Video Game / Battle Clash

Battle Clash, known in Japan as Space Bazooka, is a Mecha-themed Light Gun Game released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992 which supported the Super Scope light gun peripheral. It was developed by Intelligent Systems of Fire Emblem and Advance Wars fame. The player assumes the role of the gunner of a mecha ("Standing Tank", the game's preferred terminology) known as the "Falcon", as he helps the pilot, Michael Anderson, defeat the other Standing Tanks around the world in a tournament called the "Battle Game". Eventually, the player and Mike's journey take to the Moon, where they face the tournament's champion, the alien Anubis, the murderer of Mike's father.

The sequel Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge, released in 1993, took a Sequel Escalation approach to the original game's premise. The "Battle Game" tournament in the previous game is revealed to be a front for an incoming alien invasion, which now took Mike and the player to other planets around the solar system to defeat the invaders. The sequel further refined the gameplay by adding a training stage to the beginning and a second playable Standing Tank in the form of the "Tornado", piloted by a mysterious young girl named Carol Eugene.

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These games use the following tropes:

• A Mech by Any Other Name: The Battle Games originally were fought using outdated tanks, but as time went on humanoid vehicles were built from the ground up for them, thus giving birth to "Standing Tanks". Most are still roughly tank sized (Falcon is 8.25 meters tall, for example), so the name "Standing Tank" stuck, (the Tornado and upgraded Falcon really push it though, standing at 11.95 and 12.88 meters, respectively).
• Achilles' Heel: Certain STs have weak points that, when hit by a charged shot, will deal lots of damage (or, in Metal Combat, destroy them completely). They don't glow unless you hit them with a high-powered charge shot. In some cases (such as with ST Arachnus), you want to avoid hitting the enemy's weak spot, as it only makes them more powerful.
• Actually a Doombot: Every Anubis encounter is this until the last one in "Metal Combat".
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Any battle against any of Anubis' incarnations. He calls them "nether worlds".
• Ambiguous Gender: Typhon. Even Carol is surprised to hear that he's the "true king".
• Anti-Frustration Features: Lose enough and Mike will give you advice on how to handle the standing tank that's been beating you.
• Anti-Villain: Tasha adopted the people of The Andes as her own and became a chief of Anubis to ensure their protection.
• Appeal to Force: Ikhnaton claims ownership of all oilfields of the Middle East, as well as the titles "Pharaoh of Africa" and "Caliph of the Ottoman Empire", using violence against anyone who disagrees with him.
• Arm Cannon: First Thanatos has two cannons built into its arms. Cobra has an arm that is a cannon.
• Attack Drone: Schneider has three that will quickly tear apart your standing tank. Thanatos 2 has 2. Giga-Desp has six.
• Backpack Cannon: Some of Artemis's shots come at you from behind. Wong shoots missiles out of its back and Cobra leans forward to shoot its missiles at you.
• Berserk Button: When Mike mentions to Carlos that the ST Falcon has a separate person for the gunner. An even bigger one if you fight him with Carol's Tornado in the sequel and he sees the design is more common than he thought.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Siamang has weaponry in its tail. If Cobra's weaponry becomes too damaged it can jettison most of it's parts and shoot at you with it's tail stub.
• Beyond the Impossible: Eddie and the ST Valius. This guy is so fast he can jump out of the corner of one side of the screen and reappear from the other less than a second later, landing in the same exact spot. In other words, he manages to cover the entire span of the stage you're on in a single jump. The stage in question (the Tower of Babel) is a giant space elevator.
• BFG:
  • The ST Baron and Viscount carry large cannons, as do the ST Falcon and Tornado.
  • The ST Cobra is massive in itself and one of its arms is entirely an arm cannon.
• Big Bad: Anubis. Typhon in the sequel.
• Blackout Basement: The core of Space Fortress Eltoria requires you to detonate a lightning bomb to give you any visibility.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Valius has two retractable ones, though Eddie spends all his time shooting at you rather than getting close enough to use them.
• Blasting Time:
  • Garam, Thanatos 1 and Siamang do this, and yes, these "baseball pitches" are more powerful than their standard shots. Rola's standing tank Majin has it's own variation in Metal Combat. Griffin and Virvius 1 do this with their legs, allowing for a triple super for the latter shout when it also charges up its arms and spiky shoulders. Viscount will resort to it if it happens to lose both its gun and shield (though the latter is unlikely).
