It turns out Double Fine’s next digital download title will feature suitably retro mecha (circa WWI). Entitled Trenched it looks to be a cool little action game to boot. What most struck us though, was how reminiscent the mecha design were to Konami’s PS2 classic Ring of Red. In addition, what with From Software’s take on a new retro styled Steel Battalion, it seems WWI mecha are all the rage this year. Whilst no word on a specific released date as yet,it does seem to be an XBLA exclusive (unlike the two prior Double Fine digital download games; Costume Quest and Stacking). The announcement trailer is below.

Over at GA Graphic there’s a pretty cool interview with Macross creator and mecha designer extraordinaire Shoji Kawamori, in which he blithely pimps the upcoming 1/60 scale DX Chogokin toy of the new YF-29 Durandal. This is the new variable fighter that was revealed in the just released Macross Frontier film The Wings of Farewell.

Whilst this has yet to be featured in a game, as it’s just been revealed, the fact that Artdink are clearly working on a full blown PS3 Macross game (off the back of Macross Trial Frontier) is reason to think that this will be a playable mecha in the near future. Most are betting that the game will be released around the time of this new movie’s DVD / Blu-Ray release later in the year, though that is obviously still conjecture. In the meantime, you can always play the excellent Macross Triangle Frontier (available here).

The planned release for the toy will be June 30th at the princely sum of 17,850 yen. You can pre-order it here.

A few days ago, a new online questionnaire popped up on the official Virtual On Force site. Something similar happened shortly after the XBLA release of Oratan 5.66 as well, to which we ended up with this new port of Force (so SEGA do clearly listen to what the fans want when it comes to Virtual On). However, as the questionnaire is all in Japanese some studious individuals have been good enough to do a translation of it. The main point that I think everyone is rooting for is question 3-4; “would you like a new Virtual On?”. Our answer is an emphatic “yes”. Thanks to the peeps at Oratan.com and Schooly D for the heads up, there’s even a forum post all about the questionnaire too. There’s also a thanks page for doing the questionnaire that has some sweet wallpapers.

One of the more discouraging aspects about the Gundam Battle games was their propensity to build on the prior content of previous games. In that, you’d buy a new game in the series only to be faced with a sizable amount of missions and mobile suits you’d already paid for in the prior release. Whilst this was obviously a publisher lead remit, after the fifth game your patience did wear pretty damn thin.

The first two Macross games in this series, Ace and Ultimate Frontier, were blessed with a sizable increase in content between them. To the extent that with the latter, they pretty much covered off almost all of the saga. Moving on from that, in the same way the Gundam Battle games unfortunately did, is something that would normally concern us.

However, we now have reached the third game in Artdink’s mini Macross gaming saga and they’ve tried to do a lot to mask the re-use of assets from the two prior games. From the all new Academy mode to new campaigns and units. They’ve even re-worked the missile lock system again. The final result is something again new and interesting, as well as being a lot of fun to play.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent the Robot Damashii L-Gaim Mk. 2 toy from Heavy Metal L-Gaim. To help give the toy some context we’ve also included some videos of it from the original anime and a few games it has been featured in over the years at the end of the review.

4Gamer has some nice new screenshots and coverage for the forthcoming Gundam The 3D Battle on the 3DS. From various shots of classic Universal Century Gundam mecha, to the news about how the StreetPass system will work. Specifically, that it will allow players to swap mobile suits and pilots with one another, with the former appearing as enemies in missions. All this can be tracked in the MyRoom menu screen, as well as your preferred attacks. In addition to all this, the game will also have a new health setup. In that, damage inflicted can be recovered if subsequent impacts are avoided for a short time. However, there are attacks that bypass this system to incur pure damage. It’s basically the same kind of health regeneration seen in most modern day (Western) shooters, so it’s inclusion here is an interesting one.

Over at Famitsu, they’ve got some nice new shots of the OG mecha for the upcoming Super Robot Wars Z 2. Called the Blasta, it’s meant as a primary means of defense against “dimensional monsters”. Curiously it’s designed by the lesser known Seiji Ono, though he has at least worked on an SRW anime in the past. Some comments have also likened the design to the SVMS-01 Union Flag from Gundam 00, though to our eyes it’s more Dragonar really. In any case, this will be the first of two OG units spread over as many games (bets are on for a super robot inspired OG mecha with a female pilot for the next game). You can pre-order the game here.

On the 23rd of February, another mobile suit will be added to Gundam Musou 3 in the form of another DLC pack. That of the beefy GN-008 Seravee Gundam and its more lithe internal counterpart the GN-009 Seraphim Gundam, from the second season of Gundam 00. The Seravee and Seraphim were also the upgraded versions of the GN-005 Gundam Virtue and GN-004 Gundam Nadleeh respectively. 4Gamer has some good shots of each of the mecha too. In terms of pricing, the DLC will cost 600 yen (PS3) and 480 MSP (360) and will also feature an additional mission. As has been said though, the fact that each of these have been released as separate DLC packs is a bit cheeky really. Hopefully, the Western release will conglomerate the DLC a bit better.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent the 1/3000 scale SDF-1 Macross toy from Macross Do You Remember Love? as made by Yamato. It goes without saying that this is quite an important and iconic design to get given such an epic toy treatment, so we were understandably excited to get our hands on one. To help give the toy some context we’ve also included some videos of it from the original anime and a few games it has been featured in over the years at the end of the review.

The official site for Armored Core V was updated yesterday with two new screenshots showing some of the game’s tank legs on display. Partly due to the reduced size of the ACs themselves, the weapon load-out looks almost disproportionately beefy. Not that we’re complaining, as it makes the new AC’s look suitably kickass. It’s just the more we see of ACV, the more it heralds back to the likes of VOTOMS but in a meaner and tougher sense perhaps. The other screenshot is shown after the jump.