Last Legion UX

Gameplay

In Last Legion UX, players pilot a mecha known as a Legion in one-on-one arena fights that mix shooting with close-quarters combat. The goal is to drain the opponent’s health bar to zero. Each Legion model has its own stats for speed, firepower, and jumping height. Legions are grouped into classes: humanoid types can equip shields, amphibious models move normally through water, and floating Legions can fly. Before a match, players pick their Legion’s primary weapon and shield from options like laser swords or machine guns, each with trade-offs. Every Legion also comes with a unique built-in sub-weapon, such as homing missiles or a grenade launcher.

During a battle, players can jump, lock onto the enemy, strike with melee attacks, fire projectiles, or guard. A radar on screen shows the opponent’s distance and direction. Arenas differ in size, layout, and hazards, encouraging tactics like setting up an ambush in a maze or luring an enemy into lava. A Powerstone meter charges over time; when full, the player can unleash a Legion-specific super attack. There is also a short-range grab move that attempts to steal the opponent’s Powerstone. This grab is risky—missing leaves the player vulnerable—but a successful grab fully disables the opponent and wins the match instantly.

The story mode has players choose one of six starting Legions and fight through a series of opponents in an arcade-style ladder. Six other Legions appear as opponents, including two secret Bomberman-themed Legions. All twelve Legions, along with their weapons and arenas, can be unlocked for use in split-screen multiplayer. Up to two players can compete, with options to turn off radars and choose between horizontal or vertical screen splitting.

Plot

Long ago, a myth tells of a divine star that crashed from the sky, splitting the land into four continents, each tied to a classical element. A giant then broke the star apart, scattering its pieces across the world. Over time, a global authority called Union IV rose to power, creating giant peacekeeping mechs known as Legions. These machines were fueled by a special elemental ore called Powerstones. A terrorist group named Light Raid, seeking world domination, seized control of several Legions and started a long war against Union IV.

In 2083, Legion pilot Colonel Reddi attacked a Light Raid base. During the assault, he learned that Light Raid had taken over a Union IV time portal facility and sent eight of their Legions back 4,500 years, to the dawn of civilization. With only enough energy for one more jump, Union IV dispatched Reddi into the past with orders to destroy the enemy Legions and protect the future. Arriving in 2416 B.C., Reddi saw that the future machines were already destabilizing the timeline, causing ruins from later eras to flicker in and out of existence. He began hunting down the Light Raid officers, destroying their Legions one by one.

During his mission, Reddi discovered that one of the enemy pilots was his former commander, Colonel Colcott. After defeating him, Colcott confessed that his grandson had been killed by accidental damage from a Legion fight. Believing that surrendering to Light Raid was the only way to end the war and stop more civilian deaths, he had joined them. Apologizing for losing his way, Colcott revealed Light Raid’s true goal: the divine star from the myth was actually a meteorite that had crashed to Earth. Its fragments became the Powerstones. Light Raid now planned to seize the meteorite and use its full power to secure their control over the world.

Development and release

Hudson Soft first unveiled Last Legion UX at E3 1997 under the working title Legion X. Journalists drew comparisons between it and Sega's Virtual On: Cyber Troopers as well as FromSoftware's Armored Core. The team explored the possibility of four-player matches but abandoned the idea because of hardware constraints. In October 1997, Nintendo Power announced that Mindscape would handle the international release that November. Hudson Soft soon corrected this, explaining that talks with Mindscape were ongoing and that a North American launch would follow the Japanese version sometime in the second or third quarter of 1998. Those negotiations eventually collapsed, leading to a long delay. The game finally came out exclusively in Japan in May 1999. Anime mecha designer Kunio Okawara created a set of promotional illustrations for the title.

Reception

Critics who imported Last Legion UX from Japan gave it a mixed response. Gamers' Republic, in a 1999 buyer's guide, noted that the varied terrain in the arenas added strategic depth, but described the gameplay and graphics as merely adequate. German magazine Video Games agreed, pointing out the difficulty of following the on-screen action. N64 Magazine's Martin Kitts praised the game's originality but found it inferior to Virtual On, citing less refined controls and minimal differences between the Legions. French X64 Magazine's Mario Ricci acknowledged novel concepts, especially the hide-and-seek style of combat, but felt the execution and overall presentation were major disappointments. Total N64 declared the game a strong candidate for the worst ever made.