The recent post about the Lost Planet 2 Vital Suit kits reminded me of this tidbit. Early last September, Capcom released the Capcom Platinum Hits pack. For $40, you get Dead Rising, Devil May Cry 4, and the first Lost Planet. Those who held off on purchasing the original Lost Planet because of the two expansion packs (like myself) will also be happy to know that the Lost Planet here is the Extreme Condition: Colonies Edition, so you’ll be getting the ultimate version basically.

The Vital Suits, the mecha in the game, handle like the cumbersome workhouses they are; partly out of a bit of reality and mostly for balance reasons (making it so that being on-foot in battle isn’t wholly hopeless). Some of the game’s learning curve is also about working out how to make the most of your mecha’s limited abilities, so don’t expect the graceful swans of, say, Armored Core For Answer.

Platinum releases on the Xbox 360 usually go for $30, so three for $40 is pretty much the deal of deals.

In a recent piece of coverage on Game Watch, the extra parts list in the upcoming Armored Core 3 Silent Line Portable has been laid out in a fair bit of detail. We’ve already covered the addition of the fearful of the Karasawa Mk.2 but the full list of extra parts encompasses far more than one pimped out laser rifle. In fact it pretty covers the gamut of the earlier Armored Core series in terms parts, which is pretty impressive in and of itself. The full list has been laid out below in case you’re curious.

There’s a nice post over on Japan Probe about how Ichiro Mizuki is one of the most well known Japanese people abroad, purely down to his long career as a vocalist for anime theme tunes. Mizuki is an interesting character though and since the creation of JAM Project his linkages to the Super Robot Wars games have been consequently quite numerous. Naturally, Mizuki’s background has been that of singing theme tunes in predominantly mecha anime shows, so the fit for mecha gaming tie-ins is obviously a good one.

The official Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus site got updated again today with a new promo movie showing off the various aspects of the game. A nice little touch is that both Toru Furuya and Shuichi Ikeda reprise their roles of Amuro and Char respectively to narrate the video. The game is still on schedule to be released on December 3rd in Japan.

An update to the recently released Senko no Ronde DUO in the form of a Ver 2.00 pack hits Japanese arcades today. Despite minor balancing issues, there are some new characters available. Considering that the original Senko no Ronde received an Xbox 360 port, it’s likely that DUO will follow the same route soon enough. Despite looking more like a traditional shooter, Senko no Ronde actually has more functional linkages to games like Virtual On.

In this week’s issue of Famitsu, Banpresto announced the upcoming sequel to Endless Frontier that was released on the DS last year. Unlike other Super Robot Wars games, Endless Frontier wasn’t focused around turn based strategy and you could control the human protagonists directly. Naturally, as being part of the Original Generation (or OG) line-up none of the mecha featured are from anime series but instead created in-house by Banpresto themselves. In Exceed apparently the world is the one formed by several worlds altogether, from the ending of the first game. There’s also a good chance that this will be released abroad, as the rights surrounding the OG mecha are considerably easier to negotiate.

Another tournament meeting for the Armored Core 3 Portable occurred over the weekend. This is part of the Tournament Season 1 setup and if you want to have a look at some of the matches, these can be streamed as videos from the official site. As always, the series’ producer Toshifumi Nabeshima was on hand but more interestingly was the display of the above model kit that’s part of the ongoing Armored Core Brave New World sidestory. The main body of parts in the design were present in Armored Core 3 Silent Line but the head is bespoke. There’s a good chance that this design will make it into the upcoming Silent Line PSP port, as the previous game received this beastie from the same sidestory as an extra Arena opponent.

The official site for Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus has been somewhat busy as of late, with updates as to its updated mobile suit roster. Notably the RX-77 Guncannon has returned, as it was a PSP exclusive in the last port. In addition, there is now a Titans coloured RX-178 Gundam Mk.II. Apart from that there is the distinction between the 00 Raiser weapon load out variants, from the GN Sword II to the more potent and final GN Sword III. Naturally, for Gundam Wing fans the addition of the Endless Waltz suits in the form of the Nataku and Zero Custom will garner more appreciation maybe.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board has rated Armored Core 3 Portable for the PSP in America, making its release highly probable. From Software is listed as the publisher, which would make this the first Armored Core title they published in the US themselves. As the linked article notes, it’s unknown whether this will be a downloadable title. For those of you who have never experienced the Layered for yourself, this website has a review of the PS2 original, though as the reviewer notes at the end, he considers the PSP port to be inferior.

The newly released arcade mecha game, Border Break seems to be on the right track. The same Mecha Damashii reader that gave us a lowdown on the upcoming Front Mission Evolved also ventured down to the arcades to check out SEGA’s new mecha gaming effort for himself. From the extensive amount of videos that have been posted online, via SEGA no less, Border Break looks to be superb in almost every way. Thankfully, the following impressions back that up and then some.