Steel Battalion was a rather quirky game for its time.  Unlike any other?  Sure.  But it also came with the most realistic vehicle play you could imagine, thanks to a deluxe sized controller that featured literally dozens of functions, ranging from various settings to an eject button, when things got too hot under the collar.  It was definitely an acquired taste, especially with its $200 price tag.  But Capcom is ready to bring this series back for a whole new audience, as it’s doing away with the controller in favor of Kinect-supported controls.  Will that be enough?

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor’s story is being kept under wraps at the moment, but do expect plenty of heavy enemy resistance as you take on an armada of soldiers and bigger vehicles, all within the confines of your Virtual Tank, or VT for short.  But instead of moving forward and blasting like crazy, as you normally would in any given arcade affair (cue flashback of Cyber Sled), you have to tactically figure out the situation and move forward with utmost precision, as any given simulator would have you do.

And this is where things start to get tricky.  Rather than relying on a heavy assortment of buttons and triggers, everything in Steel Battalion is controlled using hand motions.  The game takes advantage of your hand movements to move about your tank controls, choosing certain items and eventually getting an enemy lined up in your sights, ready to fire.  Sometimes you might need to keep team members under control, as we saw in last year’s debut trailer, but the game as a whole will focus on keeping your tank – and yourself – in one piece as you enter each battle.

To be honest, it’s going to be difficult seeing how the motion controls function.  Our guess is that Capcom had to do away with some of the more finicky controls that the original stick possessed, while also integrating some new features that take advantage of arm swings, such as loading a weapon or moving steering forward.  We should have a chance to give the game a better look on the show floor over the week.

One thing’s for sure – Capcom’s ready to do battle.  The company announced today that Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor will launch exclusively for Kinect this June, on the 19^th for America and three days later in Europe.

Look for more information very soon…along with a whole lot of hand gestures.  No, not the finger.

About the Author

Robert Workman

Senior Writer/Editor

Robert has years of experience in the video game industry, writing for such sites as AOL GameDaily, PlanetXbox360 and Comic Book Resources.  He can also outdrink you any day of the week.  And twice on Sunday.  Follow him at www.twitter.com/thedcd.