For the second week running Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen has topped the Japanese charts again, with 39,403 sales (for a total of 299,842 sales). This popularity is thoroughly well deserved though and we’re still relishing the game in all its brilliance. With any luck, our review will go up sometime next week and we hope you don’t mind the wait. In the meantime, you can buy the game (if you haven’t already done so) here.

The recently released Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen has managed to top the Japanese charts quite nicely, to the tune of 265,439 sales. If you’re wondering why we didn’t report this sooner and why the site has been a bit quiet as of late, that’s purely down to the fact that we’ve been playing the game pretty solidly since we got it last week. Thus far it’s sublimely brilliant and we will be doing a review once we’ve completed at least one playthrough.

What with the release of Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen barely a week away, 4Gamer has done a repost of Famitsu’s prior screenshots as well as done a piece on the official Super Robot Wars site getting a makeover (making it more compatible with mobile browsers, amongst other things). We’re still super excited about this game, so a review will be forthcoming after we receive our copy. Don’t forget you can still preorder it here.

As expected, we now have the nice extended promo for the upcoming Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen. This is the promo that normally goes the rounds on the high street games shops too, so the 13 minute duration is on account of that. In addition, there’s also a very short commercial too (stitched together from bits of the new promo). We’ve included both below. As for elements of note, well seeing the X-ATH-02-DT Rabidly Dog (pictured above) in action is a wonderful thing indeed though we’re not too impressed with the Dancouga and Dancouga Nova team-up (we’d rather Dancouga Nova wasn’t even in the game to be perfectly honest). Bar that, there’s a lot of cool stuff jammed in at the end too so prepare thy body accordingly. Finally, there was a rather nice event recently celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the series (though technically the first Super Robot Wars game was released in 1991). Naturally, Ichiro Mizuki was on hand to add a sense of tamashii to the proceedings. Don’t forget you can still preorder the game here.

Famitsu has a nice new update showing some more units in the forthcoming Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen. From the majestic Shin Getter (pictured above) to the rather lovely GNR-101A GN Archer from Gundam 00. Even the re-done animations for Overman King Gainer, a favourite series of ours too, look really great. It’s also intimated elsewhere that another longer promo will be forthcoming showing off a lot more of the game. Considering that the game’s release is a few weeks away, the timing is suitably apt. Don’t forget you can also preorder the game here.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan we’ve been sent the Super Robot Chogokin Zeorymer from the anime Hades Project Zeorymer. Whilst this is somewhat of a niche super robot OVA from the late 80’s, it has garnered a rather infamous reputation due to its suitably uber presence in several Super Robot Wars games. We’ve also made sure to include some nice footage from the anime as well as its various game appearances at the bottom of the review.

What with the next installment around the corner, Banpresto have released the first Super Robot Wars Z 2 Hakai-hen on PSN. This not only means you’ll be able to play it on your PSP but also on your PS Vita (pictured above). The latter means it will have some very shiny upscaling on the handheld’s new screen. Despite the 7,330 yen price tag, the game is totally worth it. We bought a Japanese Vita last year when it was released and we love it, though the lack of PSone classics in the store seems like a huge oversight. Anyway, Saisei-hen is almost here and playing Hakai-hen again seems like a really good idea. Don’t forget you can pre-order Saisei-hen here.

Now that we have Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen to look forward to, there are some more juicy bits of information about the game. First is the new Emblem items, these will be very rare/difficult to acquire but will afford some very nice bonuses. Notably, the Iron Emblem will quadruple your experience accrued once equipped. Following on from that Nekki Basara’s song powers will be able to make enemies like the Vajra, from Macross Frontier, retreat. Even the more standardised abilities, like the Zero System on the Gundam Wing Zero (pictured above), will get a reworking. As always, you can pre-order the game here.

Bandai have announced that one of the next Robot Damashii toys will be that of the original XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero. Whilst we’re not fans of the anime that much really, we do like the designs a fair bit (barring the mecha chicken variant of the Wing Zero in Endless Waltz obviously). This release has been hinted at for a fair while now as well but we’re glad it’s finally going to happen. Released this June for a very reasonable 4,410 yen, the toy even transforms.

It seems that Bandai have decided to produce what looks to be a very nice 1/60 scale DX Chogokin of the VF-171EX Nightmare Plus in Alto Saotome’s colours. Priced at 14,700 yen and out this June, it will apparently be using much of the newer engineering that has been spearheaded by the VF-25 “Renewal” toys. From the site it’s not clear whether the full weapon set seen in the anime will be present, as the current gunpod in the shots is only that of the standard MC-17A rather than the AVPAGC/MEDC30-EX-A Anti-Vajra MDE anti-gravity particle cannon. Hopefully, the super parts will also become available at a later date too. Either way, this is an interesting choice on the part of Bandai as the design, whilst obviously very nice, is pretty short-lived in the anime and it would have also required them to create all new moulds for the toy too.