Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan we’ve been sent the Robot Damashii Nu Gundam and Robot Damashii Sazabi as seen in the climactic film Char’s Counterattack. In addition, we’ve also included some game and anime footage of the mecha in action at the end of the review.

Following on from the announcement last week, we now have some new screenshots for Armored Core Verdict Day over at 4Gamer. In addition, it’s been revealed that the game will be released internationally this year as well. Currently there are no dates for the international releases, bar “Fall 2013” on the US site, though some places have stated the game will be released this summer. If true that would pre-date the Japanese release and be the first game in the series to do so. All that aside, the new parts and updated operator maps look nice and it seems we’ll also be getting some form of solid shields this time around too. The big thing for us though is that the game should use merged dedicated servers, rather than the regionally locked nonsense we have now. This is simply because there aren’t enough players outside of Japan to make the setup work properly. Admittedly From Software could ratchet back on the design in terms of the online setup but that would be shame, especially when having a global solution would fix the issues we have now. In short, this is in Namco Bandai’s court again and here’s hoping they don’t fuck it up…again.

As the forthcoming Macross 30 is literally around the corner in terms of it’s release (less then a week in fact) we’ve now been graced with a trailer showing off a montage of the game’s custom anime footage. It’s clear there’s production value afoot here and it’s very nice to see (and hear!) many of the classic Macross characters again. We’ll be reviewing the game once it’s out and don’t forget you can still pre-order it here.

Over at Famitsu we now have confirmation that there will be indeed be a follow on to the excellent Armored Core V. Entitled Armored Core Verdict Day it will continue the same territorial online setup along with improved matchmaking and the ability to switch sides during battle (!). Though, if we’re honest, we’d be more happy if they were going to merge the various servers for the game. That aside, there will be an obvious singleplayer contingent continuing the overall narrative from the preview game. We also have a release date, that of September 26th this year for both PS3 and 360. Save data from the previous game will also be usable in Verdict Day and there will also be a limited edition version of the game available, which will come with a figure and soundtrack. Considering that Armored Core V was released in January of last year, the turnaround on Verdict Day has been pretty quick.

Following the success of Armored Core Reprises, the internal From Software band called FreQuency (as headed by Kota Hoshino) will be doing another Armored Core remix album. Called Sunrise, the first track to be premiered is that of “Vanishing” (as shown below). Released as a physical copy at the end of the week in Japan and then digitally next week, it’s clear that we’ll be seeing and hearing more of FreQuency in the future. There’s also an excellent fan made Armored Core tribute album called The Answer if you’re at all curious.

So the much loved Blodia from Cyberbots will be getting a rather lovely looking toy, from Sentinel’s increasingly amazing Riobot line. We’ve covered this before but now we have some very nice pictures of the toy in question. As an aside, Sentinel’s Tumblr is worth bookmarking too. Despite the different player colours, which is a nice touch, the paint scheme on the figure looks very nice indeed and it also appears that the toy will have some manner of diecast (this being a good thing obviously). Still no word on a release date or price but it’s nice to know that Sentinel haven’t forgotten about the Blodia.

Without much of a fanfare at all, the original Virtual On was released on PSN and XBLA earlier this week. As forewarned, the release was indeed Japan only (for both platforms) but thankfully neither version was region locked. Meaning that if you have a Japanese account then you can buy and play either version just fine. In terms of the port, it’s not quite as thorough as the PS2 SEGA AGES release but it’s as pure. In that it lacks all the various options, such as widescreen and split-screen versus, but it does afford online multiplayer and system link version (though only for the 360 version on the latter). As for the online there are already plans for a tournament. Anyway, we can heartily recommend both ports of the classic arcade game and look forward to seeing our readers online.

What with the release of Super Robot Wars UX only a few weeks away, we now have a new extended promo video for the game. Normally used in shops for promotion, this video shows off a good 10 minutes worth of footage to entice punters. Whilst we will be getting this it won’t be for the battle animations. Compared to the recent PSP games, it’s painfully apparent that this new 3DS game is still using the engine from the GBA/DS era (not to mention the re-use of low resolution sprites and simplified animations). What does have us interested is the game’s system, specifically that of the new Tactical Commander you can assign (each of which have their own unique abilities). 4Gamer did a piece on all this recently and it’s pretty interesting. In any case, the game is out on March 14th and you can pre-order it here (though be aware that 3DS games are4 region locked, so you’ll need a Japanese 3DS to play this game).

Following the Tamashii Nations 2012 poll where the wonderful Layzner came out on top, Bandai have been working hard to fulfill the wishes of their fans. As we already have a thoroughly excellent Soul of Chogokin Spec Layzner toy, it now looks like we’ll be getting an E-MF-LZ-00X-2 Layzner Mk2 figure too. This was the designed but never animated version of the titular upgraded and transformable Layzner that was meant to appear at the end of the second season. Due to all manner of funding issues, the series was cut short and the Mk2 never appeared. However, as is always the case in gaming, the Mk2 has graced many games over the years. From Super Robot Wars to the Another Century’s Episode games and as such the Mk2 is very much a fan favourite (so it makes sense to have a figure made of it finally). No word on release, toyline or price but Bandai have followed this announcement up with asking people to fill in an online questionnaire. It is interesting to see Layzner still endure like this though. Especially as the series is very influential when it comes to mecha gaming. If only the PS2 game had been finished, oh well.

What with the current Wonder Festival over, we now have all manner of lovely pictures of the event. There were a lot of items of note too, as some very interesting mecha toys surfaced. From the very delayed Blodia from Cyberbots (above) to the likes of Max Factory revealing a line of Dougram toys and even a new kit of the wonderful Tsugumori from the Knights of Sidonia manga (not to be confused with the forthcoming RIOBOT toy). Though it’s very clear that Sentinel, with their RIOBOT toy range, are set to become somewhat of a fan favourite. Having Orgun on show again warmed our heart and it’s clear that the sheer variety of figures that Sentinel have in the pipeline is deeply impressive. Though the best thing we saw was the rescue ship from the end of Virtual On. Anyway, there’s plenty of juicy coverage around (with the following pages here, here and here being of note) and as always there’s no real detail on release date or pricing for many of these.

Update: There are some additional photo reports here, here and here.