  • Thanatos 1 can also throw missiles at you with an overhead swing.
• Booby Trap: Chada, the chief of Oceania following Antonov, tried to use Antonov's old base but found it to be booby trapped.
• Boss Game: Both games are all about prolonged one-on-one fights.
• Brainwashing: Mike suggests Eddie was brainwashed by Anubis but Eddie only cares about the fact that he lost. This is because he figures anyone who could beat him could beat Thanatos.
• Breath Weapon: Mechanical version, as Thanatos 2 has several mouths on it
• Bullet Hell: Both games when played on their hardest difficulties become this, as enemy aggression and the amount of bullets is multiplied by an immense amount, making even their respective Warm-Up Boss into a Wake-Up Call Boss.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: "Your father's enemy? I have destroyed a thousand STs. I don't remember one from the other."
• Camera Lock-On: "Center" doesn't do damage but does exactly that, so it might just be worth a special weapon slot.
• Char Clone: Carlos is a dead ringer, with blond hair, an Ace Custom ST similar to the player's but "better" (Mike specifically notes that the Falcon and Baron are similar but for the Baron's shield), a Cool Mask (albeit only in Battle Clash, but then Char himself eventually lost the mask), and more detailed motivation than most ST pilots (namely, his grudge against Mike and the Player Character for his defeat in Battle Clash).
• Charged Attack:
  • Your standing tank uses lasers to charge up an energy bolt when you're not using any other weapons. These bolts are more powerful than your turbo shots. The upgraded Falcon of "Metal Combat" has 'treble' energy bolts, which charge for even longer and are even more powerful(about three times!). Tornado can store charges for "super turbo shots", which are basically rapid fire energy bolts, up to ten! Alternatively Tornado can unleash all ten at once as a "hyper shot".
  • Falcon also has plasma bombs, which have to be charged, but are more powerful than their standard counterparts.
• Cherry Tapping: Basic turbo shots. These do negligible damage and don't even scratch most standing tank armor, but in Metal Combat, this can actually net you the best ending.
• Chest Blaster: Valius, Thanatos 1, Siamang, Wong, Griffin and Cobra use these. Viscount will resort to three if Carlos loses both it's bazooka and shield.
• Cognizant Limbs: Every mech has bits and pieces of armor that can be damaged and/or destroyed in battle. In the first game, ST Lorca's limbs will fly back onto the torso when blasted off unless you deal enough damage to destroy them.
• Combat Tentacles: ST Groken, although they're used more for shooting than strangling.
• The Collector: Carlos collects the heads of his defeated opponents' ST's as personal trophies.
• Cool Mask: The Generals Eddie and Carlos wear them.
• Cool Shades: Rola's human disguise uses them, as does Orusoh.
• Crapsack World: Earth is this for humanity in Battle Clash. Anubis took advantage of this to begin preparing the world for conquest but after his defeat, human society does start t recover, making his goal in "Metal Combat" to return Earth to a crap sack world.
• Creepy Long Fingers: Typhon is always drumming his.
• Crew of One: This is apparently common with Standing Tanks, or at least those of the generals on up, as they're the only ones to comment on yours needing more than one person to operate. Zephyr expresses surprise at the fact your "tiny" ST can fit more than one person inside of it.
• Cyber Cyclops: Lorca, Artemis, Schneider, Baron, Wong, Viscount. Also, the upgraded Falcon and Tornado have this look. Grocken's serpents are of this mold and the standing tank itself has a secondary mode of this design if all it's other weapons are destroyed.
• Cyborg: Subverted with Carlos in "Metal Combat", as he sports a metal eye suggesting he suffered damage from a previous fight, possibly the last game's, but when you beat him again it gets knocked out to reveal his regular eye is still intact. Played straight with Anubis, who is "revived" as a cyborg though this is just a clone and the original Anubis was always a cyborg.
• Dance Battler: Lorca, the cartwheeling tank.
• Deadly Upgrade:
  • The V-System. It boosts Falcon's attack power, deflects all enemy bullets, and keeps the opponent centered, but continually drains ST Falcon's energy until it reaches critical.
  • The Neutron Beam is this as well, as it deals massive amounts of damage if it hits, but using it also puts ST Falcon into critical. Interestingly, rival ST Viscount also gets a form of the Neutron Beam... complete with heavy damage and putting his ST into critical!
