Zone of the Enders is an anime style robot fighting game.  The protagonist, a young boy named Leo Starbuck, is thrown into a position of immense power by forces well out of his control.  Due to an attack on his home space colony, where his friends and family are destroyed, Leo finds himself at the helm of an incredibly powerful robot fighter.  In the game Leo is made to come to grips with the horrors of war and the pitfalls of life as he attempts to deal with his new responsibility.

This game tries far too hard at making Leo a sympathetic character.  His personality gets down right pathetic.  Hardship after hardship hit him as he sees his friends murdered (in an FMV nonetheless) his father killed (sorry no FMV) and his girlfriend shot (once again an FMV).  The game works on themes of compassion and what it is to kill but fails to make any psychological impact.  Everyone instead simply seems whiny.

The graphics were fairly good with super smooth movement, but the design end seemed lacking.  The generic enemies, of which there were only three types, became tedious to fight.  The environment, while marginally interactive, was not interesting enough to deserve praise.  It was nice to see the buildings explode though.

The music varied but for the most part it was just a sort of poppy electronic sound track you’d expect from a game that for the most part seemed only half thought out.

The fighting was fun but only to a point.  After the endless battles with little variation even the fighting became tedious.  Once that happened it was merely a matter of waiting for the game to end.  Fortunately it was not a long wait.  The game is ridiculously short and ends feeling unfinished.

Zone of the Enders is an action packed game but not a very interesting one.  I felt that perhaps Hideo Hojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid and designer of this game, spent more time on the demo for Metal Gear Solid 2 which incidentally comes with Zone of the Enders, than he did on Zone of the Enders itself.  Releasing the demo for MGS2 with Zone of Enders was a blatant marketing ploy aimed at upping the sales of a mediocre game.  Oh and by the way, the demo is great.  

Install: Easy
Playstation 2

Graphics: 7 
Sharp interactive environments.  The movies were acceptable.

Sound: 7
The best music was at the opening and on the save screen.  The rest was just mediocre.  One plus is that all the dialogue was spoken.

Concept: 6 
Seems a little similar to a certain anime that involves kid's piloting ultra-powerful giant Mechs (Evangelion)...  The story line isn't worked out that well and the dialogue...well the dialogue just gets annoying.

Overall: 6
The game while sometimes fun to play is nothing spectacular.  Buy it, if only to play the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo that comes with it.