The wondrous news of a MBV-04-G Temjin toy on the way has finally manifested itself via an official site from Bandai. Despite specifying both the release date for October this year and the price of 5,040 yen, the site also sports the “theme tune” of sorts for Temjin (or more accurately the stage music where you face Temjin in the original Virtual On). Called In The Blue Sky it’s been a recurring anthem of sorts for the series as a whole. The site also shows a curious lighting effect for the beam sword, whether this is a photoshop special (most likely) or an actual feature remains to be seen. In addition to the site going live there’s also an interesting interview with Juro Watari (effectively the “creator” of Virtual On) over at the official Virtual On site about this new toy.

Over at Gpara and Game Watch, they’ve covered the recent announcement regarding the new OG (or “original generation”) mecha to feature in the upcoming Another Century’s Episode R. In addition, there are a slew of new screenshots for a lot of the licensed mecha – with the Macross Zero and Frontier shots looking jaw-droppingly amazing. What’s interesting thus far is how conspicuously absent the Nu Gundam has been. Considering that this is the only unit from the epic Char’s Counterattack to be featured in ACE R it seems odd that no press materials have covered this iconic design. The eternal optimist in me hopes that this is due to the fact that the game won’t just feature a single Nu Gundam but also all its multitudinous variants. In short, we’d be ecstatic at the chance of having the Hi-Nu Gundam featured in the game.

Over an 2chan they’ve managed to uncover (via a scan from this month’s Hobby Japan) the truth behind the mysterious animated gif we reported on Tamashii Web. It turns out that the next Composite Ver. Ka, a new toy range personally supervised by renowned Japanese mecha designer Hajime Katoki, will be none other than his very own design of the MBV-04-G Temjin from the original Dennou Senki Virtual On (they’ve even updated the image banner on the Tamashii Web site to this effect too – despite still using the Oratan font). This is not the first time an original Temjin toy has surfaced, as SEGA made a selection of toys back in the late 90’s. In any case, Temjin is by far and away our favourite VR from the series, not only in terms of functionality but also due to its clean and classic aesthetic. What’s nice with this new Composite Ver. Ka toy is that it will also feature the rail gun used by the initial prototype (something that you see in the leaderboards background in the game itself). If you’ve never played the original Virtual On (shame on you!), then the SEGA AGES PS2 port is unarguably the best version to date and in some ways even eclipses the arcade original, as you can force a higher framerate amongst many other things (you can also still buy it here). Though the PS2 port does lack sticks, unless you mod a pair of old Saturn ones (like we did). In commemoration of this toy announcement it only seems fit to show the original game in all its wondrous glory and be sure to check out our feature on the Virtual On games too. Enjoy!

A rather interesting animated gif has appeared over on the Tamashii Web front page. Despite talking of a collaboration with Hobby Japan, the interesting aspect is that the font used for “Ready” as well as patented SEGA blue sky background (not to mention the green hatching) makes us think that a Virtual On Oratorio Tangram toyline could be on the way. Bear in mind that the Tamashii brand is squarely aimed at collectors so we could be in store for something rather wonderful. In any case, we’ll know more on the 25th June.

Over at Gametrailers they’ve managed to capture some surprisingly steady hand camera footage for a multiplayer game in Front Mission Evolved. Much like the older videos, it seems the mecha handling still has no real discernible weight. As such there’s no penalty with momentum between dashes, which makes the movement look very jerky. On the one hand the reasoning behind this choice is pretty obvious; as it means more gamers will have an easier time with the mecha handling learning curve but the downside to all this is that the mecha control will plateau very quickly in terms of player skill (something not entirely ideal for a game with online multiplayer). Naturally, we’ll reserve judgment on our review come September but these videos do continue to fill our robotic hearts with a palpable sense of foreboding.

In the latest Famitsu, the new “original generation” or OG mecha have been finally shown for the upcoming ACE R. This is quite common in the ACE games, as the first game had a Cloudbreaker (from Murakumo) and the Gespenst Mk.II (from SRW). Following on from this in ACE 2 and 3 were the Gunark and the Ixbrau (the latter designer by Takayuki Yanase of Gundam 00 fame). These new designs are interesting, not only stylistically but also in the fact that it shows that the “base” ship is not one from any given anime. Called the Ark Alpha, it has shades of the Novis Noah from Brain Powerd. The Alphato also bears a few uncanny similarities to the mecha in Argento Soma. In any case, we’re happy to see the OG tradition carry on through to ACE R.

The newly announced Nintendo 3DS, which sounds suitably wondrous, is also getting some cool third party games too. Even Bandai Namco are jumping into the fray and offering new Gundam and Super Robot Wars games specifically for the handheld. From a Gundam perspective, if they go down the action route, we could have something pretty mindblowing on a 3DS. As for SRW, there’s not much scope for sight bending functionality – as the games are predominantly turn-based strategy orientated. Still, it’s nice to see that the 3DS will be getting a slice of mecha gaming in the near future.

The upcoming Killzone 3 will be featuring an interesting new power armour of Helghast design. For those that played the last game, this shouldn’t be too surprising as the latter parts of the campaign also featured playable mecha too. What’s interesting, in the wider sense at least, is that Killzone 3 is another entry in an increasing list of upcoming games games that are folding in mecha based functionality into their make-up. From Gears of War 3 to the continued usage of Walkers in Red Faction Armageddon, not to mention Vanquish as well. It seems that the benefits of mecha are finally being explored and appreciated in the broader gaming context.

The official site for the upcoming 360 port of Virtual On Force has confirmed what many fans expected; a re-issue of HORI’s TwinStick EX peripheral to coincide with the release of the game later this year. The eye watering price tag of 30,000 yen is still in effect and it will also only available if you’ve made the requisite pre-order via HORI’s online store. Needless to say, this re-issue may not happen as both SEGA and HORI have to meet a certain number of pre-orders before they can enter production again. Bear in mind that a lot of Virtual On fans already sacrificed a kidney/leg/arm to obtain one of these the first time around, so I’m not sure who’d be left to buy this re-issue version.

We meant to cover this a good while back but lots of new games have been kicking off, so it got lost amongst that. In any case, the wondrous Border Break has been receiving numerous updates via the BB.tv channel, showing off the new blast runners as well as the new maps. What’s most striking in the video below is how much faster the game has become since we reviewed it. Whilst we greatly enjoyed the slower pacing before the Ver 1.5 update, as it made matches feel very tactical, it seems that this speed increase is something that’s quite short range and localised. As such we’re inclined to think that this development is actually a positive one, as it’s merging both the tactics that occur at range and a more instinctive approach to closer range combat.