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Draining an ST's energy bar causes it to explode completely.
• Defeat Means Friendship
  • See Heel–Face Turn for the first game. In the second game you have Dayan (pilot of the ST Wong) who halts your advance because he believes you to be yet another challenger who's trying to contest the control of the Mongolia/Asia area. He then acknowledges that you aren't after the fight and encourages you to reach your goal.
  • Subverted with Carlos in the ST Viscount. He may tell you where Anubis is after defeating him, but it's not because his intentions are friendly at all. He's quite angry that he's lost to you twice now, and may just want to assist you so you don't die... before he has a chance to challenge you again, as he seems to consider you both a rival and an abomination to ST pilots. See Berserk Button.
  Carlos (ST Viscount): Go on now to Mars! Anubis and ST Thanatos have escaped to there. Make sure to return alive! I demand a rematch, and I will beat you!
• Deflector Shields: The V-system uses one that effectively makes Falcon invincible while it is operating. It's also possible to get Falcon a shield independent of the V-system that doesn't grant you it's offensive increases but also doesn't put the standing tank in critical condition.
• Demoted to Dragon: Anubis in Metal Combat
• Destructible Projectiles: The main purpose of your standard fire is not to damage the enemy standing tank but to protect your own until you can find an opening to hit it with something stronger. This is complicated in that some enemy attacks can only be stopped with that something stronger, all which is low rate of fire, limited in ammunition or a drain on your own standing tank's energy levels.
• Difficulty Levels: Unlockable in both games by inputting a button combination at the title screen using the controller. In the first game, this allows you to play on Easy or Hard Mode. In the sequel, you instead unlock what's called Real Mode, which also comes with a gold-colored paintjob for all ST's.
• Doppelgänger Attack: ST Thanatos and the ST Valius. Valius is said to be so fast Eddie warps and fires from three different locations at once, but in truth the standing tank is really only in one place even if the shots are coming from seemingly impossible simultaneous angles. Find its shadow and shoot there.
• The Dragon: Carlos and Eddie are Co-Dragons as generals for Anubis in the first game, and Anubis (second form) to Typhon in the second.
• Dynamic Entry: Danpe introduces himself by destroying an asteroid with Arachnus...he actually misses with his first shot.
• '80s Hair:
  • Mike's standing hair, headband, and tiny shirt revealing his well defined chest makes him look like a man out of an eighties workout video. This isn't noticeable at first because you usually only see his profile in Falcon's cockpit.
  • Rola sports some big hair in and out of disguise.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: You receive the V-System before taking on Anubis and his Generals in Battle Clash, and is intended to be a last resort used at your discretion. In Metal Combat it is more of a Second Hour Superpower as Falcon only needs it because the fighting after the battle game require it to go into space and Tornado doesn't need, or get it at all.
• Emergency Energy Tank: You can get this in the second game as a usable item. Most likely with Tornado, who is more likely to need it.
• Energy Absorption: ST Cobra's shield absorbs blaster shots. You can nullify this by shooting at it and then quickly dropping a bomb, or you can just ignore all that and just fire the Disruptor Bomb as soon as he tries that, instantly destroying his shield.
• Evil Genius
  • Alfred from Battle Clash does not make an appearance in Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge, but Chada's ST Siamang, Dayan's ST Wong and Orusoh's ST Griffin are the results of Alfred's continued research.
  • Zephyr is this among the Eltorians, designing most of their standing tanks and consulting Carlos on how to build a standing tank superior to Falcon after Baron was destroyed in battle against it.
• Evil Is Visceral: The design of the ST Valius, the internals of the ST Baron, and pretty much everything about the ST Thanatos all invoke this trope.
• Evil Laugh: Anubis's "Hee, hee heee!!" Although the sound effect is a much deeper "ho ho ha ha ha" laugh.
• Eye Beams: A visual representation of them from Thanatos two's drones, which have eye spots on them. Also, the second training bot of Metal Combat shoots from the eyes.
• Eyepatch of Power: Arachnus pilot Danpe sports an eye patch and does brag about his 'power'.
• Facial Markings: Lorca and Tasha appear to have war paint. These Battle Games are apparently serious business. Dayan also has war paint but he actually believes he's going to war.
• Fake Weakness: In Metal Combat, shooting ST Arachnus' exposed abdomen will destroy it and take off a significant chunk of its health, but it will also cause Arachnus to go berserk and bombard you with a nigh-unstoppable barrage of bullets.
