At the PAX convention in Seattle, Red 5 Studios released a gameplay trailer of their upcoming free-to-play online team-based shooter, Firefall. Notably, the studio has staff who previously worked on World of Warcraft and Starsiege: Tribes, so it’s not just an online team-based shooter with an amazing gameplay trailer, it’s one by some of the people behind the world’s biggest online game and an online team-based shooter held by many to be a classic, respectively, so the sheer potential this game has is simply staggering.

More mecha related though are the player characters’ armor, which from all appearances seems to work like that of Tribes’, where a character’s role would be determined by the armor, weapons and equipment they had equipped, rather than by having specific classes. And again like Tribes, these are suits of powered armor that allow a limited form of flight through the use of jetpacks, replicating the kind of combat in the novel version of Starship Troopers. While the Starship Troopers movie, which had a radically different plot from the book, muddies this a bit, the original novel had a huge effect on both the mecha anime genre (more specifically, Real Robots) and the “space marine” trope that simply cannot be overstated–they wouldn’t exist in their present forms without it.

In the West, the “space marine” interpretation is obviously the most popular, while Japan adopted the mecha aspects of the novel’s powered armor as their own, but it has only been recently that we’ve started to see the two different genres, which share the same common ancestor, sharing ideas. Games like Lost Planet and Vanquish are starting to take elements from both sides and are creating something new and original, and Firefall seems to be a part of that trend, with even Gears of War getting a piece of robot action these days.

The Firefall armor, for instance, not only looks like the earlier Tribes’, but incorporates a number of features uncommon in the West but more common in Japan–the armor is in general more colorful rather than ultra-gritty gray and includes glowy verniers in addition to more standard thrusters, much like Japanese mecha of today, versus the “space marines” we see more often in the West which de-emphasize these mechanical aspects. The glowy verniers themselves seem to be inspired by Gundam 00’s GN Drives or perhaps some of Gurren Lagann‘s “spiral” imagery, and according to the little data we have available on Firefall, they might even share a few more similarities to them other than looks: they seem to be related to “repulsor technology” a bit like how GN particles (or UC Gundam’s Minovsky particles) could be used for shielding or improved movement. It seems like the powered armor can also use an ability similar to Armored Core: For Answer’s “Assault Armor” in the cinematic trailer (which also shows off deployable robot drones, and the most painful-looking asstacular female ‘armor’ seen to date). The gameplay trailer, with its ten minutes of awesome, follows:

IGN posted some impressions of a pre-alpha version of Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury, coming to Xbox Live Arcade. It sounds like the new game stays true to the formula used by Bangai-O on the Dreamcast and Bangai-O Spirits on the Nintendo DS, and notably includes a level editor like Spirits did, which will allow users to send their creations to their online friends, although without the DS version’s really cool/really finicky Sound Loud feature.

The new game returns to the Dreamcast version’s control setup, with one stick being used to move your mecha and the other controlling the direction of your shots, which likely means a return to a completely manic pace, as opposed to Spirits’ methodically and strategically manic pace. It’s a setup that should likely be familiar with the rebirth of arena shooters after the popularity enjoyed by Geometry Wars on the XBLA, and thus hopefully can attract a larger audience than the cult classic originals.

The original Bangai-O managed to incorporate a number of important and intrinsically mecha elements into its gameplay, such as the Itano Circus of missiles being unloaded and the use of shots and missile fratricide to carve out areas of relative safety. The control of the titular robot Bangai-O itself also had a certain amount of heft and weight to it when you weren’t actively dashing, and its ability to shoot more missiles the more imminent danger the Bangai-O was in was a decidedly Super Robot mechanic. The more intense the danger, the hotter Bangai-O’s spirit burns! If you’re curious about the series, then make sure to check out our feature on the games.

The current price point seems to be 800 Xbox Points, which likely averages out to be less than 1 Point per missile onscreen at once.

4gamer continues the cavalcade of Solatorobo screenshots and art, this time covering more of the game’s main city and more of the main robot, Dahak’s different forms. The Type S, for instance, looks suitably hot-blooded in its promotional art (pictured) for the brawler the screenshots show it to be, and I can’t not love the robot form where both arms become shields. The red form with the stretchy, birdlike arms uses them not only for picking up objects and throwing them but also for grabbing missiles and redirecting them back at their launchers mid-flight, which is probably both physically impossible and totally badass.

The different forms of the Dahak seem to fit well into Solatorobo’s game design, which has thus far shown a propensity towards experimentation with different game concepts. We know that there are both 2D and 3D platforming stages, some of which are also played on foot at times, but we’ve also seen a fishing for battleships minigame, 3D flight areas, and revealed in this new batch of screenshots, a 3D flight racing game (which seems to have different mechanics from the other 3D flight areas).

