Steel Battalion

Only limited quantities were made available. These quickly sold out, making the game a collector's piece. It has since been re-released in limited quantities worldwide, with blue controller buttons distinguishing it from the first edition with green buttons.

• Developer — * Nude Maker • Capcom Production Studio 4 • Publisher — Capcom • Director — Hifumi Kono • Producer — Atsushi Inaba • Artist — * Hirokazu Yonezuka • Sawaki Takeyasu • Composer — Naru Shirai • Genre — Action, vehicle simulation • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — Xbox

At the beginning of every mission, the player must start up the machine and operating system; this is handled through a series of switches and buttons dedicated to this purpose. If a corner is turned too fast, the machine will tumble over. If the player's machine overheats, its operating system must be reset. The game even simulates window wipers in case of mud hitting the monitor. If the player does not eject when prompted, the player's in-game character will die and the game will delete its own saved data, prompting the player to start over. Vertical tanks (VTs) are the vehicles piloted in the series. Essentially bipedal walking weapons platforms, VTs are classed by their developmental generation and sub-categorised by their combat role. Primary combat roles are standard combat, assault, support, scout, and fast attack. Vertical tanks are divided into three weight classes: light, medium and heavy. As the player progresses, new generations of VTs become available. This allows a newer, more advanced operating system, startup sequence, and combat functions, as well as a wider cockpit view and layout. New generation VTs also handle better and can provide better firepower than previous generations.

• Illustration — The re-released Steel Battalion controller, identifiable by its blue buttons. Steel Battalion was developed by Nude Maker (former Human Entertainment developers) in collaboration with Capcom Production Studio 4. Inaba's superiors were skeptical about putting such a game on the market. The number of staff working on the project grew according to the team's experience with making new hardware. The earliest build of the game was created for the PlayStation 2. However, when the Xbox became available, the development team switched to it because of the system's greater power. Online play was taken out of consideration close to the development's start due to being too ambitious. While the game and its special controller received critical acclaim, the project turned little profit. Steel Battalion was released for the Xbox in Japan on September 12, 2002.

A sequel called Steel Battalion: Line of Contact was released in 2004, and also used the game's unique controller. The third installment called Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor was released in June 2012. This installment uses the Kinect motion sensor control rather than the original controller.