At this year’s JAEPO, Konami have announced yet another Steel Chronicle game entitled Steel Chronicle Ganesh. The two major changes to the game are its move to first person as well as having a panoramic cockpit (much like the still very successful Senjo no Kizuna). For those that haven’t played Steel Chronicle, it was Konami’s attempt to steal Border Break’s thunder whilst also being more PvE focused (think basically an arcade Monster Hunter with mecha). It’s never done overly well though, with rumours of it actually losing money for Konami. However, what with Border Break’s reduced popularity these days (due to aggressive monetisation) it’s clear that Konami see an opportunity here. No word on a release date as yet, bar sometime this year, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for this. As the arcade mecha gaming scene in Japan is about to get a bit busier it seems.

Over at this year’s JAEPO, Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost is on full show. After the numerous recent location tests, it seems we’ll be getting the game in arcades here pretty soon. In addition to this, Bandai Namco released the game’s new CG opening movie. Whilst it looks pretty great, gotta love all the Xi and Penelope action, we do question the musical veracity of having auto-tuned metal in the background. For all of Linkin Park’s faults, they do write better music. That aside, it’s also pretty clear that due to Maxi Boost’s lack of newer units that the PS3 port of Full Boost’s DLC is turning into “Attack of the Clones”. Hopefully this will rectify itself once Maxi Boost starts getting more new units. In any case, the new opening movie is shown below. Brace thy ears!

If you enjoyed Chrome Hounds, then you might be interested to know that there is a new PC game called Modular Assault Vehicle on the way. With both Kickstarter and Greenlight campaigns in the works, it all seems to be the work of one Chad Mauldin. Now we wish the guy luck and all but this is basically a full on remake of a recent 360 game. SEGA could quite easily kick up a fuss about this, as Chrome Hounds was a considerable investment for them. Will be interesting to see how this pans out though.

We managed to make it to the recent Wonder Festival today, despite the large and decidedly rare snowfall the night before. As this was the first “WonFes” we’ve been to, we took lots of pictures. The highlight was seeing the MegaDrive Megatron, as designed by our good friend Junji Okubo (who also did all the logos for this very site). The photos below are a mix of soon to be released items as well as the fan made stuff. The latter was amazing to behold, as the sheer passion and craftsmanship on show was impressive. Anyway, enjoy the photos we had a great time taking them.

Famitsu has a nice new breakdown on Super Robot Wars Z 3’s game system, specifically that of the Maximum Break. This allows units in a group to combine their attacks to increase their range and potency, as well as nullifying the avoidance and defense abilities of their enemies. This will use a new tension bar and deplete it entirely once completed. In addition, there’s also a D-Trader setup that requires Z-Chips taken from downed enemies in order to purchase special items. Though, you’ll also need to fulfil other requirements too in order to successfully purchase said parts. That aside, we’re happy to see Chirico back in the fold again and that Shining Heresy is getting featured. Hopefully the Burglary Dog will make an appearance too.

In the week from January 27th to February 2nd Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost managed to top the Japanese charts by selling 269,940 copies. Now, to clarify this a bit, the game was released on January 30th. So what you’re seeing there is actually just three days sales. That aside, we also wrote a piece for Kotaku about the launch (to help get the word out at least). Sadly it also seems that the online pass cannot be shared, which sucks a big fat one quite frankly. In any case we’ll be reviewing this glorious puppy pretty soon, so look out for that.

Bandai have announced that the much loved XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1 Kai Kai “Skull Heart” will be getting the Robot Damashii treatment. This being the mobile suit piloted by the perky Tobia Arronax in both the Skull Heart and Steel 7 manga. This is a slightly strange release, as the other Crossbone Gundam mobile suits were released a fair few years ago (thankfully we managed to pick them up at the time, as they’re quite rare these days). Released in May for 5,940 yen this is one of the more averagely priced toys in the range and one we’ll be definitely be picking up come release.

Following on from our previous Revoltech reviews, our good friends at HobbyLink Japan have sent us the Riobot Jehuty. Now, whilst we aren’t huge fans of the Zone of the Enders series, we’ve always admired the mecha designs that Yoji Shinkawa did for the game. So we’re obviously happy to see more toys made of his work. We’ve also included some game footage at the end of the review.

We now have a promo for the recently announced Gundam Gaiden Missing Link. It shows a fair bit of gameplay and whilst it looks serviceable, the camera and mobile suit movement looks a bit off. As expected, there’s a pretty badass Efreet shown as well as a caped mystery mobile suit (that will be designed just for the game). By the way the promo is structured it looks like this will be a narrative focused, as in singleplayer campaign, type of game. However, considering that Namco Bandai are on a bit of a freemium spree at the moment we’re not sure how this game will turn out. No word as to a release date or price as yet either. Overall, we’re somewhat curious but a little wary of how this might turn out.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan we’ve been sent the Robot Damashii Hi-Nu Gundam as seen in the novel Beltorchika’s Children (one of the adaptations for Char’s Counterattack). In addition, we’ve also included some game footage of the mecha in action at the end of the review.