A nice long promo video for Super Robot Wars Neo was released recently, as the game is gearing up for release at the end of October in Japan. These videos are normally the ones given to high street shops to advertise the game in store (hence the length and the fact it goes through every series featured). Unlike the main bulk of Super Robot Wars games, Neo uses 3D models in the attack animations and it’s also the first game in the series to be released on the Wii (hence the slightly kiddy line-up of mecha). Despite being a port of the GC and XO games, Neo does have a bit more going for it as Banpresto have utilised a full 3D map and streamlined the whole body parts system. In that, you can no longer target the head or legs of an enemy mecha. Hopefully, unlike XO, Neo won’t feature a horrifically evil final boss fight.

The upcoming PSN/PSP re-make of the classic NEC PC-8801 shooter Thexder has had its site launched. Apart from a selection of interesting screenshots there’s also a gameplay trailer. Thexder is an interesting game as it was one of the first dedicated mecha gaming IP’s and it successfully featured in-game transformation. Unsurprisingly, it was hugely popular at the time of its release. The game will be available on October 1st for a 1000 yen via the Japanese PSN store.

The DLC for Gundam Senki 0081 that was announced not that long ago has been released today on the Japanese PSN store. Both the FA-78-3 Full Armor Gundam and RX-81AS Assault Armor cost 300 yen each. However, these mobile suits can only be used in the Free Mission mode (either offline or online) and whilst the DLC makes these units available you still have to buy them in game. The RX-81AS costs 450,000 points and the FA-78-3 costs a cool 1,200,000. Bear in mind that each mission you play nets you about 10,000 points on average means that those costings are a little brutal. Thankfully, Bandai have recently released an HG model kit of the FA-78-3 if you can’t face the grind to unlock it in game and it only costs 1,500 yen. Bargain!

As part of our service, we regularly post videos from our YouTube channel showing off the latest mecha games. To tie in with our recent review, we’ve captured three gameplay videos of the new PlayStation 3 exclusive Gundam Senki 0081. Naturally, these are quite spoiler ridden in terms of the game’s narrative so you’ve been forewarned. The videos were captured at 720p too, so make sure to select the HD option.

In the latest column over at the Oratan 5.66 blog, it’s been announced that the Hori TwinStick EX peripheral will be playable at the SEGA booth at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. This alone makes the hardware sound pretty sturdy as letting it loose on the floor of a public event would normally be a bad idea (I dread to think what would have happened to the poor Dreamcast twinsticks back in the day).

The latest issue of Famitsu has announced another PSP port for the Gundam vs Gundam line of games. Now, we already reported that Gundam vs Gundam Next is getting ported to the PlayStation 3 but it also seems a PSP version is also on the cards and slated for a December release this year. Interestingly, the PSP port seems to be getting additional playable mecha in the form of the Reborns Gundam and 00 Raiser from the second season of Gundam 00 as well as the Altron Gundam and Wing Zero from Endless Waltz.

What with this years’ Tokyo Game Show around the corner, the Japanese games industry marketing machine is going into overdrive. The upcoming Front Mission Evolved, being developed by Double Helix, has been given another trailer. Unlike the first, this teaser is predominantly CG footage and not in-game (which is a bit of a shame really). That said, the wanzers have been recreated faithfully enough it seems so there’s at least that aspect to be thankful for.

In a recent update to the official Silent Line Portable site, a new data install option was disclosed. This is especially good news for anyone who bought the previous Armored Core 3 Portable, as it spent half the time reading game data straight from the UMD (rather than caching it like it did on the PlayStation 2 version) and consequently sapping your PSP battery dry. Now, you’ll be able to install all the necessary data onto the PSP’s memory stick negating this issue entirely. Considering the lengthy bouts of furious multiplayer we had on the original Silent Line, the fact that we won’t need to spend quite so much time re-charging our PSP is nice to know. For those interested, there’s also a promo video for Silent Line Portable going the rounds. The port istelf looks to be pretty solid, more so than the last effort at least.

When the PlayStation 3 launched in Japan back in 2006, one of the available games was that of Gundam Target in Sight. Put simply, it was pretty awful. It ran at a hugely inconsistent framerate and was deeply unbalanced in the initial part of the game’s learning curve, often pitting you in sub-standard hardware against well armoured foes that could kill you with one shot. Couple that with the framerate and you rarely saw the shot that actually killed you. Unsurprisingly the game was wholly panned upon release and didn’t exactly do the PlayStation 3 many favours, as it was a platform exclusive.

Now fast forward to the recent Japanese release of the PlayStation 3 Slim and again another exclusive Gundam game has been bundled with it; that of Gundam Senki. However, despite using Target in Sight’s engine as a base it’s a completely new game and much like the PlayStation 2’s Lost War Chronicles (which we’ve also reviewed) this title has a lot more going for it than many may appreciate or initially realise.

Like many of my generation, I grew up watching a lot of cartoons. One of which was Transformers and like with many shows of that era many of my childhood friends owned the toys as well. We would play Autobots and Decepticons in our respective gardens, re-enacting the aeon long struggle between mechanical good and evil. Of all the mecha franchises birthed in Japan, Transformers is one that has the greatest amount of cultural common ground in the West; there’s an almost implicit understanding of how these fictional living machines operate.

Yet, for all this commonality the vast majority of the games that attempt to re-produce those afternoons of toy robot battling end up being disjointed and functionally quite fractured.

I’ve already covered something similar about the various Macross games, as that franchise has a very close mechanical linkage to Transformers, but the issue here isn’t a technical and logistical one but a cultural one in regards to the ability of learning from what has gone before.