On the 26th November the increasingly awesome Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost will have the RX-105 Xi Gundam added to its ranks (as a 3000 point weighted unit). This is a mobile suit piloted by Bright Noah’s son Hathaway in the series of novels called Hathaway’s Flash. The mecha designs were also penned by Moriki Yasuhiro, of Zeorymer fame, and were aesthetically quite distinctive. The Xi Gundam has been in a fair few games over the years but rarely in action orientated titles, the last time we got to play with the unit was in the rather good Gundam Battle Universe on PSP. So to have it directly playable again is something we’re pretty excited about. A short video of it action in Full Boost is shown below.

It seems that we’ll be getting a PSN game archive release of Virtual On Marz next year. This was a pseudo-port of Force on the PS2 that had a rather broken singleplayer campaign. What’s interesting is that this will have support for HORI’s upcoming PS3 TwinStick peripheral. Now, we’ve played the game on a pair of modded Saturn sticks and it does indeed play a lot better, so to have something that offers the same thing in an official capacity is a good thing. Still no word of an Oratan or Force release on the PS3 but this is at least a step in the right direction.

In the December 2012 issue of Arcadia Magazine, listing its most recent top ten most popular arcade games, Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost finds its way to the top of the list (with Under Night In-Birth and the new Guilty Gear arcade revision rounding out the top three). Amusement Journal also lists Full Boost as the highest earning small cabinet arcade game for the period of late August to early September 2012.

The Gundam Extreme Versus series is no stranger to steady popularity as the first iteration of Extreme Versus was arguably the most popular Japanese arcade game in 2011. Earlier in the year, the April edition of Arcadia Magazine listed Full Boost in second place behind Persona 4 U. With the RX-105 Xi Gundam from Hathaway’s Flash listed as the next unit unlock and still many more to follow (AMX-109 Kapool Corin Nander Custom from the intro for example), Full Boost looks to have a steady reign over the Japanese arcades until the end of the year. Here’s to hoping we hear of a console version soon.

We now know that Macross 30 will be getting a limited edition version. Priced at 11,800 yen, you will get all manner of pamphlets and other cruft. There is a mention of a DLC code for a special YF-29 (which may by the Roy Focker coloured variant we’ve seen toys of already). However, for the money this is pretty damn pricey especially considering that the Macross Do You Remember Love Hybrid BluRay boxset was similarly priced and gave a whole lot more. There’s still sadly no word on what the new variable fighter silhouette seen in the logo might be though.

Over at AmiAmi they have a lovely photo report of the Tamashii Nations Akiba Showroom. From the cool diorama above with the Hanged Man Super Robot Chogokin from Armored Core V, to awesome shots of the alternate coloured Billbine there’s lots of interesting stuff to see here. Talking of the former, there’s also a nice little piece about the designers feeding back on the new Hanged Man toy. Following on in the same vein, HobbyLink Japan are running a Bandai sale at present and there are some very good bargains to be had.

The forthcoming Revoltech Naked Jehuty has been given an Amazon.co.jp listing and it reveals not only its release date, that of January 15th next year, but also the very reasonable price point of 3,480 yen. Again part of the whole never ending PR for Zone of the Enders HD Collection, the design appeared at the end of Anubis and was intended to be Jehuty’s “final” form. Apparently, this toy will also be able to use the other peripherals released for the other Revoltech Jehuty toys.

4Gamer have posted an almost 16 minute gameplay promo for the upcoming E.X. Troopers (shown below). Showing all manner of cool stuff it only cements our anticipation for this game even further. Admittedly the demos have already sold us on Capcom’s new take on Lost Planet, it’s nice to see the further functional scope in the full game. In any case, the game is still set for its November 22nd release and you can pre-order the PS3 version here (don’t forget that almost every PS3 game is region free).

There’s a pretty cool montage video for the creation of the rather larger Jehuty bust used to promote Zone of the Enders HD Collection. Showing its humble beginnings to its installation in Akiba and eventual removal. What is amazing though is the remixed track of Beyond The Bounds that accompanies the video (the full version being here). Anyway the full video is shown below.

As for our review, the consensus via Twitter and Facebook was a resounding “yes” for us to cover the new HD collection. So expect something in the next few weeks, apologies for the delay but we’re somewhat busy this end.

4Gamer has an update on the forthcoming Macross 30. Whilst the screens are pretty much the same as what Famitsu revealed recently, albeit bigger and shinier, there are some other interesting aspects. Notable of which are that both Shoji Kawamori and Ukyo Kodachi are working on the game’s narrative. Whilst Kawamori is a pretty obvious person to have on board, it’s interesting that Kodachi is also present. For those unaware, he wrote not only the Macross Frontier novelisations but also Macross The Ride. The latter featured all manner of various variable fighters from across the Macross timeline, so it makes sense he’s doing something similar here. No news on an exact release date or price for the game but it is being touted as a “flight action RPG”, whatever that may mean.

At this Winter’s Miyazawa Model Exhibition, all manner of kits (and a few toys too) have been revealed to the public. Above is the Riobot toy of Jehuty that Sentinel have been pimping for a while now. As with all the Riobot releases, this does look genuinely impressive and on a par (in terms of detailing) with Kotobukiya’s kits of the design. No word on a price or release date as yet for this though.

Talking of ZOE, we did receive and play a fair bit of the recent HD remake and for those that aren’t following us on Twitter; the framerate and performance is utterly terrible (worse than the PS2 originals). As such we’re in half a mind to review the new release. So if you’re interested in seeing us eviscerate High Voltage Software and Konami for a job badly done, then let us know and a review will be forthcoming. Funcationality-wise though the games are still as flawed as they always have been.

Anyway, if you want to see more of these lovely kits and toys then AmiAmi has coverage here, here and here (be warned, there’s a high level of moe and bewbs).