SLAI Steel Lancer Arena International

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The Sport of the Future is Here

A somewhat rare PlayStation 2 game, SLAI Steel Lancer Arena International, is a sequel to the Xbox game, Phantom Crash. It keeps many of the same features, such as the trademark Stealth-capable Mini-Mecha, although they underwent a name change. Set in 2071 (a few decades after the original), the sport of "Rumbling" (same as Phantom Crash: Mecha blowing each other and their surroundings up in semi-gladatorial deathmatches in urban settings) has underwent a boom in popularity, although, it's significantly safer (thanks to Remote-control technology) than it was back in the days of Club Wired... it's also, notably an international phenomenon now, with Rumbling arenas across the globe. As the player, you start of as a new Rumbler with intent to making it to be the #1 Ranker... initially, that's all that matters: Win games, become an online-superstar, earn cash... then things take interesting turns. Not unlike the original, you come across a wide array of characters, including the enigmatic God Mode Team, and many, many, many pop-culture references.

It used to have online PvP, but the servers were taken down a long time ago.

Tropes used in SLAI Steel Lancer Arena International include:
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: JOL manages to break the 3 laws of robotics somehow and goes full-on Killer Robot.
  • A Mech by Any Other Name: SVs: Scoot Vehicles. (The used to be called Scoobees, but that name lost popularity, but they're the same mecha).
  • Anticlimax Boss: The 1v1 battles. The Highest Rank Ranker fights are all one on one duels... which are a LOT easier than normal boss battles... and the Final Boss Jack O Lantern's mech is just an unmodified Elint... virtually identical to a Ranker in Germany.
  • Attack Drone: Dusters return from the last game, but now there's Sweepers, which are slightly stronger, and carry missile launchers.
  • Arbitrary Gun Power: Basic assault rifles suck, no matter what you do with them. Chain guns on the other hand...
  • Awesome but Impractical: The Hartman's Daisy bell cannons- at +99, they are instant kill slugs that are horribly hard to aim, but rest assured, with over 250000 damage a hit, no matter what you hit is dead, if you ever land it-- you only get 1 shot... at -99 they blow up half the map in a glorious, practically nuclear blast... that does pitiful damage (But you get 11 shots.) . The midground for these guns is... a basic grenade.
    • Lasers: They destroy armor like none other, but protect shields deny them so often, they don't do much.
      • Pulse Lasers (such as the Hartman's Thunderbird) deal massive damage, but have limited ammo and a massive cooldown between shots.
    • The Boss Mechs: They look cool, but can't really be customized, and... aren't really that good.
  • Awesome but Practical: Chainsaw Katana. Just the Chainsaw Katana. Not only is the weapon impossibly cool for a concept, it's really powerful, and if you're good at melee weapons...
  • Big Bad: Jack O Lantern: A chip who's out on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, with a fierce vendetta against the God Mode Team... because Lynx, and his pals Sin, Skeln and the rest of the team, except Embryo, caused his former owner, Micheal, to commit suicide.
  • BFG: Daisybell, Thunderbird, Hedgehog, 105mm Recoiless Cannon... Really, most Hartman weapons. There's plenty more big guns out there, but, the Hartman takes the cake for just having lots of big guns.
  • Boss Dissonance: Kirby-styled- Even a D-ranker appearing is a massive difficulty spike.
  • Boss Rush: Master Rank battles, which are high-level rumbles that only Rankers (and DD) can enter... Considering the hardlined kirby-styled Boss Dissonance... these are notably Nintendo Hard.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: Ardito, Elint, Molynia.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The opening cutscene mentions The First Ranker battle took place on New York Field. And that's exactly where the final boss fight takes place. Pay no attention to the fact that someone hacked their way to a muscle-relaxant formula from a pharmaceutical lab... that can't have anything to do with the Rumbling... Oh, Wait!.
  • Chainsaw Good: The KNT's melee weapon is normal chainsaw... The Proton's combines this with Katanas Are Just Better for a Chainsaw Katana.
  • Cherry Tapping: You can beat high-end rankers in a Sweeper. Or take down JOL in an uncustomized Carro, like the one you do your first rumble in.
  • Deflector Shields: Protect Shields, which are semi-rare occurances that completely nullified all incoming damage for brief moments of time. Outside of increasing your Chip's level, there exist items that increased the chance of activating them. Like in Phantom Crash, it appears as a rainbow-colored ball.
  • Demonic Spider: Outside of the Mooks being generally Nintendo Hard, there's surprise Boss fights- these enemies, called "Crashers" have Blue HP bars (bosses have Red, Mooks yellow, and drones green). Of note, there's two incredibly dangerous crashers: Kirin and Roy. Encountering either unprepared is certain death.
  • Destroyable Items: Same as in Phantom Crash, the powerups can be destroyed, but only by direct fire. A Daisybell shot landing near the cubes won't kill them.
  • Dual-Wielding: You can dual-wield any two arm or shoulder weapons. In some cases it's actually viable to quad-wield certain weapons, up to, and including the BFGs, provided you can manage the weight. And yes, you can dual wield the previously mentioned Chainsaw Katana.
