theoretically spend hours tricking out your ride, and to make things even sweeter, Genki's tossed in an online multiplayer mode where up to six people can blast the hell out of one another.

What I'm struggling with is the game's Story Mode. In it you play as a new entry in a pretty humongous tournament, and you move to and fro throughout this cyber network. Interacting with several info daemons (which are displayed as these weird looking creatures that have reduced frames of animation), you'll learn how to pilot your new toy, how to customize it, and other useful nuggets of information. The problem is there's just way too much story going on and it's not especially interesting. It's just screens and screens of text and lifeless characters. Plus, there are no voiceovers so there's a lot of reading, plus I had to pass what is called a FIRA exam to qualify to participate. This was actually spread over a two day period, so I entered the NYC arena, annihilated someone, then watched dumbfounded as the screen faded black and I was told to come back tomorrow. For kicks, I came back, but thing's didn't become easier. There are so many places to go, people to talk to, and things to learn that I began to lose interest.

To be fair, the Story Mode appears to be fairly deep, as in 50 hours long, so if you're willing to immerse yourself in all that this game has to offer than it'll probably entertain you. But Genki and Konami don't need to reinvent the proverbial wheel with this game. All they have to say is "be a robot and blow up other robots" and most people will be sold. Frustrate the hell out of them with an insanely deep single player component, and the gameplay may lose its luster.

Thankfully there's Quick Battle Mode, where you can bypass the narrative and start shooting things, so at the very least the developers have designed the game to appeal to different audiences. In this particular mode, you select an SV and then deploy it into one of several environments, the object being to dispose of a set number of other robots until the big Mack daddy enters the fray, and once you beat him or her you'll move onto the next mission.

As for the game itself I like what Genki's put together. You basically just roll or dash around a somewhat small arena, point the cursor over an enemy and frantically button mash. The levels that I've seen, NYC, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, and London, feature some destructible elements such as busses and containers, and there are bridges, boats, and ramps to ride around on, but nothing about these locales necessarily wows me, though I'm going to assume that online play is one of this title's biggest selling points, the other being the deep level of customization.

There are numerous types of mechs in the game and all of them fall into a certain class, so there are units that excel at melee attacks, pack grenades, have chain guns, roll on wheels, or zip around on two legs. The ability to choose enables you to fight the way that you want, and there's enough additional items that you can slap onto your SV to make it a more efficient killing machine.

Visually there's a lot going on in S.L.A.I. The intro is a nice blend of real and CG footage, so it's cool watching these mechs race about NYC blowing $#%# up. In game, the SVs as well as the environments are nicely detailed and everything runs smoothly. Plus, the optical camouflage effect is a nice touch. But at this point the explosions are very underwhelming.

The music is also kind of funky. Most of what I've heard is from bands, and it creates quite a strange mix when applied to the gameplay. I'm at odds with it actually, unsure if the mindless blasting works with what's commonly heard in stereotypical teenage party flicks. My brain's trying to resist it, yet I can't say that I truly dislike it.

The last time I saw Steel Lancer Arena International was at E3 2004 and it was a complete mess, so I'm very happy that the developers have fixed the camera issues and made the controls really tight. It may not turn out to be the ultimate mech experience, but S.L.A.I. will certainly find its niche amongst the Sony faithful, especially since it's the most exciting PS2 online game since...since...yeah!