As of today Assault Gunners is now available on the PSN store to buy, for a very affordable 1,480 yen no less. In addition to this there is also some day one DLC, moreover it’s entirely free as well. Don’t go crazy though, as the DLC is simply new voiceovers from some SDN48 members and here’s a video of them feigning interest too. Bar this rather hackneyed PR stunt, the game itself is actually pretty decent. Admittedly it’s based off the Destroy Gunners games made by Shade but Assault Gunners has far superior controls and looks a lot nicer too. Once we’ve played it a bit more we’ll be sure to post our impressions.

This seems to be the final promo video before the release of Gundam Battle Operation this Thursday. As you’d expect, at over 5 minutes long, it doesn’t hold much back and shows a lot of the game in action. Despite the somewhat unfortunate monteisation structure, the sheer scope of this game is pretty ambitious. We’ll be posting our impressions not long after the game’s release.

One of the few redeeming aspects of the original Xbox was that it held host to the first two Steel Battalion games. Truth be told, these were the games we bought the console for as well. From the fastidiously thorough functional approach to the wonderfully challenging learning curve, the original Steel Battalion games were something truly special.

Now we have a new game in the series. However, it now uses Microsoft’s latest control based interface; the Kinect. Utilising a mixture of gesture based commands and pad input, we now surely have a truly modern take on what made the original games so interesting? Sadly, this is not the case. In fact it is possibly one of the worst mecha games yet made.

We now finally have some in-game screenshots for the forthcoming Eureka Seven AO BluRay Hybrid game. Set as a narrative bridge between episodes 8 and 9, the OVA on the disc is meant as a standalone release (hence the packaging of a game with it). The game itself, called “Attack of Legend”, will apparently allow players to pilot the new Nirvash (seen above) as well as classic LFO’s from the original series (as the plucky Renton Thurston is shown in one of the shots too). The BluRay Hybrid will be released on September 20th and cost 7,980 yen for the standard release and 10,500 yen for the limited edition.

As was announced a good while ago, those pretty nifty people at Sentinel have finally previewed the forthcoming Riobot Jehuty (shown above). The Riobot range are primarily made of plastic but are normally beautifully sculpted with amazing articulation. Compared to the recent Revoltechs, which are nice enough for the price, this toy will be in a whole other league in terms of quality. No words on a specific release date or price, but the figure will be around 15 cm tall. In any case, this is one of our hotly anticipated toys and the pictures above only help to cement our conviction that it will be pretty damn awesome.

4Gamer has an update on how the ground combat will be handled in Gundam Battle Operation’s. Specifically, the troops will be effectively invisible on a mobile suits radar until they start to attack. Naturally, if a mobile suit walks over a human sized player then that will kill them instantly. Again the usage of ground troops as makeshift repair teams has also been highlighted, as both bases and mobile suits will be repairable in the field. The more interesting tactical element though is that ground troops can place as well as defuse bombs at bases. So it seems that the human sized players will be a bit more useful and effective compared to the likes of Operation Troy.

Finally, the unit we’ve most wanted to see in Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost has been revealed. The mighty MS-08TX (EXAM) Efreet Kai from the pretty damn fantastic Blue Destiny games on the Saturn will be added to the game on June 26th. To be fair, this mobile suit was telegraphed a while back in a “blink and you’ll miss it” segment of the game’s first promo. Much like the RX-79BD-1 GM Blue Destiny Unit 1 in Full Boost, the Efreet Kai is very much based around melee combat and it also only costs 1000 points to use (half that of the Blue Destiny GM). Anyway, we’re just glad the Efreet Kai has finally made it into the game.

The brilliantly mad Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter is now gearing up for a national Japanese release. The official site lists areas where the game will be installed and they’re also not missing a trick in terms of pimping the forthcoming merchandise either. Talking of which, at the recent International Tokyo Toy Show there were some very nice Gyrozetter toys shown. These appear to be entirely made of plastic but the sculpt and finish put pretty much every US made Transformer toy to shame. As always, you’ll be able to buy the toys here.

Despite our double-take on the whole weird marketing for Hawken, the playthrough of the game now has us a bit more excited. Especially as the customisation options look to be pretty cogent. If that didn’t pretty squarely make Hawken a mecha game, then behold its own controller (shown above). Dubbed the slightly tragic “Mek-Fu”, the controller is actually a fully customisable USB device. So even after Hawken has been and gone you’ll still be able to use it quite happily on other games. Considering MechWarrior Online’s Artemis controller, this looks a lot more like the classic Steel Battalion setup we loved and adored. However, the price tag may end up being considerably more than the Steel Battalion one and that even included the game. Though at least you’ll be able to use it on other games, something the Steel Battalion controller wasn’t really able to do. If you want to see the playthrough we’ve linked it below.

Famitsu has the scoop on Assault Gunners, a new PSN download mecha game for the Vita out at the end of June. Like the other download only games for the Vita, the price tag is a similarly reasonable 1,480 yen. For that you get a 30 mission story mode, a Horde mode clone called “Inferno” and 4 player ad-hoc multiplayer. There’s also a load of customisation available too. All that aside, the game looks to be pretty damn solid indeed. We’ve been craving for some good mecha games on the Vita for a while and now a whole bunch arrive at once. Developed by Marvellous AQL, it’s directed by Kazuyuki Ogawa (of Clock Tower fame) and produced by Shinji Motoki (who recently worked on the pretty awesome Muramasa game on the Wii). Anyway, a demo is out for the game today and we’ll be buying as well as giving the game a good once over on its release on June 28th.