Over on Hideo Kojima’s Twitter account, he recently teased two shots (here and here) of the opening anime for the upcoming Zone of the Enders HD Edition. Whilst the shots are pretty blurry, the footage does look nice and we wouldn’t complain if another anime series came as a result. For ZOE fans in general, we also have a new toy review that will be posted in the next few days that might also pique your interest. So keep an eye out for that.

We’re almost there now folks. In a little over a week we’ll finally be getting our hands on Armored Core V (and even sooner for the demo!). In the recent and final livestream, we also finally got to see the very nice Super Robot Chogokin toy that’s now coming out in April, for the very reasonable 5,040 yen no less. If that wasn’t enough, we’ve also been graced with the final story trailer for the game. It’s clear we’ll be treated to narrative in a similar vein and execution to that of Armored Core Last Raven’s. This is no bad thing at all. Both videos are embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

As expected, we now have the second part to the awesome Super Robot Wars Z 2. Titled Saisai-hen, it will continue the narratives of the multitude of mecha series featured in the first game (which we utterly adored). However, there is one new addition to the roster that has caught our eye, specifically that of Taiyo no Shisha Tetsujin 28-go from 1980 (pictured above). It’s an interesting choice and one we wholeheartedly approve of. Though to be fair, we’re more excited to play with the ATM-09-DD Burglary Dog from Shining Heresy, as many of the series involved will receive the latter part of their mechanical menu in the game. In terms of the game’s release, it’s still on the PSP and will be out on 5th April for the pretty steep price of 7,330 yen. For those that pre-order the game, they’ll also receive a lovely digest book for their trouble. In addition, your save data from Hakai-hen will net you more cash and other bonuses in Saisei-hen. Depending on your clear count of the first game, those bonuses will change too apparently. Considering that Banpresto are still pushing the whole 20th Anniversary of SRW (despite the fact that it was actually last year), expect big things for this release. For us though, April can’t come soon enough.

The third batch of DLC for Gundam Extreme Versus has been updated over at the official site. The new suits featured are the MSN-02 Zeong and the ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam at 500 yen a piece. In addition to this are the additional missions, as per the other updates (these are found in the “Extra” section in the Trial Missions menu in case you were wondering). One big difference about this new set of DLC is that as a thank you for the game’s good sales the Hi-Nu Gundam will now be available for free. This was originally a pre-order bonus unit but now the slow pokes can enjoy the suitably uber mobile suit too. All of these updates will occur on the 26th January.

Update: 4Gamer has a nice set of screenshots for the forthcoming DLC too.

4Gamer has a new update regarding the forthcoming Gundam Seed Battle Destiny for the PS Vita. Naturally, this will be part of the long running Gundam Battle series so for those familiar with the games Artdink are promising more of (roughly) the same. Nothing new in terms of the information about the game over the intro piece in Famitsu but there are more and larger screenshots of the game. It’s planned release will be sometime in Spring this year.

From Software have announced that there will be a demo for Armored Core V (on both PS3 and 360) available on January 21st, briefly featuring online play (from the 21st and 22nd) and then reverting back to singleplayer only after that. Prior to the demo though will be the final livestream for the game. Called the Last Bullet it will supposedly cover off the final loose ends about the game before its imminent release on the 26th. It’s been a long wait but we’re almost there, just a few weeks more people!

Since its release in Japan on December 1st, Gundam Extreme Versus has sold over half a million units. What’s interesting about this is that Japan basically shuts down for a week over the New Year, so these sales figures occurred in spite of that. As we saw in the arcades, it has garnered a very large and loyal following. If anything the two versions, console and arcade, have mutually aided one another it seems. The console version’s DLC will also factor into the success of Full Boost, as many of the new units will be appearing in that too. So there’s already some cross promotion going on. Talking of DLC, we’ve been playing around with PMX-003 The O and it’s nice to see the PMX-001 Palace Athene (pictured above) again. In any case, we’re glad to see the game doing well.

We’re now but a few days away from the release of Lord of Elemental II: Revelation of Evil God. There have also been a few recent updates over at 4Gamer too, showing that the intermission screens will have characters talking to you (which is nice) and the ability to rank up your upgrades for your weapons. The latter basically seems to work after you’ve maxed out an attack, so you can make it even more uber. More importantly the game is release this Thursday and you can buy it here. Don’t forget that you can also get the boxset, also sold here, that features the first Lord of Elemental game too.

One of the classic Yutaka Izubuchi Gundam designs is finally getting the Robot Damashii treatment. That of the suitably majestic RX-93 Nu Gundam from Char’s Counterattack. To list the number of games and systems this mecha has appeared in would be a bit silly, as it’s basically been in pretty much everything. Like the RX-78-2 before it, the Nu Gundam is as iconic as it marks the closing chapter of Amuro and Char’s conflict and it is one of the few Federation mobile suits to employ Newtype controlled funnels. Anyway, we’re big fans of the design and normally, when it comes to Bandai’s business, the Hi-Nu Gundam normally follows suit (as the two designs share a similar base, of sorts). We’re putting money that the eventual Hi-Nu Gundam toy will be an online only purchase though, through Bandai’s premium online store. Anyway, the toy is out in April and you can pre-order it here.

Welcoming in the new year, Bandai Entertainment in the US let this drop on our doorstep. Followed by a pretty insightful interview, what’s effectively happened is that we are no longer getting a Western release for the rather special Turn A Gundam. If you remember, this was something we were pretty happy about when it was announced way back in 2010. The fact that Bandai Entertainment is effectively pulling out of selling and distributing anime outside of Japan is definitely a hammer blow for people who enjoy the medium abroad though and Turn A Gundam is just a deeply unfortunate casualty of that.