Start with Robot Wars, take away Philippa Forrester, add heavy artillery and you might just get Wild Metal...
Seb Duggan

Somewhere in a galaxy far, far away, in a scenario that could have been taken straight out of Terminator, robots have overrun the three planets of the Tehric system - their aim: to eliminate all biological life. These machines are the 'wild metal' of the title, and they seem to have done a pretty good job: the only evidence that humans once colonised these worlds are the ruined remains of some ancient buildings and a couple of roads.

You, however, are a human and your mission is to go onto the planets, equipped with your own armoured tank and an impressive array of munitions, destroy all the rogue machines and collect eight power cores from each level. You're not actually told what significance the power cores have, but as each is bathed in an eerie-coloured light, they're obviously very important.

There are five tanks to choose from, each with its own combination of speed, balance and control. The oddest of the set, Roadrunner, is a giant ball with a gun on top; the others all rely on caterpillar tracks, so disregard everything you've learned about driving cars of the wheeled variety. The control system is very easy to pick up and is ideally suited to the Dreamcast's pad. The analogue stick controls movement, but using the triggers revolves the gun turret independently. The D-pad manages weapon selection and the buttons are used for shooting and changing the camera position.