• The Fighting Narcissist:
  • Lorca from the first game, whose face gets bumped during the battle.
  • Typhon from the second game: "This way my beauty and youth would last forever."
• Flash of Pain: Causing damage on an opponent ST will cause it to flicker for a moment.
• Flunky Boss: Groken will release segmented serpents if you damage its tentacles. Giga-Desp does something similar with segmented serpents made out of skulls when it's on its last leg.
• Forced Tutorial: Before you can start out in Metal Combat, you have to go through a training course with Rola. It's only slightly justified in that the ST Falcon's combat capabilities have improved between games.
• Fragile Speedster: Siamang rarely reaches it's top speed and tends to let you center it when it attacks, making it vulnerable to bombs(too bad Falcon's likely to only have one when you fight it), but it can change direction quickly to get out of your sight, "jump" over your energy bolts and attack several times in rapid succession. And it's narrow body makes it relatively hard to hit(except, of course, with bombs).
• Free-Fall Fight:
  • In the first game, the battle in the Andes vs. Tasha and her ST Artemis.
  • In the second game, Orusoh goads Mike or Carol into fighting ST Griffin in a dive from the upper atmosphere. Orusoh is trying to get them killed in case he loses, forcing Rola to tow Mike out, though Carol's Tornado is already equipped for interplanetary travel so it doesn't work on her.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Despite having the enemy ST clearly exploding piece by piece (including the torso and 'core' of the ST), all your opponents seem to somehow survive, as the ensuing conversations display them sitting in their cockpits... though, with comically damaged portraits instead, featuring bandages, bumps, and bruises.
  • Rola, the pilot of the ST Spika in Metal Combat, also appears as Mike's coach in the game's training mode under a human disguise, but nothing is ever brought up about this when she appears later on under her true form and Mike talks to her as if they never met each other before.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Typhon and his ST, Giga-Desp.
• Giant Spider: ST Arachnus in the second game.
• Glass Cannon: The ST Tornado takes more damage, but has ridiculous offensive power.
• Gladiator Games: Battle Games are Bread and Circuses meant to distract the disgruntled public until the ruins of civilization are repaired. Rather than death, the draw is that the losers of the game have to serve the winners, which is how Anubis builds up his power in the first game. It is said Anubis almost had to kill Dayan, who initially refused to serve Anubis and had to be thoroughly thrashed. It's also said though, that Mike aimed to do away with this stipulation after defeating Anubis, so if he succeeded, it means Dayan wouldn't readily serve him three years later.
• Gonk: Mike's the only especially pretty person Battle Clash has but Scarab pilot Ikhnaton is the only especially ugly one, in ways no one else is. In Metal Combat, Siamang pilot Chada is the gonk, having a bone structure that looks more like a monkey's than a human's.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Rola the Pilot of the ST Spika, is also alien woman who turns against her people to help out Mike and the player during the ST Falcon's campaign. Her actual skin is more of a teal. She is also Carol's older sister, which would make her one too, but we never see Carol in her true alien form.
• Heart Symbol: Pamela has a blue one on her cheek.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • In the first game, Tasha, Eddie and Antonov, pilots of the STs Artemis, Valius and Ivan, help you out in the final battle against Anubis and his ST Thanatos.
  • Could possibly also include the second protagonist, Carol Eugene, and her sister Rola. (See Green Skinned Space Babe above.) Playing the Battle Game with her as the pilot reveals that she is also Eltorian, and apparently many of the enemy pilots are familiar with her. She betrayed them to also save Earth.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: In Metal Combat you have the option of naming Mike and Carol's gunners, who will otherwise be referred to as "partner".
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: The only one to wear a helmet in Battle Clash is Antonov, although he does prove to be fairly heroic.
• High-Class Glass: Schneider pilot Alfred has a monocle, which combined with his turtle neck, blond hair and bad teeth make him look like a British stereotype, even though you fight him in Kyoto.
• High-Speed Battle: Most fights in the first game have some element of this, with your standing tank hitting at least 100 KPH at least once, meaning Ivan is the one who stands out for being pretty slow-paced. It is on a boat, so there's not much room to zoom around. The ST's of Metal Combat don't boast the same top speeds, except for Siamang, whom you might just beat before it gets there, until you get to Viscount (which, incidentally is an improved version of Carlos' Battle Clash ST, Baron). Then the speed picks back up.
