Namco Bandai have released a new promotional video for the upcoming Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost arcade game, due out on March 6, 2014 in Japan. The video showcases several new additions to the Maxi Boost roster such as Penelope Gundam, Hyperion Gundam, Gundam AGE-1, AGE-2, Gundam Astray Red Frame Kai, and Brave Commander Type. Other neat changes include God Gundam properly riding Fuunsaiki akin to the Mobile Armor modes of other units in the game. They also show off the EX Overdrive gameplay system which activates after certain conditions are met. The F-Drive boosts your melee prowess allowing you to guard break opponents and the S-Drive allows you to practically continuously fire off all your ranged attacks without having to worry about boost dash canceling. Make sure you check out the video below and see all the aforementioned changes to the latest sequel in the Extreme Versus series!

Over the past few years, Border Break has had somewhat of tumultuous time. It started out very well, but with each successive iteration more and more players dropped away. From Airburst to Union and now Scramble, SEGA are obviously hoping that the fourth update will be one to bring the punters back. The biggest problem the series has had is through its aggressive monetisation. It started out fairly invasive but has become more encompassing to the point that it’s financially crippling to play at the higher levels (as in the cost to “get good” has just gone through the roof). Whether this monetisation will have been fixed for Scramble is unclear, as you’d expect SEGA are pretty cagey about this, but it’s clear they haven’t given up on the series yet. The smart thing about Border Break though is that each of the updates haven’t required new hardware as technically it’s just a software update. So from an arcade management point of view, it’s a lot less hassle to host the game. No word on a release date, bar sometime this year, but it will be interesting to see how this does in the wild and whether gamers will come back to it.

At this year’s JAEPO, Konami have announced yet another Steel Chronicle game entitled Steel Chronicle Ganesh. The two major changes to the game are its move to first person as well as having a panoramic cockpit (much like the still very successful Senjo no Kizuna). For those that haven’t played Steel Chronicle, it was Konami’s attempt to steal Border Break’s thunder whilst also being more PvE focused (think basically an arcade Monster Hunter with mecha). It’s never done overly well though, with rumours of it actually losing money for Konami. However, what with Border Break’s reduced popularity these days (due to aggressive monetisation) it’s clear that Konami see an opportunity here. No word on a release date as yet, bar sometime this year, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for this. As the arcade mecha gaming scene in Japan is about to get a bit busier it seems.

Over at this year’s JAEPO, Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost is on full show. After the numerous recent location tests, it seems we’ll be getting the game in arcades here pretty soon. In addition to this, Bandai Namco released the game’s new CG opening movie. Whilst it looks pretty great, gotta love all the Xi and Penelope action, we do question the musical veracity of having auto-tuned metal in the background. For all of Linkin Park’s faults, they do write better music. That aside, it’s also pretty clear that due to Maxi Boost’s lack of newer units that the PS3 port of Full Boost’s DLC is turning into “Attack of the Clones”. Hopefully this will rectify itself once Maxi Boost starts getting more new units. In any case, the new opening movie is shown below. Brace thy ears!

Bandai have announced that the much loved XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1 Kai Kai “Skull Heart” will be getting the Robot Damashii treatment. This being the mobile suit piloted by the perky Tobia Arronax in both the Skull Heart and Steel 7 manga. This is a slightly strange release, as the other Crossbone Gundam mobile suits were released a fair few years ago (thankfully we managed to pick them up at the time, as they’re quite rare these days). Released in May for 5,940 yen this is one of the more averagely priced toys in the range and one we’ll be definitely be picking up come release.

With the official Gundam Extreme VS Maxi Boost website finally up, it confirms the addition of Shining Gundam and Gundam AGE-2 to the Maxi Boost roster. Shining Gundam last appeared in Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus for the PSP, whereas Gundam AGE-2 is a newcomer to the series. It’s always nice seeing Shining come back to the fighting fray and it appears Gundam AGE-2 will also be able to switch into its Double Bullet form. Also, it looks as if the Full Armor variant of Gundam Unicorn will be in the game as well. Perhaps that form is related to the EX Overdrive mode that has been added into the game. We will continue to update you as more information comes along.

Thanks to the indomitable Donkey Show, we found out details for an arcade location test happening this weekend for Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost. What with the PS3 port of Full Boost around the corner, Bandai Namco are getting ready for the next arcade iteration. Before we get into details, it’s worth clarifying that the game still appears to be running on a System 357 board (rather than the newer 478, which had been rumoured). Anyway, read on for our impressions.

Over at AmiAmi they have a stupidly lovely breakdown of the upcoming Arcadia 1/60 YF-19 toy set for release in April of next year. As always we’re taken aback by the quality of the both the detailing and sculpt of the new toy, especially as we already own the previous Yamato version. Whilst the price is pretty steep, it’s clear that there is a lot of new engineering on this new toy and as such we feel that the price hike is somewhat validated. Don’t forget that you can still pre-order the toy here.

As an aside, apologies for the lack of updates recently. We’ve relocated to Japan and the move has been rather intensive, as you’d expect really. Normal service and regular updates should be fine from here on in though.

We now have details on Bandai’s upcoming Robot Damashii NZ-666 Kshatriya as seen in the Gundam Unicorn OVA, it’s to be released next March and it will cost 13,440 yen. Interestingly, it appears that this will be a regular release as well and not a webshop exclusive. The toy itself is also rather large and appears to have some quite intricate engineering, which likely explains the higher price compared to other figures in this line. We have also been graced the seventh and final episode’s teaser trailer for the anime too, that will also be released next year. In any case we’ll definitely be picking this up in March and will likely review it too, if only to give our Robot Damashii Sinanju review some company.

Earlier this month, Namco Bandai had several location tests for the newest sequel of the Extreme Versus franchise, Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost. Several details were leaked prior to this during a recent preview of the game at a trade show, but we were still unsure of what to expect from the game. Thankfully, gamers bravely subverted location test security to secretly take videos of the first build of the game. In the video, you can see the Gundam AGE-1 go into it’s EX Overdrive mode to become the Spallow Wear, which looks somewhat similar to Spiegel Gundam in terms of moves so far. Check out the video below and see what you think about the game.