Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a kit from the original Virtual On to review. Specifically, Kotobukiya’s 1/100 scale Viper II. This was a lightly armored and mostly airborne focused virtuaroid, that also sported a very powerful secret attack – in the form of its “SLC” (or “She’s Lost Control”) dive. Like the other VR’s in the Virtual On series, Viper II was designed by mecha design magnate Hajime Katoki.

Our review covers the kit in its out of the box and unpainted form but we have also included painted photos towards the end. In addition, to give the kit some context, we’ve also captured some gameplay footage of the design in action from the recent SEGA AGES PlayStation 2 port.

To commemorate Gundam’s 30th Anniversary, Bandai Namco are re-releasing a selection of best selling Gundam games at a reduced price in Japan. Some of these games are still Japanese exclusives, which is a shame as the recent Wii game developed by Team White Dingo was superb and it never made the jump abroad. Likewise, Artdink’s excellent PSP games are still without a Western release. These anniversary versions will hit Japanese stores on the 17th December.

Niche gaming news site SiliconEra posted a veritable deluge of Sakura Wars screenshots, this time with English text. We don’t have a solid release date for Sakura Wars’ release date yet other than a vague “Winter 2009/2010”, but the English screenshots imply that the localization is coming along nicely.

The official site for Sakura Wars has been updated fairly regularly, and unlike a few other Nippon Ichi America official sites, it seems to be written by someone with a good grasp on English, so feel free to give it a read. If you’re interested in a strategy RPG with beautiful girls and stubby mecha, it’s probably worth at least a look (fans of beautiful mecha and stubby girls need not apply). Keep in mind the game we’re getting as “Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love” is really Sakura Wars 5 in Japan, as the West have never before received a localized version of the game, and presumably Nippon Ichi America doesn’t want customers getting scared off by the lack of the other four installments. It’s kind of like how America’s Final Fantasy 3 was really Japan’s Final Fantasy 6.

As a developer GameArts are known most for their work on the wondrous Grandia games as well as their input to the Silpheed series, but they’ve also produced a rather well wrought selection of mecha games too.

Specifically, the four Gungriffon games that have graced multiple consoles over the years. These games pre-date From Software’s perennial Armored Core series but due to a number of factors, both cultural and financial, the games have never quite garnered the appreciation they so sorely deserved.

This is not to say that the Gungriffon games haven’t been critically lauded over the years but they haven’t reached the broader appeal that something like Heavy Gear did for instance, despite both series sharing similar base rulesets for the mecha. Amusingly, the design of mecha themselves has often been mistakenly attributed to be Western in origin, despite the obvious linkages to Ryosuke Takahashi’s VOTOMS series, something that again Heavy Gear shares. As such, we’ll delve into the series as a whole and examine what has made these games remain such a cult hit.

Before the inevitable functional paradigm shift that would occur to take into account an increase in hardware potency, From Software released the last of the traditional Armored Core games on the PlayStation 2. It was a swan song for the series as players knew it, as the newer versions would be functionally very different from this point onwards. Entitled Last Raven, it featured a complex branching narrative occurring over a 24 hour period where the entire world was going to hell in a hand basket. The point of the game was for the player to survive the 24 hours to literally become the last Raven left alive.

Now, I’ve played these games since 1997. Some have been good, others bad and a few completely brilliant. However, it’s safe to say that I know how to play these games as you’d think I’d have had enough practice by now? Wrong. Like every Armored Core game before it the skill set required to just survive changes both subtly and profoundly between each game. Last Raven is no exception as even after thrashing the entirety of Ninebreaker, with all of its 150 Gold medals acquired for each of its training programs, the final entry to the PlayStation 2 Armored Core pantheon promptly blew me into oblivion on the first mission. That’s right, the first mission in the game. Even with all my parts and, what I’d thought to be, a suitably uber AC configuration I still got obliterated. This is why Last Raven is no ordinary Armored Core game.

