One of the more interesting Robot Damashii toys, that of the Zegapain Altair, has finally been released in Japan. Interesting in the sense that this mecha was the titular protagonist in the similarly titled Zegapain and that the series itself was strongly funded by Microsoft in Japan. The plan was to tie in two exclusive Xbox 360 games, Zegapain XOR and NOT, that were very plain ZOE clones alongside the series. Despite the insane amount of product placement in the anime, the most obvious sign of Microsoft’s handiwork was the revolting colour of green they picked for the mecha itself. Despite being a rather innovative mecha design, penned by Rei Nakahara, the saddest thing about the whole thing was that Microsoft hired Cavia to develop the games and it was patently clear their heart wasn’t in it. Though to be honest, who could really blame them when the host work featured a hideously bright green mecha. This then is the testament to the design itself; as this toy is a palpable reminder of when Western intervention in Japanese anime and gaming pop-culture just doesn’t work.

Along with the normal release of the game on December 22nd, for 6,090 yen, Virtual On Force will also be available in a Memorial Box version for an eye watering 10,290 yen. The bump in price is on account of three factors; a 6 disc set of ALL the music from every Virtual On game as well as an artbook covering the 15 year history of the franchise. The final icing on the cake is that it will have a custom created box-art penned by Hajime Katoki himself. Put simply, we’re getting the Memorial Box. The official site has also undergone a functional makeover, as it now covers the VR line-up in the game as well as the World background.

4gamer has covered some interesting new features that will be present in the upcoming Carnage Heart EXA. Specifically, a new screenshot tool as well as an emblem setup that allows you to edit the image on your PC as a bitmap. Considering that Carnage Heart is very much of a remote versus endeavour, as you share configs to “battle” other players, a screenshot tool will be invaluable in producing proof of victory as well as obviously taking snaps of your extended OKE family. The openness of the emblem editor is somewhat worrying though, as it’s pretty much inevitable that you’ll end up facing the pixel art equivalent of a throbbing man sausage at some point in your OKE battling career. That unfortunate aspect aside, EXA continues to look like a very promising continuation of the Carnage Heart series and seems to be helmed by a team that seem to really understand what its fanbase wants.

Gpara have a nice update on the recently announced OG mecha from Super Robot Wars appearing in Another Century’s Episode R. From the Cybuster, above, to the ART-1 and Alteisen Riese the new OG units look stunning in game and it’s amazing to think it’s taken four games for them to be even featured. In addition to the OG unit update, Gpara also has an interview with Acid Black Cherry about his single Re:Birth that will be used in the game.

Kotobukiya have recently announced another Border Break kit, this is the Cougar S – a souped variant from Ver 1.5 of the original Cougar with new weapons and parts. As with all Border Break designs it looks bloody amazing and just keeps on hammering home the fact that this game is still only playable in Japan. The kit will retail for around 3,990 yen and be released in November.

It seems that Taito are planning to release a new Darius Burst game, dubbed Another Chronicle, and one that will potentially grace arcades rather than the PSP. Why talk about Darius here you may ask? Well, in the case of Burst the mecha design in the game was handled by Kanetake Ebikawa and Takayuki Yanase, both of which recently worked on Gundam 00. Yanase’s gaming credits are much longer though and as such fall under the auspices of this meagre site. If you click the image above you’ll get to see the scope of how Burst’s aesthetic direction fell under the remit of these two rather wonderful mecha designers.

Update: Game Watch has some coverage on the new arcade game and its immensely wide screen. There will also be location tests starting next week for the game in Akihabara.

Over at Game Set Watch they’ve uncovered a new doujin game by Astro Port called Gigantic Army. Specifically, this is a free two level demo of the game (download link here).

For the more observant of you this may seem awfully similar to Dracue’s Gunhound, which we do still intend to review. Like Gunhound though, Gigantic Army’s functional influences stem from the Assault Suits series, specifically Valken and Leynos II (not to mention VOTOMS, as many of the roller sound effects are lifted straight from the series!). With any luck this may even get an English translation but for the time being the game is more than playable in Japanese.

A new Macross Frontier game was recently announced in Famitsu, utilising a similar functional approach to Artdink’s recent PSP games (though with an obviously necessary graphical overhaul). Entitled Macross Trial Frontier the game will be out later this year but what makes it especially interesting is that the game will be bundled with the BluRay version of the Macross Frontier movie Itsuwari no Utahime and making the disc one of the first hybrid movie/game products on the market. In terms of line-up, the game will apparently have all the VF-25 variants as well as Brera Sterne’s VF-27. No word on the VF-171’s but at least you’ll get to play with Klan Klang’s Queadluun Rea.

Update: Over at Famitsu they’ve uploaded the shots of the game itself and it’s looking pretty decent.

4gamer has an all new update on many of the somewhat overlooked units that will be present in the upcoming Gundam Extreme Versus. From the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam (pictured above) to the LM314V21 Victory 2 Gundam as well as the YMT-05 Hildolfr, the latter being finally saved from its appearance in the appalling Target in Sight. Some may think that the Hidolfr actually appeared in the Dreamcast game, Rise from the Ashes, but in actual fact that was the Rhinoceros. In any case, these new shots really show that the game is looking truly stunning.

The next in Kotobukiya’s very successful Variable Infinity range will be the Oracle from Last Raven. This was an AC piloted by a Raven called Evangel and whilst he was also prominent in Armored Core Nexus, he even adorned the game’s cover, it wasn’t until Last Raven that his role in the corporate/Raven conflict came to a head. Very much on the side of the corporations, Evangel was a noble and disciplined opponent, but also suffered from a bit of an inferiority complex. This isn’t the first time Evangel’s Oracle has been given kit form as one of the very first Variable Infinity kits was his AC from Nexus. This new kit will be released in December this year.

Update: Dengeki has shots of the Oracle kit, as well as the Sunshine, at Wonder Festival.