• Homing Projectile: Enemy rocket punches and missiles are this, rarely outright missing you. It's also possible to eventually get Falcon a "homing laser" which guides four bolts to the enemy, though if you miss the chance to mark to the target the bolts will not home in and likely miss too.
• Husky Russkie: The man ruling the Oceania Region, Antonov, is a Russian construction worker.
• Humongous Mecha: ST's Ivan, Cobra and Groken are large enough to qualify for this trope. Ivan is a little over fifty feet tall, Cobra is one hundred and fifty feet tall and Groken is "only" 110 feet tall but is 155 feet wide!
• I Reject Your Reality: Chada refuses to accept the fact that Mike defeated Guido.
• Just a Kid: Guido's opinion of Mike. Griffin pilot Orusoh seems to have this opinion of both Mike and Carol.
• Leg Cannon: Lorca has cannons built into its knees. Ivan has four leg cannons!
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • ST Scarab's armor is impervious to your attacks and the machine is still just as fast as everyone else's.
  • ST Falcon has a top speed of 155 kilometers per hour, which is very fast when you consider it is the size of a tank. The upgraded Falcon starts with a top speed of 195 km/h and eventually gets upgraded again to be able to visit other planets in the solar system.
  • Eddie and the ST Valius. To start things off, he's the 3rd-to-last enemy in the first game, which qualifies his skill. His power comes from the sheer variety of attacks he has, from firing volleys of missiles to blasting away with his twin shoulder-mounted laser cannons. See Beyond the Impossible for an example of his speed, but also know that he is also able to create illusory doubles and even causes the screen to bob back and forth from trying to catch up with him. He can also easily take hits, as you'll still need to fire several energy bolts at him even if you blow off the entire lower half of his mech.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The ST Baron and Viscount both have a shield that protects them from your attacks. The latter also has guns in it, although less powerful ones than its main weapon. The ST Cobra's shield actually absorbs your attacks to power up its insanely huge arm cannon.
• Mama Bear: Pamela in Metal Combat, in regards to her husband Zephyr. When you defeat him, she gets very angry.
• The Man Behind the Man: True Anubis is behind the first Anubis, and Typhon is behind True Anubis.
• Market-Based Title: Battle Clash is known as Space Bazooka in Japan.
• Mighty Glacier: Antonov and his ST Ivan. Its armor is even more resilient than Scarab's and it's got the most impressive arsenal outside of Thanatos, but it hardly moves.
• Mountain Man: Guido is a big hairy man said to live in the Rocky Mountains. That said, the fight with him takes place in the ruins of New York City. This starts a trend, as most of Anubis's chiefs are not from the area they are assigned to.
• Multiple Endings: Metal Combat has at least three endings and at least two are bad. One ends with Rola dying, another with Mike dying and the 'good' ending of course with both surviving.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Rola and Carol to the Eltorian invaders.
• New Neo City: New York is re-christened Neo New York in Metal Combat, even though the city is still pretty much the same as it was in the previous game - completely ruined.
• Non-Indicative Name: Standing tanks are roughly tank sized, to be fair, but most of them float above the ground instead of standing. And the one that does stand is much bigger than a tank. Then come the second game, Rola's training ST doesn't even have legs, nor does Wong, and these new machines, including yours, are all noticeably larger than tanks.
• No Plot? No Problem!: Playing on Real Mode in the sequel skips all introduction and post-combat dialogue, with only the conversations present in the Multiple Endings being left.
• Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Why is the sequel called Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge instead of Metal Combat: Battle Clash 2 or Battle Clash 2: Falcon's Revenge? Could have been playing off of the name Mortal Kombat, which was rather popular at the time.
• Oh, Crap!: Whenever your ST has sustained enough damage, you get a beeping alarm and the word CRITICAL appears in the lower right corner of the screen, in red no less.
• One-Hit Kill:
  • If you fail to find a way to defeat Giga-Desp's first form when the music changes and it powers up its ultimate attack, you will lose, regardless of how much energy your ST has left. To clue you in to this, once Giga-Desp starts charging its attack, the music takes a turn for the dramatic and the background looks like it's having a seizure (6:14). Oh, Crap! indeed.
  • You can activate your V-System, which will block the attack! Unfortunately, this completely disables your V-System right afterward, at least leaving you with your energy and a second chance to destroy Giga-Desp.
