It's no wonder, the controls were fucked RIGHT up in Last Raven. Boosters were slow as hell, you had to worry about all that reload time bullshit, things got heavier and generators got hotter/weaker...It was pretty much a mess. Not as bad as Nexus, but a mess.
DEFINITELY play this game (the original Armored Core) and Armored Core 3. They offer the absolute best experience by far. You can download Armored Core, Armored Core 2, and Armored Core: Master of Arena (only one I haven't played is two, and I loved the others) from the SNESorama forums, free of charge.