The brand new Super Robot Wars UX has been announced for release next year on the 3DS. This will be the first Super Robot Wars game to grace the system and it has a pretty interesting roster of series in it. From the return of Dunbine, which we’re very happy about, we’ll also be getting Wings of Rean too. The last time this series was featured was during the last two Another Century’s Episode games on the PS2. We love the anime dearly, as well as the novels that semi-birthed it. So to have these wonderful and unique aura battlers in a new game is just great. Following on from that we also have Mazinkaiser SKL and Heroman included, along with the Hatsune Miku Fei-Yen. The latter being interesting as she’s not really part of the Virtual On canon (yet). There is also an official PV (shown below) that’s been released. On the latter, it’s clear that the game is still using the engine, sprites and many of the animations from the GBA and DS era. This is a big shame, as the recent PSP games looked amazing and the 3DS is a more powerful system (so would be able to handle the same thing with relative ease). That aside, the game will also feature DLC, full voice over audio and receive its own special limited edition 3DS LL. The game will be released March 14th next year and cost 7,140 yen.

The much anticipated open beta for Hawken starts today. We’ve been playing the game since the closed test phases and it’s truly an impressive and fun mecha game. So there’s no excuse whatsoever to not check this game out, especially if you regard yourself as a discerning mecha gaming connoisseur. Make sure you have an account set-up for when the game goes live to the public later today. The new trailer below is a fair representation of what the game looks like when running, minus the dubstep and slow motion stuff obviously.

When we reviewed the original Anubis back in 2003, the (Japanese) version we covered was not the same game that was released abroad. Mainly because there were multiple silent revisions across various territories, with Europe seemingly getting the more polished versions. Of all these numerous releases, the final one was something we also played to see if anything functionally noteworthy had happened.

In short, the Special Edition made lots of little changes and one pretty big one. From much welcomed boss balancing tweaks to an all new enemy squad set-up, not to mention a veritable legion of fixes to small but suitably annoying issues. All of these were undeniably positive improvements and almost made the final game something tantalisingly coherent. To the point that it made the game more of what it should have been in the first place.

Bandai will be releasing some very cool HG UC kits from the much loved Dreamcast game Gundam Rise from the Ashes. These will be the White Dingo coloured RGM-79 GM and RX-77D Guncannon Mass Production Type, as well as Visch Donahue’s MS-07B Gouf and MS-14G Gelgoog (with each pack costing 2,100 yen and 2,520 yen respectively). Like the previous HG UC White Dingo GM Sniper II, these new kits will also only be available via Bandai’s premium online web shop. That aside, it’s pretty wonderful that we’re getting these kits at all. Both kit packs will be released in February of next year.

Over at HobbyLink Japan, they have their Christmas themed Stocking Stuffer Sale in full swing. Broken down into 50, 100, 200 and 300 yen increments, there is some good stuff going here (with a few nice HCM Pro toys being notable). If you’ve got kids, then this is a pretty handy setup. If none of the above takes your fancy though, then you could always nab either the Super Robot Chogokin UCR-10/A from Armored Core V or the mighty Zeorymer. Even the fantastic Ver.Ka Temjin is still in stock. All of these have been reviewed on the site and come recommended. In any case, the Stocking Stuffer Sale continues until the 10th December so grab what you want while you can.

Since 2nd Super Robot Wars OG was released on the 29th November, barely a week ago, it has racked up 217,000 units sold in Japan and in doing so taken the top spot in the charts. That’s pretty damn good going really. Whilst our copy is still in the post, it’s clear that fans have been waiting for their first real PS3 Super Robot Wars game for a good while. In addition to the chart news, there are a slew of new screenshots available too. Naturally, once our copy finally arrives a review will be forthcoming. In the meantime, you can buy your copy here.

In addition to the YF-30 reveal, it seems that Macross 30 will also have a more open ended mission structure too. Over at 4Gamer they give more detail on how players will effectively find quests in levels and then undertake them. Like the previous Artdink Macross games, you’ll also have a hangar where you can prepare and outfit your various variable fighters. Interestingly, it seems that we’ll also have a lot of choice of units (though likely not as much as the last PSP game). On top of all this, there will be some new characters created for the game as well. As for that limited edition YF-29, it’s nothing overly special and is actually more than a little bit hideous. Considering that the game has been described as a “flight action RPG”, we now have a better idea of what that means. Whilst it won’t be open world, in the Western sense, the whole setup sounds pretty damn cool really. The game is still set for its February 28th release next year and you can pre-order the standard edition here.

As suspected, the logo for the forthcoming PS3 game Macross 30 does indeed show the silhouette of a new a variable fighter. Now we know it’s called the YF-30 Kronos, though in the case of the latter it may either be Kronos or Chronos (as the katakana isn’t overly revealing on that front). We’re guessing it refers to the Titan (Kronos) rather than the god of time (Chronos) but we may be wrong on that. In any case, this variable fighter is also designed by Shoji Kawamori and is likely to be featured in the game.

Following on from our review of the 1/60 VF-19 Custom Fire Valkyrie, our good friends at HobbyLink Japan have also sent us the 1/60 Sound Booster for VF-19 Custom Fire Valkyrie from Macross 7. It’s important to clarify that the Sound Booster doesn’t come with the Fire Valkyrie, that has to be purchased separately. In addition, we’ve also included some game and animation footage at the end of the review.

It seems that, due to a pretty serious bug found late on in development, Gunhound EX will have its release date moved to January 31st next year. Whilst delays can be somewhat irritating, this is only a month longer and the more bugs they fix the better. Personally, we don’t mind waiting as we loved the original PC game and we don’t want either Dracue or G.Rev rushing a release. Don’t forget you can still preorder both the standard version and limited edition, the latter comes with a soundtrack and small artbook.