The story takes place over 100 years into the future. Antimatter production research has been going on for decades. However, this research comes at a price. An antimatter war is started after a minor border skirmish causes stockpiles of antimatter missiles to explode, resulting in Earth becoming completely devastated. In the midst of all the chaos, a mysterious, previously unknown evil dictator named Nikolai Ivanovich Zorgeuf, along with 3 of his closest military followers; Commander Bill Garland, Commander Joan Rile, and High Commander Liften Schwaltz, takes control of the entire planet and promises that Earth will be rebuilt where people will be safe under his power. A small, but powerful group of rebels are not convinced, and so declare war on Zorguef and his 3 allies to free the Earth from his grasp.
This game provides examples of:
- Alas, Poor Villain: What Zorgeuf sees himself as, when he gives a near-death speech about how he was going to change the world, as his final base is being attacked in the last communcation of the game.
- Alliterative Title
- Antimatter: Used as the explosive payload on the ICBMs.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The PC Version has two of these as easter eggs.
- One is a Pig-Latin mode.
- For the other, you can drag files from your desktop or explorer window onto a clear square patch of your island map. However, this tends to work against you as it promptly explodes, leaving behind nothing but a damaged piece of land on which you have to spend extra money to remove. Apparently this ties in with how the game uses the Windows UI. A normal game unit is formatted to work with the game itself. Files and folders from Windows' systems are not, and if the game could not tell the difference, it would probably produce a Game-Breaking Bug.
- Beauty Is Bad: Commander Joan Rile. She could be mistaken for a dominatrix if she weren't wearing an actual military uniform, has beautiful blonde hair, a fair complexion, red lipstick, a long red dress under her short military coat, and Combat Stilettos.
- BFS: It's implied that the Metal Marines use these as one of their melee weapon choices in the SNES version, if they should be able to approach an exposed base, where they swipe at it until it explodes.
- Big Bad: Nikolai Ivanovich Zorgeuf, who swoops in at Earth's Darkest Hour and attempts to completely install himself as dictator of the planet. That is, until rebels begin an uprising to free the planet.
- Co-Dragons: All 3 of Zorgeuf's allies: Bill Garland, Joan Rile, and Liften Schwaltz. Each of them controls a large section of Earth until you completely defeat them.
- Combat Stilettos: Commander Joan Rile wears a red pair of these, which she will often put the heel of one of them through her communications camera, should she send a message to taunt you.
- Defector from Decadence: A manga comic included with the PC edition suggests that your strategic advisor, Sgt. Bowman, used to be part of Zorgeuf's troupe, until Bowman became disillusioned with Zorgeuf's vision and tactics, and joined the rebels instead. Made more explicit in Operation Snarlshark in both versions, where Commander Rile's initial communication reveals that she knows that Bowman is acting as a spy for the benefit of the rebels. Mission 19: "Sakura", also mentions a high-ranking unnamed and unseen defector in the pre-battle advisory segment, who gives the rebels information that Zorgeuf is having difficulty manufacturing his own antimatter weapon.
- Elaborate Underground Base: The bases are apparently large (about the size of a building), and are lowered through a specially-constructed antimatter-resistant hatch into the ground, which is then sealed.
- Final Speech: Zorgeuf's final communication at the end of the game, just before his base is destroyed.
- Fake Difficulty: The game's major difficulty comes from the fact that your higher opponents are already entrenched on their island, with more defense and offense than you have.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Throughout the game, you are ostensibly trying to stop Zorgeuf's forces from researching, developing, and building their own Antimatter ICBM, in addition to defeating them. Come Mission 20, Operation Sunrise, he has succeeded, and has the power to launch it, with his sights set on you.
- Glass Cannon: The Antimatter ICBM silo. In any level of the game, it takes $255M of your war funds to build, a whopping NINE flat areas (a 3x3 space) on a map, 950 energy units to launch a warheadnote , is effective at destroying a large swath of game units on an A.I. opponent's island, but is very weak against attack. Any damage to one of the nine squares it occupies, and the entire silo is basically scrap. Thankfully, the same rules also apply to Zorgeuf's own silo in Mission 20: Operation "Sunrise".
- Glorious Leader: Zorgeuf is considered to be this by the despondent remnants of humanity in the PC Version, except for the rebels. Heck, he even has the title "Zorgeuf the Great"!
- Harder Than Hard: The PC version's island randomizer can let you pit yourself against your own Security Advisor, Sgt. Bowman. He is one step above Zorgeuf's level of prowess. His attacks are fast, he recovers from your successful attacks faster, and he tends to form large groups of gun pods and anti-attack missiles together.note
- Hidden Villain: Zorgeuf, until you see him at Mission 15. The help file on the Windows 3.1 demo version keeps his appearance in the dark as well, until you buy the full game.
- Humongous Mecha: The Metal Marines themselves. They're apparently 60 feet high.
- Island Base: Since most of the world has been split into small islands by antimatter missiles from the accident that caused the war in the first place.
- Macross Missile Massacre: This can happen when you fill your base island with mostly anti-attack missiles and the enemy attacks.
- Smug Snake: Zorgeuf, when you see him in his final pre-attack communication in Mission 20, is sitting on his "throne" in a badass pose with a smug smile on his face, because he has acquired his own antimatter missile silo and the power to operate it, and he fully intends to use it on you.
- Starter Villain: Bill Garland is the first Enemy Commander you fight against in the game.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Dude... This game is themed around WAR.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Zorgeuf took over the planet after an antimatter cataclysm, promising a new safe civilization.
- Villains Act, Heroes React: A group of rebels begins an uprising when Zorgeuf takes over the planet.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The despondent remnants of humanity see Zorgeuf this way, but another group of rebels are not convinced.
- Visionary Villain: Zorgeuf wants to bring Earth out of the dark, even if it means becoming dictator.
- You Nuke 'Em: With the right amount of money and energy, you can nuke your enemies with the Antimatter ICBM.
