Nintendo’s recent Direct revealed more than we could keep track of. While big announcements like The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom of Tears, Pikmin 4, and Fire Emblem Engage will be the talk of the town over the coming months, smaller announcements are already slipping through the cracks. One such revelation is that remakes of the first three Front Mission games will be coming to Nintendo Switch sometime next year.

The Front Mission series is a turn-based tactical mech game series that first appeared in 1995, and it has a long history behind it. Over the past nearly three decades, there have been 15 Front Mission games released individually, ranging from major mainline titles to smaller spinoffs. While the series has mostly stayed true to its turn-based roots, it has ventured into just about every other game genre imaginable, from MMOs to side-scrolling platformers to real-time strategy games.

The History of The Front Mission Series

The first Front Mission game was originally released in Japan on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995, and didn’t come to the US until almost a decade later in 2007, when it was ported to the Nintendo DS. In this turn-based tactical game, players control a group of Wanzers, mechas with four different body parts, each with their own health bar and tasks. As players progress through the Front Mission campaign, they can acquire new gear for their Wanzers to equip between missions. This first Front Mission game has been remastered and is set to be released on the Nintendo Switch in November.

The first spin-off of Front Mission was released in 1996, with the series focusing on the side-scrolling shooter genre. Titled Front Mission Series: Gun Hazard, this entry adds a job system and other action RPG elements to the series. Front Mission 2 was released a year later, returning to the tactical gameplay of the first game. In general, Front Mission 2 continues and expands on its predecessor, significantly increasing the scale of the game, both in its story with three playable protagonists and in gameplay with more customizable parts and different objectives. A remake of Front Mission 2 is expected to be released on Switch sometime next year.

A second spinoff of the series, Front Mission Alternative, was also released in 1997, taking the series into the realm of real-time strategy. Front Mission Alternative replaces the usual grid-based system with an open real-time map and allows the player to control up to three Wanzer squads. The player controls the Wanzer from above for the majority of the game, although Cockpit Mode allows the player to directly control the mech from a first-person perspective.

Front Mission 3 was released in 1999 and was slightly smaller than its numbered predecessor. It had far fewer scenarios and gameplay focused more on RPG elements than strategy. Front Mission 3 introduces a double feature scenario path, allowing players to play two different scenarios simultaneously. Front Mission 3 is also being re-released for the Nintendo Switch, but a release date has yet to be announced.

Two other main Front Mission games were released in 2003 and 2005 under the titles Front Mission 4 and Front Mission 5: Scars of War. The fourth main installment in the series returned to the format, bringing back many of the most popular elements from Front Mission 2, while Front Mission 5 expanded further, bringing new features to the game such as Wanzer skills and additional backpacks.

The mobile game Front Mission 2089 was eventually ported to the Nintendo DS in 2008, bringing the core tactical gameplay to a handheld console. In 2005, an MMO titled Front Mission: Online was released, challenging the third-person shooter genre with fully rendered 3D environments and free movement. This third-person 3D gameplay was used in Front Mission Evolved, a tentative reboot of the series released in 2010. Front Mission’s most recent installment is Left Alive, a 2019 stealth game set in the same universe. The game received fairly scathing reviews due to some serious technical issues.