Thanks to the indomitable Donkey Show, we found out details for an arcade location test happening this weekend for Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost. What with the PS3 port of Full Boost around the corner, Bandai Namco are getting ready for the next arcade iteration. Before we get into details, it’s worth clarifying that the game still appears to be running on a System 357 board (rather than the newer 478, which had been rumoured). Anyway, read on for our impressions.

In the version we played there are an additional 8 mobile suits available, on top of the current roster. These are the Gundam AGE-1, RX-78-2 Gundam w/G-Armor, Char’s MS-06S Zaku II, MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam, AMX-004-2 Qubeley Mk.II, GN-001/hs-A01 Gundam Avalanche Exia, GNX-Y903VW Brave, RX-104FF Penelope, GAT-X105+AQM/E-YM1 Perfect Strike Gundam and the ZGMF-X666S Legend Gundam. There were also three new arenas, one from Turn A and the others from Gundam 00. The latter having one from Awakening of the Trailblazer with ELS metal everywhere (shown above, albeit blurry).

Bar the new HUD, the game looks and plays similarly to the last two games. Though the Assault and Blast Bursts have been changed into S-Drive and F-Drive, as part of a new EX Overdrive system. Once activated either a blue or red ring hovers around the waist of the mobile suit with an additional red or blue outline around the unit too. Like the Burst modes, the new Drives split out the abilities to either offense or defense. Whilst it is very much a follow on to Full Boost, almost all the units seemed to have been buffed yet again. Resulting in some very intense matches.

We decided to take the Penelope for a spin and it basically plays exactly like the Xi Gundam (a nice nod to the novels), with pretty much all the exact same attacks. Except you can detach the Penelope armor to reveal the RX-104 Odysseus Gundam, which is twice as fast and is much more melee focused. It also has a few mobility specials too, which have it jump around whilst firing beam rifle shots (much like the Gelgoog, Sumo and Sinanju). Considering that the Xi Gundam is already a popular fortress unit here it looks like the Penelope might supercede it in terms of usage in the arcades.

Overall it seems that Bandai Namco and Byking aren’t rocking the boat too much with this one, as they seem to think they they are onto a good thing. Considering how popular Full Boost is in the arcades in Japan, their reasoning makes sense. In any case, we enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to when Maxi Boost hits the arcades proper (likely later this year).