Earlier in the week, Last Raven Portable finally made the jump to the US PSN store. This is obviously the digital version so the disc reading/input framerate issue seen on the UMD versions (without the data install) won’t be an issue. Word of warning though; the original Last Raven, which we reviewed, was a total bastard in terms of difficulty (probably more so than any other Armored Core game to date). The new PSP port hasn’t been sympathetically handled in terms of the controls so expect a greater level of functional anguish. We will be reviewing it shortly though and whilst it’s a competent port (more so than Armored Core 3 Portable was at least) it’s not really meant for those without actual robot fingers.

Game Watch has just covered the recent Senjou no Kizuna 2010 Tournament, as well as hosted a brief interview with the developers of the very successful arcade game. Though the real meat of the coverage is the in-game video coverage taken from the live feed that’s often displayed to punters in the arcades (of which we’ve linked a fair few below, in HD no less). In many ways Senjou no Kizuna laid the ground work for games like Border Break to follow, though it’s still nice to see a game succeed despite its pretty dated hardware. You might also want to keep tabs on Namco Bandai’s YouTube Channel, as they’ve been pretty diligent with uploading much of the tournament replays. There is a PSP port of the game and, all things considered, is actually moderately decent – though it does lack any form of online multiplayer capability (something that ultimately defined the arcade version, along with its amazing cockpit obviously).

In the latest issue of Gundam Ace, several pieces of Hajime Katoki’s reworked Gundam Senki 0081 designs have been showcased. Specifically that of the re-used Kunio Okawara design, the RX-78-7 or “7th Gundam” as it is more colloquially known. Up until 0081, this design hadn’t actually been featured in any part of the canon UC timeline narrative and was instead relegated to a mere mobile suit variation (or MSV). The above design, the FA-78-3 Full Armor 7th Gundam was part of an exclusive DLC pack for the game and also received its own HG UC kit.

The latest iteration in the successful Gears of War franchise, Gears of War 3, will now be featuring small bipedal mecha. Shown in recently in a Russian games magazine, the C.O.G. Silverback (pictured above) will be featured in the game. For VOTOMS fans this may look a bit familiar as it uses a fair few aesthetic and functional cues from the ATH-06-WP Diving Beetle, which was prominently featured in the Kummen story arc in the TV series. Even the scale of the Silverback is pretty close to the Diving Beetle too, though the former is closer to power armor as the pilot effectively wears the mecha really (rather than sit inside a defined cockpit). Gears of War 3 is set for an early April release next year.

Artdink have been making a name for themselves over the past few years for solid mecha games on the PSP. With the four prior Gundam Battle games, most of which were a lot of fun if a little bit of a slog at times, as well as their two recent Macross efforts. In their latest Gundam based outing though, in the form of Gundam Assault Survive, the design of these games is beginning to wear a little thin.

Considering that the host platform is portable, it makes sense that the main game be based around moderately concise sections of gameplay. The earlier Gundam Battle games executed this approach very well, despite the odd difficulty spike. Assault Survive departs from this concise nature and has undertaken a sprawling approach to its missions instead.

At its core you still have short missions making up the game, the difference now is that there is a map system semi-lifted from the Dynasty Warriors series. So whilst there are brief missions making the game up, they are often chained up together to make a level that’s pretty longwinded and not really suitable for a handheld gaming device.

Earlier in the week, Game Watch had a nice bit of coverage over Lord of Elemental’s game system. Despite mentioning how the Prana setup worked, which acts as a boost to your HP and MG, the Guardian relationship was also laid out. Specifically, how the elemental side of this setup works – this is also where the game takes its name from in case you’re wondering. In short, the four elements of wind, fire, earth and water act as defensive and offensive multipliers. Thus far, the system of the game seems to be pretty cogent and whilst it has been updated from the original game it doesn’t appear to be detrimental (though we’ll know for sure once we have it in our hands). For those that buy the game on release they’ll also get a free OG Crusade card for their troubles too. The game is released on May 27th for 6090 yen and you can pre-order it here.

Hot on the heels of the recent 1/100 scale Metal Composite Gundam Unicorn (which we’ve reviewed), Bandai have announced that they’re releasing the Full Armor variant shown at the end of the novels. This new toy will be part of the Gundam Fix Next Generation line (or GFFN for short) and as such be at the smaller scale of 1/144, rather than the Metal Composite’s 1/100. There’s also no word on whether this toy will complete the transformation between Unicorn and Destroy modes but we’re guessing not on account of the smaller scale and lower price point.

To the more eagle eyed of you, the fact that the internal psycho frame is green rather than pink may have raised an eyebrow. This colour shift is to do with events that also occurred in Char’s Counterattack, where two psychoframe mobile suits (the Nu Gundam and Sazabi) were in close proximity with one another resulting in a form of Newtype resonance. In the Unicorn novels, this resonance is kicked off when the Banshee enters the fray – which is basically a more powerful clone of the Unicorn.

As for the “full armor” nature of this suit, that is somewhat questionable. As FA mobile suit variants are normally, as the title implies, covered in an extra layer of bespoke armor. Not to mention having custom weapons attached on hardpoints as well. To give a good example of this, take a look at the FA-78-1 and the original RX-78-2 Gundam. You can see, despite the colour changes, that the suit has been pretty heavily re-worked. In the case of the FA Unicorn, well all it’s using are standard weapons and parts and just strapping them onto the main body. In any case, this toy will be available in August for 8400 yen and you can practically guarantee that it will make an appearance in the upcoming Gundam Extreme Versus.

Over at Famitsu they’ve released a bunch of very shiny in-game screenshots for the upcoming Gundam Extreme Versus. This is the first game in the series to use the System 357 board, effectively a PlayStation 3 in a box – so the texture detail and geometrical complexity are obviously going to be a pretty big step up from the older games.

The coverage shows three mobile suits specifically, each of which are new to the series; the EMS-10 Zudah, the MBF-P02 Gundam Astray Red Frame and the XM-X1 (F97) Crossbone Gundam X-1 (pictured above). In terms of the latter, Crossbone Gundam is getting a fair bit of a resurgence as of late with the mecha also being featured in the upcoming PlayStayion 3 exclusive Another Century’s Episode R.

No word on an exact release date for Gundam Extreme Versus as yet but it’s still slated for an Autumn release. However, the Famitsu article does also state that the game will be using a new card system as well as boast HD 16:9 displays for each of the cabinets. Due to the host hardware, it’s fairly safe to assume that a PlayStation 3 port will swiftly follow.

Update: There will be a loc test for the game next weekend (May 7th to 9th) at the Nakano Broadway Plabo and Tokyo Gulliver Matsudo.

This is a pretty cool video of Japanese players doing a bunch of high speed formation flybys and awesome fireworks displays with the weapons in Armored Core For Answer. If anything it shows how versatile and functionally thorough the game is, not to mention being quite shiny to boot. Though I’m sure the majority of the main stream games press, with their sausage fingers, won’t “get” any of this. Shame that.

The music accompanying the video is Starry Sky – MK feat. R.Cena in case you’re wondering. Thanks to Raven Republic and Armored Core Online for the heads up.

From Software have recently released their new mascot online; Aaliyah Kawate is an interesting masked character that has the head of the AALIYAH frame made by Ray Leonard in Armored Core 4 and For Answer. He generally gets rolled out for the various meets and seems to make a big deal of his skill at the games (despite being a bit crap actually). In any case, he was recently unleashed on Twitter and has been uploading versus videos of him playing Last Raven Portable too. So if you like your mecha gaming mascots a bit wacky then this might be right up your street!