Fitting into all this talk of different robotic forms and different stages is the reveal that the Dahak seems to also be customizable with a set of chips laid into a gridlike pattern; it looks like there is the possibility for a little bit of fine-tuning the Dahak as well, if a bunch of awesome junkmech forms and a technorgasmic transformation leave you wanting more.

Up at the PlatinumGames official blog, there’s a post from the lead background designer of Vanquish, talking about the influence of Gundam’s space colonies on their game’s visual design. We’ve talked about this obvious influence before but in particular his comment about the team being mainly of “Gundam age” is very interesting. Most of them grew up with this shared cultural experience of Mobile Suit Gundam and other mecha series spawned from the Real Robot explosion that followed in its wake, and this affects Japanese video game development to this day, just as Western video game developers share their own cultural experiences, such as Star Wars and Dungeons & Dragons.

Japanese video games can do very well in the West, but much of the time the peculiar differences that Japanese games can have from Western ones is ignored in the press or simply passed off as “Japan is weird”, without exploring the particular background these differences came from, rather treating game development as if it exists in a vacuum. It’s good to see these differences explained, and this in particular is a good example of the scale of influence the mecha animation genre has had in Japanese video game development.

Just in case you forgot the game still existed over the course of a week, the well-oiled Solatorobo PR machine continues to chug on, with more screenshots and concept art over at 4Gamer. It seems our canine hero can transform into a shirtless bishonen that is sure to drive the fangirls wild, but more importantly it seems the mecha itself responds to the change, becoming a bit more upright, but strangely also developing glowing green claws. So when he’s a dog, the mecha is a bird, and when he’s a human, it has claws. An unusual approach to mecha henkei, anyway.

Andriasang put up a gallery of new pictures for the Game Formerly Known as Solarobo, but Now Known as Solatorobo, including a few pieces of absolutely beautiful mechanical art. It has that “alternate history/steampunk” look to it that was very common in anime as I was growing up, but eventually seemed to get replaced with cleaner and more modern designs, and I’m glad to see this sort of imaginative work back.

Game Watch Impress has an article with much of the same screenshots and mechanical works featured, plus a few extra details if you can read Japanese or are willing to wade through a machine translated version of it. Most of the details in the article are about gameplay elements we’ve seen in action before, but it’s good to know that “dog-man in a bird-robot fishing for battleships” is still a planned feature.

Speaking of things we’ve already seen, the small gameplay videos that were released were edited into a much prettier single movie, complete with gorgeous backgrounds and music. The wide variety of game modes, and the sheer charm of the graphics they’ve been able to squeeze out of the lowly Nintendo DS, have gradually changed my outlook on this game from being a mere curiosity to being a “must have!” title, simply because there isn’t and won’t be anything quite like it. The industry as a whole seems afraid to innovate in 3D action games and platformers, preferring to use proven-successful genre formulas or licensed characters to carry these games, but these fellows are doing something amazing with Solatorobo. Here’s to hoping that the game does indeed get released outside of Japan.

A preview video has also been released, mostly showing off the game’s cast of characters, who are still animal people and not robots like we would prefer:

SiliconEra has an interview with Shinji Hashimoto, producer of Front Mission Evolved, teasing some sort of cross-promotion with Hideo Kojima and his PlayStation Portable game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

This cross-promotion seems to be in addition to an already announced cross-promotion between the two games, where items unlocked in Peace Walker will be available in Front Mission Evolved, and/or vice versa. Considering the very different nature of the two games’ mecha, I’m wondering how this will actually work; if it’s robot-to-robot part swapping it could look awkward, albeit possibly interesting. The mecha in Peace Walker are heavy tank-like walkers and reworked versions of Metal Gear Solid 3’s Shagohod, while Front Mission Evolved’s mecha conform more to the Real Robot standard of quick-moving humanoid weapons, equipped with thrusters and ground rollers.

I wouldn’t mind the big secret being a face-off against the venerable Metal Gear REX from the original Metal Gear Solid. I’ve been waiting years to go mano-a-mano (well, mecha-to-mecha) against that monster without support from an insane cyborg ninja. Getting help from an insane cyborg ninja always felt like cheating.

French site Nintendo-Master has apparently seen Tail Concerto‘s spiritual successor, Solarobo, translated into French. There doesn’t seem to be any official announcement, but seeing a game currently unreleased in Japan already in another language means someone at Bandai-Namco is planning a localization. Whether the French translation means a European or a North American release is hard to say at this point.

As noted above, the game is a spiritual successor to Tail Concerto, a PS1 platforming game starring a dog-cop in a mecha, who captured criminal cat pirates in bubbles. Cute game about talking animals or crypto-allegory about the political and literal machinery of racism? (probably the former) Anyway, the PS1 original was refreshing in its time for its colorful look and relaxing feel back when most video games were exploring darker themes and, with the upgraded graphics capabilities of the Nintendo DS, Solarobo is not only continuing in that tradition but is extending it. By creating a colorful, almost waterpainted game in a time where video games consist entirely of palettes of browns.

