Recent reviews by Al Masih Ad Dajjal O Algo

This game turned me off a little at first because I didn't understand it. It seemed similar to the gameplay style of Gigantic Army, so I thought I could play this game at a similarly brisk pace using the same strategies and do fine. I got my ♥♥♥♥ stomped, blamed it on the game, then muscled my way through to the ending and didn't pick it back up again for a long while.
Recently I came back to it to compare how it plays versus other successors of the Assault Suits series. I was hot off Assault Suits Valken for the Super Nintendo and used to the more plodding and deliberate pace of it, where rushing along at the wrong time could swiftly get you swarmed by all kinds of weapons platforms at angles you aren't ready to deal with. You always had your shield, however, capable of blocking omnidirectionally regardless of what way you were facing.
Mechblaze wants to take a route that sits somewhere between the two games. The Vostok is a mech that's a little good at everything, more modular than Gigantic Army's Saladin and with a faster power ramp up than the Assault Suit from Valken. The Vostok is a lot faster than either mech with its indefinite dash, but it's also a lot more fragile to sustained fire, and while your shield is a valuable tool it isn't indestructible nor omnidirectional. Additionally your melee pilebunker, while powerful, will knock you away from your enemy if it doesn't kill which can put you back into the enemy's angle of fire.
What all this does is foster a game feel where the player is managing their resources in a constant tug of war with the enemies between caution and balls to the wall aggression. Sometimes you don't want to eat a shotgun blast to the shield because you know you need that shield health for a later fight in the stage, and you know you're fast enough to get in under the shotgunner's cone of fire. Sometimes you know there's a grenadier holding a choke point where it'll hit you if you rush in, so you can either try and jump the grenade on impact or just sponge it with your shield. Sometimes you know you could just rush down one of the weaker grunt mechs before it has a chance to deliver its payload, but a mech you know won't immediately die to your pilebunker is in the way, forcing you to reconsider how to work your weapons and position to your advantage.
This constant series of choices and judgements created through power, limitation, and the player's own mastery of the Vostok's basics is what makes Mechblaze one of ASTRO PORT's finest titles (that I've played lol!) While the playtime is short, a modular arsenal with multiple difficulties and plenty of curveballs to the gameplay formula during its campaign give Mechblaze solid replay value. The story also has a surprising number of hype moments for fans of ASTRO PORT, especially given Mechblaze's weird transitory time period between Vulkaiser, Gigantic Army and Steel Strider, though the between level dialogue from your handler is still a bit threadbare beyond foreshadowing.

Some criticisms I have:
The resolution is limited. It's more flexible than Gigantic Army's "play full screen or play in a tiny box" conundrum, but it still feels archaic.
The soundtrack, while fitting, doesn't have any standout tracks besides a particular event towards the endgame-- it's palatable techno metal that doesn't linger in mind for long.
I feel like the tuning on the Vostok's i-frames and pilebunker could have been different. I respect their reasoning behind changing how those work compared to Gigantic Army, but I miss having reliable pilebunker rushdowns.
The game balancing feels a bit backwards, with stages and fights in the middle of the game feeling more difficult than those at the end. It's especially noticable comparing it to Valken, Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Gigantic Army, and Steel Strider's own finales.

All in all, I'd recommend Mechblaze to anyone who enjoys a more deliberate platformer, giant robots, or anyone who wants to support successors to the Assault Suits games and ASTRO PORT's future endeavors. It's good fun.