PIXELRelive iconic scenes from "Mobile Police PATLABOR" in this 3D console action game. Experience dual perspectives: Main Missions as the SV2, and Another
PATLABOR the Case Files is out on Steam at $31.49, with a 10% launch discount at the time of writing. It is a 3D action game adapting Mobile Police PATLABOR, and comfortably the most expensive release in this batch.
PATLABOR the Case Files plays both sides
Main Missions put you with SV2, the police labor unit. Another Side Missions put you with their rivals. Letting you play the opposing perspective is unusual for a licensed adaptation and suggests the source material is being treated with some care.
Mobile Police PATLABOR has been running since 1988, across manga, two television series and a set of films that are still held up as some of the best science fiction animation made. Its premise — giant robots used for construction and policing rather than war, with all the paperwork that implies — has aged unusually well.
That is a demanding thing to adapt. The appeal of PATLABOR was never the mech fights; it was the people operating them. Whether a 3D action game can carry that is the question the price is really asking you to gamble on.
The two are listed separately, which points to genuine length rather than one story with alternate skins. For a thirty-dollar licensed title that is the detail that justifies the price, if it holds up — a second perspective doubles the content only when it is written as its own thing.
Simulator Mode is the tell
Chime include a mode for honing pilot skills separately from the story. Licensed games that treat their vehicle handling as set dressing do not usually bother building one, so its presence suggests the piloting has enough depth to reward repetition.
A console action game, on PC
Chime describe it in those terms themselves, which is a useful warning about what to expect. Console-first action games often arrive on Steam with fixed camera conventions and menus designed for a controller.
That is not a fault so much as a fact to plan around. Use a pad.
GOOD SMILE COMPANY are publishing
Better known for figures than games, though they have published before. For a PATLABOR licence that pairing makes commercial sense — the audience overlaps heavily with their existing one.
Thirty-one dollars is the real question
PATLABOR the Case Files is $31.49 at the time of writing. Everything else in this week’s batch sits between four and sixteen dollars, so this asks roughly double the most expensive of them.
It does so on the strength of a licence rather than scope anyone can verify from a store page. If you do not already care about PATLABOR, wait for reviews — licensed mech games rarely convert newcomers, and the dual-perspective structure assumes you know who SV2 are before you start.
At a glance — verified Steam listing
Developer: Chime · Publisher: GOOD SMILE COMPANY · Released: 16 September 2026 · Price: $31.49 (10% launch discount at the time of writing) · Genre: Action · View on Steam
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