  • Die, Chair, Die!: Destructible terrain from Phantom Crash is still here, and still worth extra money when shot.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: This game is a mecha arena fighter. Nothing else.
  • Exploding Barrels: Any destructible terrain when shot... explodes. Although it never does damage to nearby enemies.
  • Featureless Protagonist: Played with: Considering the game is "psuedo-online", every character in the game isn't quite what he/she looks like, because everyone is technically this, but has an online "Persona".
  • Final Boss: A very intimidating SV with a shark-mouth paint job that you cannot obtain. The boss character is also splutteringly insane, and... that paint job is the only thing that differentiates his SV from the other 3 Elint models you could've fought by now. (And the one you can obtain after beating him.)
  • Frickin' Laser Beams: Laser weapons come in two types: Continuous lasers and Plasma Cannons. The Continuous Lasers deal massive damage over time, and rip thru armor like nothing. The Plasma Cannons deal huge amounts of damage but only get 2 or 3 shots before the weapon overheats and has to cooldown before it can be fired again. As a note, the actual lasers... are lasers, as-in the beams cannot be dodged once fired (Because the rounds travel at light speed)... and the Plasma Cannon shots are the fastest projectiles in the game.
  • Gatling Good: Diavolo and it's Boss-only Cousin Vampiro.
  • Guns Akimbo: See Dual-Wielding.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Lynx locks himself in his own SV, which is an old Phantom Crash model instead of a remote control modern SV to avoid being arrested. This, ironically, serves to get him killed by JOL, after you wreck him.
  • Infinity +1 Mech: The three Boss SVs, one of which is the Final Boss's mech from Phantom Crash (It's also Lynx, the Second Ranker's), and another is the final boss's mech from this game. Sadly, they're Awesome but Impractical.
  • Killer Robot: JOL
  • Manipulative Bastard: Lynx, the Second Ranker
  • Macross Missile Massacre: There's plenty of ways to do this. The Hedgehog weapon is the most notable example: It fire 8 missiles at once. You can dual wield these. Another example is dualing the 6-shot missle launchers on the Ardito or Molyina.
  • Mini-Mecha: The SVs are pretty damn small. However, they are not manned... except Molyina, which is, withholding it's armament, Charga, from Phantom Crash.
  • More Dakka: The previously mentioned Gatling guns, and the numerous chain guns... there's many, many ways to just spam bullets at your foes. And it's surprisingly effective.
  • Nightmare Fuel: In-universe Example: Pumpkins to a certain member of the God Mode team makes him seriously freak out. On the other hand... the way "Jack" kills his victims: with a powerful muscle-relaxant that stops your heart and lungs.
  • Power Equals Rarity: Good luck finding a part like the XPPC-Thunderbird... until you've earned 25 Ranks and unlocked the Black Market parts shop, Wild-Machine... the Boss SVs can also only be bought at Wild Machine on a specific day on a specific server (and only in the post-game).
  • Power-Up: Cubes.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Or have mecha that look like Eva-01 with some extra white-- several of the paint jobs in this game are surprisingly girly.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: JOL is on one, and he's out for the blood of the God Mode Team, who made his best friend and previous owner, commit suicide. His method of murder is actually horrifying.
  • Rogue Protagonist: Kirin, the player character from Phantom Crash returns in the post game to take his title of First Ranker back... this naturally makes you his enemy.
  • Scenery Gorn: Continued from Phantom Crash- the arenas are still semi Post-Apocalyptic, and make extensive use of the color gray. Except Vegas.
  • Schematized Prop: Like the Armored Core series, the parts in this game have a LOT of statistics. And then you can mess with the parts...
  • Scrappy Level: No one likes China.
  • Shoulder Cannon: Shoulder weapons.
  • Shout-Out: Tons of them. Mostly to internet culture, Sci-fi, Cyberpunk, and a few other notable things. Some Examples Include:
  • Short-Range Shotgun: Averted. The Shotguns have a pretty big spread at range.... but they can kill at a very long distance. At close range, they're game-breakers if customized right.
  • Sniper Pistol: All of the guns in the game can practically shoot all the way across the map. The Sniper Rifles on the other hand just have a LOT of firepower and are great weapon breakers.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Considering the music in this game is...all over the place and you can have it play whatever it is that you want out of a massive selection of Licensed and Original (or from Phantom Crash) music for combat.. it's bound to happen. (Never mind listening to some overly happy J-Pop while fighting the Final Boss.)
  • Standard FPS Guns
  • Sword and Gun: Why, hello there, Chainsaw Katana... Hello there Assault Rifle.
  • This Is a Drill: The Hartman's Melee Weapon.
  • This Loser Is You: Averted. The player is well-recognized and even gets a fan-club. (Said fan-club is crazy. And they're the mooks and boss for one of the ranks.)
  • "Three Laws"-Compliant: Chips are robots built with the three laws.
  • Tron Lines: Seen in the Menus. And Vegas. (But that's Vegas.)
  • Universal Ammunition: Ammo Cubes reload ANY weapon... Randomly.
  • Virtual Celebrity: Mona-Lisa returns from Phantom Crash, with new songs.
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