  • This works in your favor, as well: under the right conditions, a fully-charged shot from the ST Tornado can bring down some early enemies in one hit.
• One-Steve Limit: Lorca pilots the ST of the same name.
• One-Winged Angel: Thanatos in the first game, and Virvius and Giga-Desp in the second.
• Palette Swap: The training bots, first as mushrooms with eyes (Kinoko TD), then as oddly cute angler fish (Ankoh TD).
• The Paralyzer: Disruptor bombs stop enemy ST's from moving.
• Player Versus Player: Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge adds a "Combat Mode", where player one, controlling Falcon or Tornado, can fight player 2 controlling an enemy ST defeated in "Battle Mode".
• Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: A series of small, muffled explosions engulf every remaining limb and piece of an enemy ST upon defeat, leaving nothing behind. Metal Combat rewards every K.O. with a series of small explosions. The initial explosion causes the enemy ST to fall to pieces, leaving the remaining torso/core to bounce and stumble along the ground if it was moving when defeated. The ST's pieces get smaller rapid explosions followed by a final, larger explosion. However, sometimes you only see a portion of the flashier blast, because the game uses a first-person view and the enemy ST's torso just explodes from stumbling as you're still moving along. Every enemy ST explodes this way, even in stages with midair/underwater combat. The Final boss ramps up the pretty, pretty explosions by including several of them in succession with bright flashes.
• Primal Chest-Pound: Garam mk 2 introduces itself this way.
• Puzzle Boss:
  • Everyone can usually be taken down with enough shots to vulnerable areas, but if you know the correct areas to shoot at (and in what order), you can take down a good portion of bosses in an extremely short amount of time.
  • Some bosses actually fit the strict description of the trope, such as the ST Groken.
• Rank Inflation: Metal Combat gives out military ranks based on how fast you complete the game. Your overall rank is also determined by how fast you complete the Time Attack missions.
• Red Eye Take Warning: Take a wild guess at what color Carlos' Magical Eye is. Bonus points for it actually being inflicted by the player in the first game and revealed in the second.
• Red Right Hand: The Big Bad Anubis has one red eye and one blue eye (the first two clones/body doubles of him, anyway).
• Reentry Scare: The upgraded Falcon isn't upgraded enough to land on a planet like Earth for this reason, not until it gets its own V-System.
• Rocket Punch: Garam and Thanatos use them. Thanatos will even use a Rocket Kick by launching his ST's legs at you.
• Shoot the Hostage: In Metal Combat's Final Boss battle, Typhon has captured Rola and uses her to guard his newly-upgraded mech's weak spot. She begs you to shoot her to help bring him down, but you can avoid doing so to get a better ending. PROTIP: Use TURBO Shots.
• Shoulder Cannon: Artemis, Thanatos 1 and Siamang have guns built into their shoulders. Valius has two mounted on its shoulders.
• Shout-Out:
  • The level-up jingle from Fire Emblem is played when you clear a training level in Metal Combat. Yuka Tsujiyoko was the composer for both IPs.
  • The name and effects of the V-System are similliar to V-MAX in Blue Comet SPT Layzner.
  • Mike pilots a Falcon, which is blue.
  • The overall aesthetic of Battle Clash and Metal Combat evoke some serious early 1990s mecha anime vibes, but the first game with its worldwide tournament premise and the overall ruined Earth setting is suspiciously familiar....
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Carol's opinion of Zephyr and Pamela. They do call each other "Papa and Mama".
• Smart Bomb: Green Bombs that you detonate in front of the enemy. You can sometimes use them to save you from enemy missiles. Metal Combat has the more powerful Plasma Bombs.
• Smug Snake: Danpe is way too cocky for his own good, thinking you have no chance because he destroyed an asteroid, and his mouth is even sort of snake-like with his prominent fangs and his forked tongue.
• Spider Tank: The ST Ivan, which is so massive that it takes up the entire screen.
• Stone Wall: The only Standing Tank slower than Groken is Ivan, but Groken's armor is even more impressive. It isn't as likely to cause you as much damage in as short a time as Ivan either, so you've got a little time to figure out how to chip away at it's defenses.
• Student–Master Team: You become this if you choose Tornado in Metal Combat, as Carol has to instruct you herself on account of Rola being late. Carol also knows more about the plot than Mike, so she has more to tell you while Mike figures more things out at the same pace you do.
