Over at Gpara and Game Watch, they’ve covered the recent announcement regarding the new OG (or “original generation”) mecha to feature in the upcoming Another Century’s Episode R. In addition, there are a slew of new screenshots for a lot of the licensed mecha – with the Macross Zero and Frontier shots looking jaw-droppingly amazing. What’s interesting thus far is how conspicuously absent the Nu Gundam has been. Considering that this is the only unit from the epic Char’s Counterattack to be featured in ACE R it seems odd that no press materials have covered this iconic design. The eternal optimist in me hopes that this is due to the fact that the game won’t just feature a single Nu Gundam but also all its multitudinous variants. In short, we’d be ecstatic at the chance of having the Hi-Nu Gundam featured in the game.

Over an 2chan they’ve managed to uncover (via a scan from this month’s Hobby Japan) the truth behind the mysterious animated gif we reported on Tamashii Web. It turns out that the next Composite Ver. Ka, a new toy range personally supervised by renowned Japanese mecha designer Hajime Katoki, will be none other than his very own design of the MBV-04-G Temjin from the original Dennou Senki Virtual On (they’ve even updated the image banner on the Tamashii Web site to this effect too – despite still using the Oratan font). This is not the first time an original Temjin toy has surfaced, as SEGA made a selection of toys back in the late 90’s. In any case, Temjin is by far and away our favourite VR from the series, not only in terms of functionality but also due to its clean and classic aesthetic. What’s nice with this new Composite Ver. Ka toy is that it will also feature the rail gun used by the initial prototype (something that you see in the leaderboards background in the game itself). If you’ve never played the original Virtual On (shame on you!), then the SEGA AGES PS2 port is unarguably the best version to date and in some ways even eclipses the arcade original, as you can force a higher framerate amongst many other things (you can also still buy it here). Though the PS2 port does lack sticks, unless you mod a pair of old Saturn ones (like we did). In commemoration of this toy announcement it only seems fit to show the original game in all its wondrous glory and be sure to check out our feature on the Virtual On games too. Enjoy!

During an impromptu interview held in a hotel bathroom, mecha fans’ hopes for a new game in the Zone of the Enders series were dashed as Hideo Kojima explained that the project currently receiving his direct attention wasn’t Zone of the Enders 3. He is already supervising the development of the new 3D Castlevania, “Castlevania: Lords of Shadow”, and Metal Gear Solid Rising, so Kojima has his fingers in too many pies to do a ZoE sequel justice.

While Mecha Damashii’s response to the ZoE games has been ambivalent at times, the franchise itself has much more potential than was ever realized in the actual games, and we’d love to get our grubby mitts on a third installment. While some of the franchise’s mechanics are in serious need of a tune-up, the background story and narrative of the games have always lived up to the promise of having Hideo Kojima’s name associated with them, and I don’t doubt that Konami, if they gave a third ZoE game their full attention, could get the functional issues out of the way.

Unlike, say, From Software, Konami doesn’t have the distinct advantage of being a mecha games-centric company, and it takes time and hard work to develop a team capable of delivering something on the level of Armored Core, and I don’t think any company or game designer could perform that feat without giving the project their fullest attention. It’s worth noting the games reviewed well (despite selling poorly), so a spruced-up ZoE could be absolutely killer.

Let’s just hope we see the Vic Viper from Gradius again, seeing as how the venerable shmup spaceship has been inexplicably replaced with, uh, teenage girls.

A rather interesting animated gif has appeared over on the Tamashii Web front page. Despite talking of a collaboration with Hobby Japan, the interesting aspect is that the font used for “Ready” as well as patented SEGA blue sky background (not to mention the green hatching) makes us think that a Virtual On Oratorio Tangram toyline could be on the way. Bear in mind that the Tamashii brand is squarely aimed at collectors so we could be in store for something rather wonderful. In any case, we’ll know more on the 25th June.

Over at Gametrailers they’ve managed to capture some surprisingly steady hand camera footage for a multiplayer game in Front Mission Evolved. Much like the older videos, it seems the mecha handling still has no real discernible weight. As such there’s no penalty with momentum between dashes, which makes the movement look very jerky. On the one hand the reasoning behind this choice is pretty obvious; as it means more gamers will have an easier time with the mecha handling learning curve but the downside to all this is that the mecha control will plateau very quickly in terms of player skill (something not entirely ideal for a game with online multiplayer). Naturally, we’ll reserve judgment on our review come September but these videos do continue to fill our robotic hearts with a palpable sense of foreboding.

