Front Mission 3 Remake shows how lazy AI can ruin a good game

Front Mission 3 Remake
(Image credit: Forever Entertainment)

Will studios and publishers ever get the message that gamers don't like AI slop? Or do they just think players don't hate it enough for it to put them off a game? The Front Mission 3 Remake out now for Nintendo Switch 2 appears to have set a new low, and it was completely unnecessary (See our Nintendo switch 2 review and guide to Nintendo Switch 2 prices if you're interested in the new console).

Don't get me wrong; I think AI has some potentially interesting uses in game development, but lazy use of AI art isn't one of them. Based on the images posted by fans on social media, it appears that Megapixel Studios and Forever Entertainment applied AI upscaling to all of the original 2D art assets from the PS1 game. But rather than merely enhance and sharpen the originals, it's added strange hallucinations and uncanny artifacts that were somehow deemed passable.

Character portraits have features that bleed into each other, the pool of a water fountain appears to have become an ice rink, a factory now looks like a village with enormous vehicles, city scenes add half cars, and Wanzers, the game's mechas, become random pieces of unrecognisable machinery.

"At every turn, this 2025 remake looks worse than the 1999/2000 original," writes Cullen Black in his review for Nintendo Insider. "It cheapens Front Mission 3 into something it’s not: A product to be consumed and thought little about."

FRONT MISSION 3: Remake || Nintendo Switch Launch Trailer - YouTube FRONT MISSION 3: Remake || Nintendo Switch Launch Trailer - YouTube
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Frankly, the AI art in the Front Mission 3 Remake looks awful, and it makes me wonder why they bothered. If there wasn't the time or budget to re-render the artwork, the original pixel art would have been preferable to what has to be the most baffling use of AI imagery I've seen in game development since the release of that bizarre Ark: Aquatica trailer.

The fact that nobody thought the results were off suggests this remake didn't receive a lot of love, but then this is the third Front Mission games to see a remake in just four years, and each one was one by a different studio.

If you want to work on your own games, see our pick of the best game development software and check out the new free Unreal Engine Parrot Sample Game to learn how to use the software. For more news, see the first glimpse of the upcoming Rogue Trooper movie.

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Joe Foley
Freelance journalist and editor

Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.

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