Over at this year’s All Japan Plamodel Hobby Show (photo report here) amongst the panoply of various kits Hasegawa have finally revealed their kit for the fully transformable Myzr Delta VR from Virtual On Force and Marz. This was a continuation of the Viper and Cypher series, so it was an excellent airborne unit as a consequence. GAGraphic also has some nice shots of the kit and the video below (around the 3 minute mark) has some lovely footage it as well, we’ve linked the full video below anyway though. In addition to the Myzr Delta kit Kotobukiya also had their upcoming SAV-07-D Belgdor kit on show too.

What with the release of Virtual On Force around the corner, SEGA have finally released an HD (720p) trailer of the game running – along with its various new features. The video is pretty comprehensive though and does show the accuracy of the port, which is probably the game’s weakest point really (as it looks visually dated and suffers from the functional legacy issues of the arcade original). If you want to know more about the game, then read our hands-on impressions from TGS as well as our extensive feature on the series as a whole..

Xbox Live Indie Games developer Mommy’s Best Games is releasing a game with the improbable (and amazing) name Explosionade this month. Inspired a bit by Metal Slug, it features the age-old story of some guy coming across a death-dealing prototype robot and then running havoc with it with absolutely no moral qualms whatsoever. Mommy’s Best Games formerly released the well-received Shoot 1-Up and Explosionade’s trailer seems like it won’t disappoint.

The developers credit their graphical inspiration to something that SNK (developers of Metal Slug) would have made, and this influence is also clearly felt in the gameplay: the player’s mecha, GRenaDOS, has at least as much of the firepower that Metal Slug’s vehicles had, while also putting a lot of emphasis on the “feel” of controlling that large vehicle. This combination of heavy firepower with heavy weight means that Mommy’s Best gratefully avoids the common pitfall that most Western developers make with games featuring robots, by thinking of them as human analogues rather than as vehicles when the game should properly allow the player to feel in control of a machine rather than a man.

The way the mech aims and boost-jumps also reminds us of Assault Suits Valken (released in the West as Cybernator), which was certainly one of the best mecha games released on the Super Nintendo and which inspired the Western developed Metal Warriors and the doujin game GunHound as well as the better known Front Mission: Gun Hazard (itself developed by the Assault Suits developers). The interesting thing to note here is that if the game uses a dual analog setup, as we think it does, then Explosionade would be using a control scheme that wasn’t available to those earlier games, who likely would have used it if it had been available. While Assault Suits Valken is an excellent game, it is also known for its fairly punishing difficulty and at least part of this was the directional pad controlling both movement and aiming, and Explosionade could therefore be a much easier game for the casual fan to get their mechanical carnage fix with while also offering almost the same experience.

The reason I’m so excited for this game, though, isn’t just because it’s a game about a quadrupedal robot stomping around and firing grenades at disgusting aliens, but because it’s a game about a quadrupedal robot stomping around and firing grenades at disgusting aliens for 80 Microsoft Points. That is, one whole US dollar. For what you’d spend on gas to drive yourself to the local game store, you can get an amazing game with an amazing name, and support an indie developer raising money to continue working on their longer-term project Grapple Buggy. It’s like charity, really, except you get a free mecha game and also I don’t believe the cause of “making a game about tanks with grappling hooks” is tax deductible.

The game’s release date is indeterminate due to a problem with the Xbox Live Indie Game section not updating correctly (an interesting read if you’re curious about the thoughts of an XBLIG developer), but should be out sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, you can froth over this tasty trailer:

The next Earth Defense Force, or Chikyuu Boueigun, game “Insect Armageddon” is no longer being helmed by Japanese developer Sandlot. Instead, D3 have given the franchise to Vicious Cycle. Whilst this may not initially appear as being very much to do with mecha, then please allow us to elaborate.

Sandlot were formed from the ashes of a team at Human Entertainment who had made the rather brilliant Remote Control Dandy. This was a unique mecha game as it had the player control a giant mecha limb by limb from ground level. The subsequent effect of this was one of epic scale. Sandlot pretty much made this their functional calling card from that point on.

Their first “game” was on the PS2 and it was pretty much a glorified tech demo for their engine, tying in with the recently released Tekkouki Mikazuki the “trial edition” game was packaged with the series’ soundtrack. Again this had the player control a mecha from ground level, emphasizing its scale.

This then allowed Sandlot to get investment to make Gigantic Drive with the original Enix (before the merger with Squaresoft). Whilst it was received well in Japan the Western version, entitled Robotic Alchemic Drive, garnered a vocal cult following.

