News: Gundam Extreme Versus 2 Initial Roster And Location...
As the rest of the world has Gundam Versus on the PS4, Japanese arcades are gearing up for the upcoming Gundam Versus Extreme 2. On May 12 and 13, stores in Tokyo and Osaka...
News: God Gundam and Master Gundam DLC Coming To Gundam...
It's been a long time coming, but God Gundam and Master Gundam are finally joining the Gundam Versus roster as the next DLC units in January. While we've had several melee...
News: Aegis Gundam, GM Sniper II White Dingo Ver. and...
This December, even more suits are being added to the ever growing Gundam Versus lineup. The first is Aegis Gundam, last seen in Gundam SEED Destiny: Rengou VS ZAFT II Plus...
News: Atlas Gundam DLC Coming To Gundam Versus
If you were hoping for more Gundam Thunderbolt units, there's good news! Atlas Gundam will be joining the Gundam Versus roster as DLC in late November. This will more than...
News: Gundam Versus To Add Phantom Gundam As DLC Unit
As we await the upcoming Western release of Gundam Versus on September 29 on top of unreleased units such as Pale Rider and Gundam Guison Rebake, Phantom Gundam has been...
Thanks to our friends over at ACO, I’ve happened to stumble upon this neat Armored Core 3 Silent Line animation from around the game’s release back in 2003. It’s created by Mist Crown – a rather talented Japanese flash animator. Enjoy!
A new trailer for the upcoming Lost Planet 2 was release a few days ago, so if you missed it we’ve linked it below. The wonderful vital suits are shown but in a somewhat limited capacity unfortunately, normally on account of the showboating giant Akrid. That aside, like the demo confirms, this could be just bloody amazing. The game is released on May 18th and don’t forget to pre-order either the 360 and PS3 versions!
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnnCXT-Bnk4]
Whereas the iPhone has become the premier mobile platform to develop games for, Apple’s primary rival in that space, Google’s Android, has yet to catch on among developers despite promises of greater power and versatility. Mostly due to the fact that, upon the Android Native Development Kit’s release, the associated handsets were not up to snuff, though the current crop are more than up to the task at last. Yet the game dev scene seems relatively barren, though HyperDevbox might wake some folks up via their latest incarnation of Ex Zeus. The game was a mediocre at best on-rails shooter for the arcade and home systems (which went by a different name on the Wii, as Counter Force), but was a fairly impressive showcase of the iPhone’s graphical abilities, at least during it’s somewhat early days. This latest iteration supposedly makes full use of the NDK, can be launched from a micoSD card, and utilizes a custom sound driver.
The game appears to look a tad bit sharper than the iPhone version, or it could simply be the video smoothing things out. Anyhow, all this hotness comes at a price; only the most up to speed devices can support the game, which means only Droid and Nexus One users for here in the states. It’s available now in the Android Market for $3.99, a full dollar more than the iPhone version. Hmmm. Via Engadet.
What do you get when you combine Sega’s Virtual On and generic anime babes? Why, you get Val Force of course, a doujin game from Yumesoft (it appears to be their one and only release thus far). I tried all morning in vain to get the demo to work on my end; after a lengthy download session… it always takes me forever to nab anything from Japan… the game simply wouldn’t run, and I’m not sure why, since I don’t understand Japanese. But I think it has something to do with me not having the latest DirectX installed, though being on a Mac via Bootcamp might be the real culprit. Anyhow, going by the video alone, it appears to be a thoroughly competent VO clone, provided if you don’t mind the extra dose of X chromosomes.
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IwRUOzuLhE]
At least the cast isn’t all moe, which is somewhat of a surprise, given the archetype’s popularity as of late. Though to be honest, instead of girls that vaguely resemble Temjin or Bal-Bas-Bow, most appear to be from shmups, either from Triggerheart Exelica or Otomedius, primarily the blue haired character. You’ve also got one that has shades of Anubis, from Zone of the Enders, along with this other one who vaguely resembles Eika Ichijo, from Sky Girls, or at least the mecha suit. Sorta. Okay, not really. Anyway, for those that wish to give it a try, the demo can be attained here (hope you all have better luck than myself). Via Select Button.
Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a kit from Border Break to review. Specifically, Kotobukiya’s 1/35 scale Cougar Type I . Our review only covers the kit in its out of the box and unpainted form (however, we have also included painted photos towards the end). In addition, to give the kit some context, we’ve also linked some gameplay footage of the design in action from Border Break at the end end of the review.
The mighty Gunleon from Super Robot Wars Z, a game we loved in our review, will be receiving a garage kit rendition courtesy of StudioXBEE. The Gunleon was an OG super robot introduced in Z and played a prominent role in one of the two narrative arcs available in the game. The design itself is somewhat inspired by Gaogaigar, as it has the signature lion head chest in its powered-up form (though this is actually a reference to a very long lineage of mecha designs that use this motif). This kit was on sale at the recent Wonder Festival for 18,000 yen, so whether it will receive a wider release is unlikely. In any case, it’s a very faithful rendition of the design and it seems only fitting to sign off with a video of the Gunleon strutting its stuff in game.
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDljO7gjY6c]
A new trailer for the upcoming Transformers: War for Cybertron has been released today, apparently it’s a “gameplay” trailer too. Whilst it’s clear that the footage is in-game it’s obvious that much of it is of the cutscenes rather than actual gameplay. Admittedly, the team have dispelled the rumour that the game is similar to Gears of War, the new trailer still doesn’t actually show much of what the final game will play like – which is a little worrying considering the game is out in May. Graphically it looks suitably lush but visuals aren’t normally the stumbling block for the various Transformers games (as Melbourne House’s effort was very pretty, if you stood still at least). Whether War for Cybertron will play decently very much remains to be seen, as the Transformers saga as whole has a very poor record in the gaming department.
[flash http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=62342]
It turns out the next game in Capcom’s Gundam Versus series of arcade multiplayer games will be called Gundam Extreme Versus. The game will be using a System 357 board, basically a PlayStation 3 in an arcade cabinet, and will feature almost every Gundam series (along with Crossbone Gundam and MS IGLOO). The fundamental gameplay won’t be changing much from Gundam vs Gundam Next though. The game will be beta tested over the Summer for an Autumn release in Japan.
As for the rumour we reported about this game being Gundam Unicorn specific, well that turned out to be false. That said, we were originally told merely that a Unicorn specific arcade game was in development. We assumed that this meant the upcoming Gundam Versus iteration, but it seems that there is another Gundam arcade game in the wings (maybe an update to the hugely successful Senjou no Kizuna?). Considering that the series will start airing tomorrow it’s fairly obvious that Bandai Namco want to capitalise on Unicorn as best they can.
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awYu_8ch7jk]
As promised, Anime News Network our now streaming the entirety of the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series (along with Gundam Seed, but we’re not to fussed about that to be perfectly honest). Unfortunately, this is the English dubbed version but the sheer cultural importance of the series outweighs this slight loss of fidelity. It’s also worth noting that the official continuity in the Universal Century timeline actually follows the movies and not the TV series, that said the TV series pre-dates the movies and as such is still worth seeing as it forms the fundamental base to the entire Gundam mythos.
In terms of games, there are many that try to re-enact the original TV series narrative but probably the most competent is the Namco effort Kidou Senshi Gundam Ichinen Sensou on the PlayStation 2 (videos of it in action are shown below). As it seamlessly linked both ground and spaced based combat with a surprisingly tactile third-person camera control setup. The titular RX-78-2 Gundam is also featured in the excellent Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus.
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_VUEHRzN20]
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G4rBKqW9Z4]
Despite already being premièred in Hong Kong, Gundam Unicorn is still yet to receive its public release. Whilst the Blu-Ray and DVD versions are scheduled for release on March 12th, PS3 and PSP owners will be able to download the first episode on February 20th. To show their intent, a lovely HD trailer has been released via the PSN (shown below). Every single trailer trailer thus far just keeps on reaffirming our expectation that Gundam Unicorn will be a wonderfully special entry into the Universal Century timeline.
The titular mobile suit from the novels and the forthcoming anime, designed by the brilliantly bespectacled Hajime Katoki, was also featured in the recent PSP port of Gundam vs Gundam Next (a game we loved when we reviewed it and which you can buy here).
Update: The first 7 minutes of the opening episode have also been released online, we’ve linked that below as well.
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKENPZBmRVA]
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iDDlPcbT8Y]
