Metacritic Games

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System (Xbox)

Defiant. Determined. Destructive. Blast your way to victory as Glitch, the gun-slinging, half-ton menacing bot of Droid City. Found as scrap metal, but transformed into destructive machinery, Glitch is determined to free his people from the evil clutches of General Corrosive and his maniacal army of Mil bots. Unleash a world of pain as you annihilate the General's sinister plan to dominate the world, and salvage the robot race! [Vivendi Universal]

Vivendi Universal / Sierra
Action, Third-Person Shooter
Players: 4
T (Teen)
Developer: Swingin' Ape Studios
Released November 18, 2003

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

82 / 100

Critic Reviews

100 AceGamez
Imaginative graphics and superb sound, a sprawling adventure packed full of neat touches and cool weapons, great humour and an accomplished multiplayer; Glitch embodies what games are really all about - challenge, entertainment and fun.
94 XboxAddict
Comical, Fun and fast passed.
93 Game Chronicles
One of the most delightful and exciting action titles you can play on the Xbox or any console for that matter.
91 Play Magazine
The detail spent on each and every droid is amazing, as are the physics applied, and the locales, from the underground tunnels to the ravaged cityscapes topside, are splendid. [Nov 2003, p.89]
90 Official Xbox Magazine
All of this action and adventure is brought to life by a combination of tight technology and superb control. The graphics are colorful and do a great job tapping into the Xbox GPU while maintaining a great frame-rate throughout. [Nov 2003, p.100]
90 1UP
Flat out, this is an amazing shooter. You can fight through over 50 levels, upgrade your weapons, take control of enemies, recruit enemies to help you fight, drive different types of tanks, and a lot more -- think "Ratchet & Clank" fused with "Halo."
90 Deeko
It’s not hard to fall in love with the gameplay, as it is solid and as instinctive as you can get... nor is it difficult to become enamored with the overall style of the game.
90 Xbox Nation Magazine
Second only to "Halo," Arms is the best shooter on Xbox. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.80]
90 Worth Playing
Even strictly offline as it is, Metal Arms is a damned fine game, combining an actual, real challenge with an idiosyncratic sense of humor and a sense of scale that's all too often AWOL in console releases.
89 GamingTrend
Whether you enjoy the humor aspect, the run and gun gameplay, or the fast and furious multiplayer, Glitch has a little something for everyone. The small details in the title and some of the innovations will keep you coming back for more, even if some of the gameplay is mindless repetition.
86 TeamXbox
This title does a great job of adding familiar elements of platforming and first-person shooter titles to an intense fast-paced action game.
85 3DAvenue
For those of you wanting something different, and a bit of a laugh along the way, its enough to say that Metal Arms: Glitch in The System is the ticket.
85 GameSpy
A capable, attractive little robot in loads of bullet-riddled action. It's challenging and twitchy, with enough variation to keep the most distracted player hooked for the duration.
85 GameZone
Looks great, plays well, but is fairly typical of the action/arcade genre.
85 Next Level Gaming
One of the sleeper hits of the holiday season. Certainly worth checking out!
85 Game Informer
An incredibly engagning action game with a good dose of humor and scads of originality. [Nov 2003, p.169]
84 Armchair Empire
The last great game of 2003 you’ve never heard of.
83 GameSpot
Though its balance is a little questionable at times, Metal Arms has quietly come onto the scene to offer one of the most visceral and most satisfying shooting experiences in quite a while.
83 IGN
A surprisingly well-made action-shooter with a lot of heart. The game successfully merges a light-hearted storyline with some seriously intense combat, a good measure of strategy and a fun multiplayer mode. Oh, and the weapons in this title are downright awesome.
82 Firing Squad
In many ways, Metal Arms feels built on a generic foundation, but the developers have done much to dress it up with great gameplay and genuine laugh-out-loud moments, making it one of the better choices in the action game category.
80 Yahoo! Games
The difficulty level is impressively even, remaining challenging enough to hold the attention, but rarely crossing too far into frustration.
80 Electronic Gaming Monthly
Easily a contender for sleeper hit of the year, providing an excellent mix of platform-style exploration and fast-paced, action-packed gunplay that manages to stay fresh and interesting throughout. [Dec 2003, p.199]
80 GamePro
This massive third-person shooter from newcomer Swingin’ Ape Studios features an epic scope, boffo production, great controls, and thoroughly enjoyable gameplay propelled by a somewhat cliché-ridden yet ingratiatingly humorous story.
80 TotalGames.net
There's just so much in Metal Arms to enjoy. Sure, it steals elements from numerous other games, but Swingin' Ape Studios has added so much charm to the game that you can't help but be impressed. If you're looking for a visually striking, entertaining blaster, pick it up: you won't be disappointed.
80 Edge Magazine
This is ballsy, brash, confident gaming at its best - a lesson in how games don't have to be perfect to be brilliant. [Christmas 2003, p.102]
80 Gamestyle
Less endearing is the proliferation of 'bleeped' language.
77 GamingWorld X
Yeah, the framerate could be better and the main weapons are kind of uninspired, but the action is intense and it provides a great challenge.
75 Gaming Age
It's a mix of Battlebots and Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots, with guns. The only thing dragging it down is the monotony in the later levels where the fighting starts to feel a bit old and the personality starts to wear off.
75 Game Revolution
Online play could have done wonders for some of the repetition. But if you stick it out, you may be too drunk off the inebriating style and intense action to notice your 20th play-through. Metal Arms: Glitch in the System does what it does very well.
70 GamerFeed
Even though, at its core, Metal Arms isn't too different from most other run 'n gun games, the variety of mission types keeps this title from getting old.
70 GMR Magazine
Holding back the fun are severe slowdown and scripting problems; hectic firefights and complex rooms often crush the game's framerate, and some event triggers can be irrevocably hung up, forcing a restart. [Dec 2003, p.92]
70 games(TM)
Highly entertaining and, above all, fun. Despite being filled with all manner of videogame cliches, Metal Arms somehow feels refreshingly new and not at all like the cobbled together title that it so undoubtedly is. [Christmas 2003, p.103]
70 Eurogamer
Simply put it borrows a hatful of ideas, implements them well but never truly wows you as a landmark gaming experience.
70 Loaded Inc
The fun factor for me was killed with a focus on trial-and-error against near-impossible enemies.
60 Weekly Famitsu
6 / 6 / 6 / 6 - 24 [Vol 805; 28 May 2004]

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