The swirling chaos that is E3 is almost over, and while it will be some time before anyone can make sense of what this raw data pulse from the games industry actually means, there have been a few mecha-related sightings and announcements for the observant mechanical fanatic.

One of the biggest surprises of the show came in this trailer for the campaign of Halo: Reach, which revealed the presence of space fighter combat. While a lot of FPS fans were shocked by the news, Halo has always had an emphasis on using vehicles, so this is really just an extreme extension of that. More interesting to mecha gaming fans, perhaps, is how Real Robot the Spartan designs now look. While we have talked about the Spartan design and its similarities to Yutaka Izubuchi’s work before, specifically the GM Sniper II and GM Command, the comparison to Japanese Real Robot design is even more pronounced now. The squad of Spartans we see all have different kinds of equipment, and therefore distinct visual looks, which describe their role type on the battlefield. This is something that mecha games have been doing for years and now more mainstream games are finally catching up. Some of the interviews and information being leaked out talk about being able to customize your player character Spartan with different weapons, equipment and aesthetic features, making the character more like a human wearing powered armor and less like a generic guy with guns (something we talked a bit about last week with Vanquish).

Speaking of Vanquish, there’s a gameplay video from the E3 floor which shows the protagonist hopping on and controlling what reminds me of the Regult battle pod from Macross. Vanquish continues to look as amazing as ever and the interesting mixture of Western and Japanese game ideas will hopefully inject some much-needed lifeblood into the ‘third person shooter’ genre.

And more directly mecha related, I was happy to see in the new Warhammer 40,000 MMO trailer some of the massive robotic weapons the Warhammer 40k universe has to offer. While actual details on the game are currently light, and no one seems to be able to tell us whether we will control some of these mechanical monstrosities or if they’re just the 40k MMO equivalent to World of Warcraft’s raid bosses, it does seem as if the developer is trying to incorporate some of the more epic-scaled elements of the 40k universe rather than just making the WoW clone that everyone else is trying to make. I refuse to believe there can be anything bad about a fictional universe that agrees with Mobile Suit Gundam’s assertion that vehicles painted red go faster, at any rate.

In the latest Famitsu, the new “original generation” or OG mecha have been finally shown for the upcoming ACE R. This is quite common in the ACE games, as the first game had a Cloudbreaker (from Murakumo) and the Gespenst Mk.II (from SRW). Following on from this in ACE 2 and 3 were the Gunark and the Ixbrau (the latter designer by Takayuki Yanase of Gundam 00 fame). These new designs are interesting, not only stylistically but also in the fact that it shows that the “base” ship is not one from any given anime. Called the Ark Alpha, it has shades of the Novis Noah from Brain Powerd. The Alphato also bears a few uncanny similarities to the mecha in Argento Soma. In any case, we’re happy to see the OG tradition carry on through to ACE R.

The newly announced Nintendo 3DS, which sounds suitably wondrous, is also getting some cool third party games too. Even Bandai Namco are jumping into the fray and offering new Gundam and Super Robot Wars games specifically for the handheld. From a Gundam perspective, if they go down the action route, we could have something pretty mindblowing on a 3DS. As for SRW, there’s not much scope for sight bending functionality – as the games are predominantly turn-based strategy orientated. Still, it’s nice to see that the 3DS will be getting a slice of mecha gaming in the near future.

The upcoming Killzone 3 will be featuring an interesting new power armour of Helghast design. For those that played the last game, this shouldn’t be too surprising as the latter parts of the campaign also featured playable mecha too. What’s interesting, in the wider sense at least, is that Killzone 3 is another entry in an increasing list of upcoming games games that are folding in mecha based functionality into their make-up. From Gears of War 3 to the continued usage of Walkers in Red Faction Armageddon, not to mention Vanquish as well. It seems that the benefits of mecha are finally being explored and appreciated in the broader gaming context.

The official site for the upcoming 360 port of Virtual On Force has confirmed what many fans expected; a re-issue of HORI’s TwinStick EX peripheral to coincide with the release of the game later this year. The eye watering price tag of 30,000 yen is still in effect and it will also only available if you’ve made the requisite pre-order via HORI’s online store. Needless to say, this re-issue may not happen as both SEGA and HORI have to meet a certain number of pre-orders before they can enter production again. Bear in mind that a lot of Virtual On fans already sacrificed a kidney/leg/arm to obtain one of these the first time around, so I’m not sure who’d be left to buy this re-issue version.