The official Gundam Assault Survive was recently updated with more mobile suits and was featured on Famitsu as well. The game is looking polished and the unit line-up is pretty thorough too. The site also links to the Gunpla 30th Anniversary site, which hints that an interesting model kit tie-in could be on the cards.

Considering the moderately recent release of Macross Ultimate Frontier (which we’ve reviewed), it seems only fitting to review the signature variable fighter from Macross Frontier in its fully armored regalia; the VF-25F Messiah. This toy is part of the 1/60 DX Chogokin range associated with the series but the armor parts are a limited edition purchase from Bandai’s online collector shop (though the base toy has to be bought separately). What follows is a photo review of the toy in its fighter, GERWALK and battroid modes.

I remember the release of the original Armored Core 3 on the PlayStation 2 quite vividly. Living in Japan at the time, most shops offered midnight sales on the day of release. However, From Software had cut a deal with a number of convenience store chains meaning that you could buy the game pretty much anywhere. Still, in the middle of nowhere I queued at midnight. That’s right, queued. There were at least thirty people in the line as well, it seemed that even in the remote Japanese countryside people really quite wanted some of that Armored Core 3.

In any case, the original game was sublimely good (check out our review if you don’t believe us) so the thought of a handy portable version would be suitably brilliant, right? Well, unfortunately no. Armored Core 3 Portable is rife with a number of severe issues that render the original game virtually unplayable in parts and mostly frustrating in others.

We’ve already talked about the Robot Damashii Turn A Gundam before but Bandai have recently released a special edition version via their collector focused online shop. This is of the Turn A emitting its Moonlight Butterfly, which in the anime is made up of a vast number of nanomachines. In addition, the base toy itself is available with translucent plastic. However, that’s not all as you can also buy a pack including the Turn X or even just the Moonlight Butterfly “wings” on their own (if you already have the older toys). Due to the nature of Bandai’s approach to shipping abroad, you may need to go via places like Tokyo Hunter though. Both the Turn A and Turn X were recently featured in Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus, along with their respective Moonlight Butterfly attacks in case you’re wondering.

The new Artdink developed Gundam Assault Survive recently received a nice gameplay promo. For those that played the last few Gundam Battle games, some of the environments will look awfully familiar. In terms of new game mechanics, not much is known but it seems that some elements have changed (the ring around the mobile suit’s waist for example). The game is still scheduled for March release in Japan. There are also some nice new screenshots here.

A new promo video for Last Raven Portable was released today. Admittedly it seems to be just a re-working of the cinematic footage but it’s still very nice nonetheless. What is is interesting is that apparently, come the game’s release in March, a coupon will be packaged with the game that will give a special code to unlock parts of the Armored Core 5 site that will apparently contain “special contents” for download.

Similar to Bandai’s previous Tamashii Nation events, they are now hosting a Tamashii Features event in both Tokyo and Osaka at the beginning of February. This will showcase their more affordable line of Robot Damashii and S.H.Figurarts toys. Naturally, at these events you often get limited edition toys only available for those that attend. The above Gundam Exia figure is a unqiue Trans-Am variant using translucent plastic for the outer armor. The Trans Am system effectively makes the Exia travel at three times its normal speed, a minor in-joke to Char’s customised Zaku II in the original Gundam (as that too was red and travelled suitably quick). However, the Trans Am functionality is more akin to the V-MAX system seen in Layzner as it’s time specific and relies on a finite amount of fuel. The Exia, and its Trans Am system, was recently featured in Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus. We’ve also included a video of the first time the Trans Am system kicks off for the Exia. Enjoy!

The recent blunder on Amazon.co.jp has been confirmed in the latest issue of Famitsu. It also seems that this is, as the Japanese fanbase predicted, another entry (of sorts) into Artdink’s very successful Gundam Battle series. Interestingly Assault Survive appears to be taking Capcom’s lead and featuring mobile suits from outside the Universal Century timeline (much like in Gundam vs Gundam). As previous Gundam Battle games worked their way through the traditional UC narrative. The two new series that will be featured are Gundam Seed and Gundam 00, though the mecha from V Gundam will also make a guest appearance (as they were unfortunately absent in Gundam Battle Universe).

Separately to this news, Famitsu also hinted at that a popular mecha action game will be announced in the next issue. Our bet is that it is a new Armored Core game, as another game is about due.

Update: The official site is now up and Famitsu online has a breakdown of the game.

A new PSP game by the name of “Gundam Assault Survive” has been leaked on Amazon.co.jp. With a release date of March 18th, it seems that Amazon have probably jumped the gun on the impending PR campaign. In any case, the name alone suggests that this could be another entry to the Gundam Battle Assault series. Though Japanese fans have been hearing rumours that Artdink may be developing a new game in the same vein as their successful Gundam Battle series (something the two recent Macross PSP games are based off in terms of technology). We’ll know for sure in the next few weeks most probably, when the marketing push kicks off in earnest.

Update: The above product link is now dead, so someone at Amazon is probably getting scalped as we write this.

It seems that Last Raven Portable will retain the data install option previously seen in Silent Line Portable. This feature, whilst appearing to be somewhat trivial, is actually quite a big deal when you consider the issues Armored Core 3 Portable suffered from in terms of its input framerate. In that, apart from some visual framerate stutter, the input lag was actually pretty atrocious (making some missions unnecessarily arduous). Considering the ramping up of difficulty in Silent Line and especially in Last Raven, the data install feature appears to have negated this serious input lag issue (from our play testing on Silent Line Portable at least). In short, having this feature in Last Raven Portable is very much a good thing as the multiple Zinaida fights in the PlayStation 2 original weren’t exactly a walk in the park to begin with.