• Taking You with Me: In the rematch with Thanatos 1 Anubis declares this, rather than bring out Thanatos 2. Rola tows Falcon away before whatever can happen.
• Technicolor Death: See Chain Reaction Destruction.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Zephyr and his wife Pamela.
• Throwing Your Shield Always Works: Performed by Carlos when piloting the STs Baron and Viscount after you destroy their energy bazookas.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Both Garam models are built this way.
• Turns Red: Inverted. Whenever a part of the enemy ST flashes orange it means that's either the critical weakpoint or that its armor is weakening and becoming a new weakpoint.
• Underwater Boss Battle: Groken is fought in a sea inside Uranus.
• The Unfought: No one has ever seen Rola's ST Spika in battle.
• Victory Fakeout:
  • Metal Combat had a rather dastardly one after the player fights Virvius, the true individual that Battle Clash has its antagonist copied from. This Anubis fight included everything the first game did in having a support character swoop by to restore your Energy gauge before the second battle against Virvius, now in One-Winged Angel form. After defeating Virvius-2, the player is even treated to the villain's last words, and a short celebration from the aforementioned support character, moments before she's whisked away by The Man Behind the Man.
  • It was more unexpected to players that beat the previous game, as defeating Thanatos in that one only led straight to the Ranking and Credits- no conversation or even a last word from the villain. In comparison, the scene after Virvius's defeat seems like a step up... right until tentacles subtly pop up on the bottom of the screen and Rola screams.
• Villains Want Mercy: Chada (ST Siamang) is out to avenge his brother Guido but if Mike beats him he'll try to make Mike accept him as a brother, suggesting Guido once defeated Chada too.
• Villainous Widow's Peak: Eddie, although he's not villainous on purpose.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • In the first game Ivan has More Dakka than anything else besides Thanatos 2 and will cut you down more quickly than any previous boss if you're relaxed about defending Falcon. And you'll really need the importance of defending your standing tank made clear if you're to get past the very next boss, Valius, even though it otherwise is a completely different fight. In the second game hitting enemy weak points isn't quite as hard or important until you get to Griffin, a Timed Mission where your shots can be deflected by his wings. You'll appreciate this lesson in more precises targeting since Viscount and it's shield follow immediately afterwards.
  • Guido in both games becomes this when played on their hardest difficulty levels. His ST's deceptively simple attack patterns benefit a lot from the increased aggression and amount of projectiles they can fire at once. Expect to be humbled very quickly by the surprising Bullet Hell they can now employ, as this is gonna be the standard for every fight afterwards.
• Warm-Up Boss: Guido, pilot of Garam and Garam Mk II, is your first opponent in both games.
• Warp Drive: How Space Fortress Eltoria gets around.
• Wandering Minstrel: Lorca is known as a "bard" because his ST of the same name plays music. Although in battle this is just a distraction, usually from its "sonic spin" attack, so Lorca should be shot as soon as its "hymn" is heard.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Neutron Beam.
• We Can Rule Together: Anubis made this offer to many of the chiefs.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Anubis, to some degree. In his final moments, he states that he utterly failed his goal, and his death will not be in peace. Specifically, it turns out that the Eltorians lost their home planet through their own fault, and are wandering around. Anubis found Earth during that search for a new world, and he was following up on that.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: The advantage of the upgraded Falcon over Tornado, besides being able to take more damage, is that Falcon continues to upgrade, gaining all sorts of new weapon and defensive systems as the game progresses. Tornado gets the lightning bomb and energy tank, but besides them, it's limited to just its gun and standard bombs. Tornado's gun can do more damage than Falcon's and Tornado can carry quite a few bombs (though the upgraded Falcon has roughly the same capacity and is less likely to need them).
• Who Needs Their Whole Body?: Rola's standing tank Majin will continue to crawl along the ground with one arm if you blow apart its torso. And if you don't finish her off she will start shooting at you. She takes training pretty seriously. This is a subtle warning that enemy tanks in Metal Combat will not give up the fight until their life bar is empty.
• You Have No Chance to Survive/If My Calculations Are Correct: Alfred in his ST Schneider boasts this during his intro:
  Alfred (ST Schneider): My calculations say the chances of you winning are ... 0%.
• You Killed My Father: Thanatos murdered Mike's father, combined with a little But for Me, It Was Tuesday.