As many had already assumed, it seems that the vague “Winter 2009/2010” release date that Nippon Ichi America gave to Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love means that we won’t be seeing it this year. I’ve been waiting for a game in the Sakura Wars series to come over since the days of the Sega Saturn, so while I’m sure I can wait a little while longer, it’s definitely going to be a tough sell for many hardcore gamers with all the other highly anticipated titles that have already been pushed back into 2010, such as Bayonetta and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. It’s being released on the PlayStation 2 and the Wii, which aren’t exactly the first choices of hardcore gamers these days, which also makes me worry about its success.

For those that played the original Armored Core back in 1997, they may remember with trepidation the final mission their Raven’s mecha had to undertake. For those that don’t, it was a massive level, so big in fact that it had to be split in half and have the player restocked and repaired mid-mission. It also had the trickiest level design in the entire game, with the player having to negotiate floating platforms in a never-ending tower of guaranteed death to those that lacked the necessary AC piloting skills. Then there was Nineball.

Nineball, and its pilot Hustler One, were listed as the top ranking AC and Raven combo and from the various e-mails received from enemy Ravens and greedy corporations, Nineball was a terrifying and truly formidable opponent. In the last mission you faced him, twice. Many who have played Armored Core will know the significance of Nineball and that of defeating the bugger. Thus in Armored Core 2 a new term was introduced into the world setting, given to pilots of exceptional skill and design prowess; Ninebreaker. It is this terminology, this legacy, even, that From Software has built their latest traditional Armored Core game around. The term is also fitting to the fact that this is the ninth iteration in the series.

One of the most renowned and influential mecha of all time, that of Tetsujin 28-go, has been given the life size treatment in Kobe. The reason that it’s been erected in Kobe rather than Tokyo is because the creator of the series, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, was born there.

Tetsujin 28-go is also the first real Japanese mecha series, pre-dating the likes of Gundam by almost quarter of a century. Naturally, the series has seen many remakes and sequels over the years, with a new CG film very likely on the way courtesy of Imagi (the same studio behind the upcoming Astro Boy remake).

Personally, my favourite interpretation was the 2004 TV series, as that retained the stylistic overtones from the 50’s and 60’s whilst keeping contemporary production values in terms of the animation. It was also decidedly bleak in terms of the narrative, much more so than the original. The 2004 series also received a video game tie-in (which we’ve reviewed). Interestingly, Tetsujin 28-go has never been featured in a Super Robot Wars game.

Unlike the recent and temporary RX-78-2 Gundam that was in Tokyo, this statue will be a permanent fixture next to Shin-Nagata Station.

Back in July of 2000, the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park opened Gundam The Ride. You were escorted onto a Federation transport and carried through the final battle of the One Year War, A Baoa Qu, by two chirpy GM pilots. The ride was full of wondrous little references which all zoomed past at lightning speed.

A few years later, in 2003, Bandai released Meguriai Sora on the PlayStation 2 (this was later released abroad as Encounters in Space). Within one of the latter campaign levels there was a nice little reference to the ride, as you encounter the transport and the GM’s in the middle of a Dolos class ship. Naturally, very few in the Western gaming press picked up on this rather cool reference.

Unfortunately, the ride closed down in July 2007 and was replaced by Gundam Crisis. Thankfully, someone managed to capture the ride for posterity before it shut down. So I’ve linked that below as well as a capture from the game that featured the cameo from the ride.

Enjoy!

To the uninitiated the Super Robot Wars games appear to be a terrifying endeavour. Language barrier aside there is an immense cultural chasm present for anyone that didn’t grow up watching anime in Japan as a child. Half a century of mechanical nuance to be exact. All this has very interesting functional ramifications as Super Robot Wars Z is a turn based strategy game, much like chess in fact. Except it’s chess with close to a thousand possible pieces, almost all of which are unique, with gaming idiosyncrasies borne out of the parent anime series that birthed them. Daunting doesn’t quite cover it really.

Super Robot Wars Z is the final PlayStation 2 game in the series and unlike the Original Generation (or OG) games, Z is very much a continuation of the premise where disparate mecha from various anime series effectively high five for the win. However, despite being a follow on from the engorged excess that was Alpha 3, Z is very much a crafted game; from the pristine battle animations to the deeply layered strategy.