Banpresto have a pretty sketchy record when it comes to mecha action games. After numerous botched attempts they did the smart thing and hired From Software to helm a series of mecha games called Another Century’s Episode. Linked in spirit to Banpresto’s turnbased strategy focused Super Robot Wars series, it featured multiple mecha from disparate mecha series in an action game context all high fiving for the win. Of the three games that were released on the PlayStation 2, it’s hard to find fault with any of them. From Software knew what they were doing and had finally been allowed into the playground where all the cool mecha toys were kept, so the results were obviously rather wonderful.

When ACE:R was announced, there was a sizeable amount and quite justifiable excitement over the game. As this would be the first entry to be in HD on a new and more powerful console. However, as this was meant as “rebirth” Banpresto mistakenly involved the SRW team on the production, most probably to bring the two massive franchises into a closer alignment – or some such mind numbingly stupid corporate agenda. The outcome is something rather unfortunate indeed.

Over at 4Gamer they’ve shown this week’s sales and bearing in mind that Another Century’s Episode R was only released last Thursday the fact it’s at the top of the charts with a whopping 219,849 sales is very impressive (especially as it’s higher than the three previous games). What’s less impressive is actually how bad the game is and despite the somewhat suspicious glut of positive reviews in the Japanese games press, the public are really not happy with the new game. Whilst our review will be forthcoming in the next day or so, for those that sat on the fence for this you really shouldn’t bother and the remainder that imported (including yours truly) we share your pain. Here’s hoping the inevitable next game in the series isn’t as bad as this one was.

One of the most terrifying opponents in From Software’s series of Armored Core games is the ultimate incarnation of Nineball, that of Nineball Seraph. First introduced as the final boss in Armored Core Master of Arena, it was one of the first transforming antagonists seen in the series. However when Seraph reappeared in Armored Core 2 Another Age, as a secret boss, this was when its reputation as a brutal opponent surfaced. Colloquially known as “jetboy” amongst the Western gaming throng, Seraph would obliterate almost everyone that tried to face it in combat.

It seems that Nineball Seraph has finally made it into the just released Another Century’s Episode R, though with a few minor modifications admittedly (with the shoulders being notable). This would be the first time, since the original Another Century’s Episode, that a From Software mecha made it into the series (as the last was a Cloudbreaker from the Xbox game Murakumo). Whether this is a playable unit remains to be seen though. In other news, the wonderful Hi-Nu Gundam has been confirmed as a secret unlock in the game as well, this would mark the unit’s current generation debut in an action game. In any case, we’ve linked the video of Seraph’s introduction below as well as its appearances in Armored Core.

Another Century’s Episode R has finally been released in Japan today. There have been multiple game videos shown already (with one linked below), as it seems that some shops broke the street date. From the rather cool custom soundtracks option, that allows you to use music at specific points in gameplay, to the more worrying use of motion controls it seems that the game has managed to keep a few surprises in store. The most unfortunate of these though has to be the complete removal/changing of the boost system that was used in the last three games. Naturally, we’ll be reviewing the game soon but in the meantime you can import it here.

The upcoming and curious Blu-Ray hybrid game addition Macross Trial Frontier has been given a decent amount of screen time in the lead up to its release at the beginning of October. Around the 2:18 mark, the gameplay footage kicks in and to anyone that’s played the recent PSP games it will all look pretty familiar (though far shinier admittedly). This isn’t exactly a surprise, as this development was telegraphed somewhat when the hybrid pack was announced. Still, it’s nice to see that Artdink have made their mark on contemporary gaming at least in terms of this game’s functional heritage. Whether they were part of the development for this port remains to be seen but considering the striking similarity I can only surmise that someone at Artdink was involved at some point.

Up at the PlatinumGames official blog, there’s a post from the lead background designer of Vanquish, talking about the influence of Gundam’s space colonies on their game’s visual design. We’ve talked about this obvious influence before but in particular his comment about the team being mainly of “Gundam age” is very interesting. Most of them grew up with this shared cultural experience of Mobile Suit Gundam and other mecha series spawned from the Real Robot explosion that followed in its wake, and this affects Japanese video game development to this day, just as Western video game developers share their own cultural experiences, such as Star Wars and Dungeons & Dragons.

Japanese video games can do very well in the West, but much of the time the peculiar differences that Japanese games can have from Western ones is ignored in the press or simply passed off as “Japan is weird”, without exploring the particular background these differences came from, rather treating game development as if it exists in a vacuum. It’s good to see these differences explained, and this in particular is a good example of the scale of influence the mecha animation genre has had in Japanese video game development.

4Gamer have again got a nice new selection of screenshots for the upcoming Front Mission Evolved. It’s clear that the PR campaign is in its last desperate throes, as the game is released in September. From more angry characters, minus gratuitous bewbs, and surprisingly large mecha (though somewhat meagre when compared to Armored Core For Answer’s Arms Forts) there’s definitely lots of interesting and shiny content to peruse though.

4Gamer has a nice new batch of HD screenshots for the upcoming Front Mission Evolved. Overall, the game is still looking nice and the September 28th release date seems to be still on track. The update also covers the game system setup a bit as well, though with nothing really new to report since we last talked about it. As the awful acronym for the game’s bullet time (as in “E.D.G.E.” or the more idiotic “Emergency Defense Galvanosynaptic Enhancer”) is still receiving large amounts of PR spooge. Though it seems that Square Enix will be doing something right in terms of releasing toys for the game, for that we happily tip our cyborg top hats in their direction.

4gamer has a selection of HD screenshots for the upcoming BluRay hybrid Macross Frontier movie, including the game portion for Macross Trial Frontier. It’s clear that there’s Artdink functional lineage at work here, especially in the HUD but whether they’re involved in the development of this remains unclear and somewhat unlikely. As they have Carnage Heart EXA to be getting on with, not to mention that porting a PSP game to the PS3 is a pretty big ask on the part of Bandai Namco. In any case the hybrid BluRay disc is out on October 7th for 7,140 yen.

Gpara have a nice update on the recently announced OG mecha from Super Robot Wars appearing in Another Century’s Episode R. From the Cybuster, above, to the ART-1 and Alteisen Riese the new OG units look stunning in game and it’s amazing to think it’s taken four games for them to be even featured. In addition to the OG unit update, Gpara also has an interview with Acid Black Cherry about his single Re:Birth that will be used in the game.