So where do the Chikyuu Boueigun games come into all of this then? Well, the tech that had been built up over two games was now sitting around and it was ripe for a B-movie interpretation (with giant alien ants obviously). Packaged as part of D3’s “SIMPLE 2000” budget line, the first and second games sold very well allowing Sandlot to invest in other games along the way (such as this little beauty).

In short, the mecha functional core based around the emphasis of scale in a destructible environment that birthed these games is integral to what made them work in the first place. Even the first 360 game was developed by Sandlot, so to see them absent on the new game is very sad indeed. In any case, the trailer for the new game is shown below and don’t forget to read our feature on Sandlot too.

The upcoming Super Robot Wars L has received its first set of TV adverts in Japan. The adverts show the insert animations for most of the new mecha featured. The somewhat cunning and more than a little bit misleading aspect of how these have been depicted is that Banpresto have linked them all together as an edited whole. In reality, the inserts are very short-lived in the game and the vast bulk of the actual animation is sprite based and reliant on the heavy re-use of assets from the previous DS and even GBA titles. That said from what we played of the game at TGS it was at least fun, so we’ll see on the game’s release at the end November whether the budget animation will wind us up. The videos are linked below.

Now that the new SRW OG anime “The Inspector” has kicked off in Japan, we now have both the opening and ending animations online. The opening’s song is, unsurprisingly, performed by the indomitable JAM Project and is called “MAXON”. It practically oozes tamashii. The ending is, on the other hand, a bit more sassy and is “Bokura no Jiyuu” by Aki Misato. Despite the obvious mecha portion of the animation, the other element that needs mentioning is the prolific amount of jiggling bewbage, with the ending animation attaining somewhat of a critical mass in this department. This is by no means a new development when it comes to the OG mythos but it may catch some people a bit off guard – as in people that aren’t sexually repressed teenage boys. We’ve linked both segments below.

Along with a slew of other toy announcements today, Bandai have finally come clean on the fact they are indeed going to release Robot Damashii toys of both the L-Gaim Mk.I and Mk.II respectively. If you remember the Heavy Metal L-Gaim mecha, designed by the glam-rock-tastic Mamoru Nagano, topped the wishlist of fans for new Robot Damashii figures not that long ago.

Unsurprisingly, with such a classic Yoshiyuki Tomino real robot series it’s been featured in numerous games over the years. From a variety of Super Robot Wars titles to the more recent first two Another Century’s Episode games (not to mention Real Robots Final Attack, but we prefer to ignore that little “gem” if we can).

L-Gaim has also had quite an impressive toy history too, from lovely HCM figures to a very recent and utterly amazing Soul of Chogokin Spec toy. These new Robot Damashii figures will hopefully be a bit more affordable though. Currently there’s no word on whether the L-Gaim Mk.II toy will retain the transformation but it’s quite a simple sequence so it’s quite likely it will. Both toys will be release early next year in Japan and can be pre-ordered here and here. What with us being massive L-Gaim nerds, we’ve also linked the lovely openings from the series as well as a few game clips of the respective mecha in action below.

Update: GAGraphic has some nice shots from the current Tamashii Nation show.

The upcoming Gundam Extreme Versus is not only getting an opening song from Linkin Park but it’s also getting Gackt to take the role of the game’s main villain called “ex” (piloting the new Extreme Gundam, obviously). Gackt has a pretty long history of being a publicly vocal Gundam fan. From the somewhat surreal music videos of him piloting an RX-178 Gundam Mark.II for the Zeta Gundam films, to the opening song of the last Gundam Versus game (which was a cover of the classic Ai Senshi no less). Gackt also does some pretty cool impersonations of Toru Furuya (Amuro Rey) and Shuichi Ikeda (Char Aznable) amongst many others. One nice comment he’s made a few times was that when he went out drinking with the two actors he’d close his eyes and imagine that Amuro and Char were haggling over what beer to get. In any case, it’s kinda nice that such a nerdy fan of the original show has finally been given his own character.

As we mentioned previously, the upcoming arcade game Gundam Extreme Versus will have its opening movie accompanied by Linkin Park’s song The Catalyst.

Well, that movie is now online and shows how the music will fit the action. Interestingly, the actual functional audio is absent (as in beam rifle shots etc.) leaving the dulcit tones of Linkin Park to shine through. Whilst on one hand the new intro doesn’t feel very Gundam, the music does somehow fit – though in a bit of an odd and unexpected, but still welcome, way. The new opening movie is shown below.

The next episode in the anime adaptation of Harutoshi Fukui’s Gundam Unicorn novels is still set for release at the end of October. To commemorate the upcoming release of the “Red Comet” a new promo video has been going the rounds. Despite showing off the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam and MSN-06S Sinanju in more luscious detail, it’s really quite something to hear ShÅ«ichi Ikeda’s voice again. Now only if the episode could get here three times as fast…