Hey Jean,
I appreciate your response. Currently, I've tested using a Vector3 horizontal/vertical movement system, simply adding force in a given local direction, and hard coded / FSM scripting.
I have not thought to test out involving mecanim, but I'll certainly look into it! Thanks for the ideas, I'll test this out in my free time and get back with my results.
EDIT:
After reading my initial post, it's important to mention that I'm currently using a basic cube to code out the basic mechanics such as movement and camera rotation.
Later, I may implement either sprites or fully animated custom models. I'm a 2d/3d Artist way before I am a programmer.