The same YouTube user who uploaded a few videos of the game last time we talked about Solarobo has again graciously shared with the Internet a few more vids, illustrating the game in action. As we noted last time, Solarobo’s camera perspective changes depending on what kind of stage the character is currently in, taking a behind-the-back view during the larger 3D stages, and a wide angle shot for smaller rooms that depend more on sidescrolling and platforming. A lot of games try to keep the game’s perspective constant even when the game’s needs could better be served by a different angle, which either makes certain stretches of a game awkward or limits the possibilities of the game’s creators. Solarobo definitely seems to be playing with possibilities; here’s the game’s (apparently VTOL) mecha taking flight between floating islands with some of the best mecha booster-flares ever, here it is in one of the more exciting mine cart scenes that are apparently mandated by international law, and then there’s, uh, this “fishing for a battleship” scene. It’s good to see that when mecha games finally get their own fishing minigames, the fish are scaled up to the capabilities of the mecha.

Website DSHyper also has their own impressions, which includes a good summary of what we know of the story and part of an interview with someone from CyberConnect2, the team that is developing the game.

During an impromptu interview held in a hotel bathroom, mecha fans’ hopes for a new game in the Zone of the Enders series were dashed as Hideo Kojima explained that the project currently receiving his direct attention wasn’t Zone of the Enders 3. He is already supervising the development of the new 3D Castlevania, “Castlevania: Lords of Shadow”, and Metal Gear Solid Rising, so Kojima has his fingers in too many pies to do a ZoE sequel justice.

While Mecha Damashii’s response to the ZoE games has been ambivalent at times, the franchise itself has much more potential than was ever realized in the actual games, and we’d love to get our grubby mitts on a third installment. While some of the franchise’s mechanics are in serious need of a tune-up, the background story and narrative of the games have always lived up to the promise of having Hideo Kojima’s name associated with them, and I don’t doubt that Konami, if they gave a third ZoE game their full attention, could get the functional issues out of the way.

Unlike, say, From Software, Konami doesn’t have the distinct advantage of being a mecha games-centric company, and it takes time and hard work to develop a team capable of delivering something on the level of Armored Core, and I don’t think any company or game designer could perform that feat without giving the project their fullest attention. It’s worth noting the games reviewed well (despite selling poorly), so a spruced-up ZoE could be absolutely killer.

Let’s just hope we see the Vic Viper from Gradius again, seeing as how the venerable shmup spaceship has been inexplicably replaced with, uh, teenage girls.

The swirling chaos that is E3 is almost over, and while it will be some time before anyone can make sense of what this raw data pulse from the games industry actually means, there have been a few mecha-related sightings and announcements for the observant mechanical fanatic.

One of the biggest surprises of the show came in this trailer for the campaign of Halo: Reach, which revealed the presence of space fighter combat. While a lot of FPS fans were shocked by the news, Halo has always had an emphasis on using vehicles, so this is really just an extreme extension of that. More interesting to mecha gaming fans, perhaps, is how Real Robot the Spartan designs now look. While we have talked about the Spartan design and its similarities to Yutaka Izubuchi’s work before, specifically the GM Sniper II and GM Command, the comparison to Japanese Real Robot design is even more pronounced now. The squad of Spartans we see all have different kinds of equipment, and therefore distinct visual looks, which describe their role type on the battlefield. This is something that mecha games have been doing for years and now more mainstream games are finally catching up. Some of the interviews and information being leaked out talk about being able to customize your player character Spartan with different weapons, equipment and aesthetic features, making the character more like a human wearing powered armor and less like a generic guy with guns (something we talked a bit about last week with Vanquish).

Speaking of Vanquish, there’s a gameplay video from the E3 floor which shows the protagonist hopping on and controlling what reminds me of the Regult battle pod from Macross. Vanquish continues to look as amazing as ever and the interesting mixture of Western and Japanese game ideas will hopefully inject some much-needed lifeblood into the ‘third person shooter’ genre.

And more directly mecha related, I was happy to see in the new Warhammer 40,000 MMO trailer some of the massive robotic weapons the Warhammer 40k universe has to offer. While actual details on the game are currently light, and no one seems to be able to tell us whether we will control some of these mechanical monstrosities or if they’re just the 40k MMO equivalent to World of Warcraft’s raid bosses, it does seem as if the developer is trying to incorporate some of the more epic-scaled elements of the 40k universe rather than just making the WoW clone that everyone else is trying to make. I refuse to believe there can be anything bad about a fictional universe that agrees with Mobile Suit Gundam’s assertion that vehicles painted red go faster, at any rate.