For years OverClocked Remix, perhaps the most widely recognized fan-based community of game music remixers, has been releasing special collections (albums as they refer to them) that pay homage to a specific game. For the most part, the choice of subject matter has been on a bit of a safe side: Sonic, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, and the like. Hence why their most recent release, which is centered around Armored Core, is particularly noteworthy.

The next episode of Gundam Unicorn is around the corner, with its PlayStation Network airing occurring in early March (again in advance of the DVD and Blu Ray release in April). The episode is called “Laplace no Boumei” (or the “Ghost of Laplace”) and features a new song by Chemistry called “merry-go-round”. The promo video is shown below and for those that have been fans of the NZ-666 Kshatriya then you may want to avert your eyes.

In the latest issue of Famitsu, Banpresto have announced a sequel to the successful PS2 game Super Robot Wars Z (a game we liked quite a bit too in case you’re wondering). Entitled “Super Robot Wars Z II: Hakai-Hen” the game will be exclusively released on the PSP on April 14th. Naturally, the big part to these announcements is the introduction of new mecha series to the fold. Well, SRWZ2 doesn’t look to disappoint as it not only includes the likes of Gurren Lagann but also VOTOMS too. So both ends of the mecha spectrum, super and real, have been thoroughly catered for it seems. Interestingly, this will be the first of two games with this entry covering the first half or season for the respective series (with the second game to cover the latter half). Apparently the game has also been in production since March 2009, so at least Banpresto have properly invested their time into this one. The new game will also feature Dancougar again, so we’re naturally pretty happy about that. The full list of series are linked below.

Update: Famitsu has updated their site with some coverage of the game and the official site has also been launched too.

Over at Anime News Network they’ve got a cool little story of an unknown cosplayer donning a full blown GN-0000 00 Gundam from Gundam 00 at Melbourne’s Manifest. This being the base unit from the second season before it later combined with the GNR-010 0 Raiser. You don’t normally get the 00 Gundam on its own very often in game, instead most games opt for the beefier 00 Raiser. However, the Yuke’s developed Gundam Meisters on the PS2 did feature the 00 Gundam as an unlockable unit. Still, it’s pretty impressive work on the part of the cosplayer and we tip our steel rimmed hat to them.

Following on from the combination attacks in a previous update, 4Gamer now has the scoop on the Cross Over Attacks in the forthcoming Another Century’s Episode Portable. Unlike the the previous attacks of this kind, where only the player had to connect prior to the attack initiating, your ally will also need to be in the vicinity for the attack to work. In addition, once the attack is triggered the player will be momentarily prone; adding more risk to this feature. Following on from this, the update also shows new shots of the GN-0000+GNR-010 00 Raiser, Type-0/0A Shinkirou and VF-25S Messiah. The game is still slated for a January 13th release in Japan and you can pre-order it here.

4Gamer has a selection of new screenshots for the next Artdink developed Macross game on the PSP, Macross Triangle Frontier. From the moe-tastic Academy mode to new shots of various variable fighters strutting their stuff. The Academy mode allows the player to basically attend Mihoshi Academy as a student and build up their character’s attributes there, these then carry over to the game itself. In addition a 1000 plus event triggers are tucked away in the Academy mode, meaning that much of the game will rely on the player having to wade through a dating sim in order to blow up robots. That aside, the game will also still support custom soundtracks as well as a new data install setup. The game is still slated for a February 3rd release next year and you can pre-order it here.

With the upcoming Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon slated for release next year, D3 have announced three new games in the series. From the plucky PSP port of the excellent second game, shown above, to even a new mobile game (called Earth Defense Force Legend). However, the big surprise is the announcement of Earth Defense Force 4. It seems that Sandlot are still hard at work, as at the very least they’d be needed to port the upcoming PSP version. The news of proper continuation from Earth Defense Force 3 (aka 2017 in the West) is very much appreciated though.

For those somewhat confused as to what these games have to do with mecha, well the simple fact is that without Sandlot’s prior expertise (and subsequent technology base) in the genre the EDF games wouldn’t exist. If you’re at all curious about this lineage then we heartily recommend you read our feature on the subject. The new promo video is also shown below.

As with Banpresto’s other mecha gaming offerings, the closer a game gets to release the more extensive the trailers get. Until, finally, you get close to 10 minutes of actual gameplay footage for Japanese high street game stores to run on a permanent loop. With Another Century’s Episode P’s release a few weeks away we’ve finally been graced with the full promo video of the game. What’s especially wonderful about this particular video is that it pretty much confirms the fact that the old boosting mechanics from the PS2 ACE games have returned for the new PSP version. Whilst this is clearly good news, it is a little sad that the game does suffer from obvious draw distance/fogging issues. It’s patently clear that the PSP version’s game engine has literally been ported from the PS2 but it doesn’t appear to be overly optimised. Admittedly, the ACE games have always had large environments so expecting a PSP to be able to resolve that as well as the PS2 games did is probably a bit unfair on our part (as even the PS2 games suffered with some fogging as well). It’s just that Artdink have raised the bar in terms of mecha gaming on the PSP, with their various Gundam Battle and Macross games, so ACE P has some stiff competition. In any case the full promo is shown below and you can pre-order the game here.

Famitsu has some nice new coverage explaining how the new combination attacks in Another Century’s Episode P will work. Unlike the same attacks in ACE 2 and 3, it seems that these will be more manually controlled as the player will need to hammer their targets within a time limit. Successful face raping of the enemy in question will also net the player more ACE points for upgrading. With the game’s release in a few weeks, it will be interesting to see how gamers take to this after the pretty appalling ACE R. In any case you can pre-order the game here.

The upcoming Level 5 developed Danball Senki has finally had another promo video released. It shows a bit of the customisation, boasting 2500 available parts, and more of the battling gameplay. Like we mentioned in our TGS impressions, it was a cool little game and we’re looking forward to its March 17th release next year. Still no word on a Western release as yet though.