Over at Play Asia, there are a bunch of lovely mecha games going at a discounted price. Some of them are also quite rare. Such as the Dreamcast Gundam Rise from the Ashes Premium Disc, this was originally sold directly to fans via a coupon from the original game and then only in Japan (if you’re curious about the full game, we’ve already reviewed it). You then have the even rarer Macross Eternal Love Song, a classic NCS strategy game on the PC Engine – so very much in the spirit of Langrisser in case you’re wondering. Finally, the more recent Emblem of Gundam and Super Robot Wars K on the Nintendo DS should also keep your strategy leanings satiated.

In the latest issue of Game Informer, a new Transformers game has been announced. Called “The War For Cybertron” it’s being developed by High Moon Studios and appears to follow its own continuity, with new designs to follow suit (though these look moderately decent compared to the recent film monstrosities). The game will apparently be moderately standard third-person shooter fare and be available on both the PS3 and 360 (though it may receive other ports too, knowing Activision). We’ve talked about various Tranformers games before, so hiring a developer with no prior mecha game experience AND then treating said mecha as functionally comparable to human protagonists is never a good idea.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a kit from the original Virtual On to review. Specifically, Kotobukiya’s 1/100 scale Viper II. This was a lightly armored and mostly airborne focused virtuaroid, that also sported a very powerful secret attack – in the form of its “SLC” (or “She’s Lost Control”) dive. Like the other VR’s in the Virtual On series, Viper II was designed by mecha design magnate Hajime Katoki.

Our review covers the kit in its out of the box and unpainted form but we have also included painted photos towards the end. In addition, to give the kit some context, we’ve also captured some gameplay footage of the design in action from the recent SEGA AGES PlayStation 2 port.

As we previously reported, the Christmas Tree adorned with various Gunpla in Akihabara has been officially lit up yesterday. With Tohru Furuya in attendance (he’s on the left in the above picture), fans who bought the recent Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus on the PSP will be able to have their picture taken with him. Naturally, we’ll be reviewing the game fairly shortly, though for those curious about it we’ve been mightily impressed with the game thus far.

The wonderful and massively popular Gundam networked arcade game Senjou no Kizuna, with its panoramic cockpit, is getting a version update (Rev 2.10 to be exact) on the 9th December. Apart from general balancing the game is receiving new maps and mobile suits, with the former featuring Odessa as well as the Libot colony from Gundam 0080 War in the Pocket. Considering how wonderfully nerdy the whole setup is, the thought of playing that map in a Yutaka Izubuchi designed GM Command gives me goosebumps of glee.

Despite the insane arcade hardware, there is a port of Senjo no Kizuna available (on the PSP to be exact). Whilst it’s pretty solid, as the arcade game only uses a pretty basic board, it does play a tad differently as the panoramic cockpit forces you to look around in the arcade whereas on the PSP the game occurs straight in front of you. In any case, you can buy the port here.

The arcade port Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus is released today in Japan. If you’re thinking of importing the game you can get it here (or here if you’re in Europe). In addition, Bandai Namco are hosting an online questionnaire for the game to take feedback from gamers. There’s still no word on the PlayStation 3 version of the game but this may have been a misunderstanding (as many PSP games can be downloaded via the PlayStation 3’s online store). In any case, considering this is still Gundam’s 30th Anniversary it seems only fitting to finish off with a lovely video of pretty much all the major Gundam’s effectively high fiving for the win. Enjoy!

To commemorate Gundam’s 30th Anniversary, Bandai Namco are re-releasing a selection of best selling Gundam games at a reduced price in Japan. Some of these games are still Japanese exclusives, which is a shame as the recent Wii game developed by Team White Dingo was superb and it never made the jump abroad. Likewise, Artdink’s excellent PSP games are still without a Western release. These anniversary versions will hit Japanese stores on the 17th December.

The latest column over on the Oratan 5.66 site show the wondrous new HORI TwinSticks in the flesh. Despite the immense size (almost twice that of the Xbox 360 itself) they also look suitably sturdy. Considering the sticks are based off the Real Arcade Pro range, the size and build quality are hardly surprising. Unfortunately, if you didn’t pre-order these sticks then you’re pretty much out of luck as they were literally made to order for the very much eager Japanese fanbase.

Update: 4Gamer has some nice coverage for the release of the sticks as well.

The latest in the epic Perfect Grade range of model kits has hit Japanese stores. Considering the last PG kit was a few years ago, Bandai have gone a bit nuts with their latest entry, that of the 00 Raiser. Despite the crowd pleasing lights display, the engineering for the endoskeleton is always far more impressive. The 0 Raiser and and 00 Gundam can also separate, as they do in the series. Naturally, the timing of this kit’s release is suitably fortuitous as the design is exclusively featured in the almost released Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus. For those that want this, the kit costs 25,000 yen and you can buy it here. Here’s also some footage from the series of the first time the 0 Raiser and 00 Gundam dock to form the mighty 00 Raiser…

The official site is now hosting a collection of player created AI arena opponents for Silent Line Portable (there’s even a staff page too). Some of the user created AI are actually quite challenging, so get stuck in.