Despite the ongoing and thoroughly erroneous myth that all Gundam games are awful, it’s always nice to play a new Gundam Battle game by Artdink. Pretty much every game in the series has given us hours of gaming pleasure (to a greater or lesser extent obviously). So to finally have another Gundam Battle game after Universe announced for the PS Vita, we were more than a little excited. Interestingly though instead of using the Universal Century timeline, the game is solely based around the Cosmic Era from the Gundam SEED saga.

Despite what many think, changing up to develop from PSP to Vita is no mean feat for a developer as small as Artdink. As the handheld is closer to PS3 levels of development, which means exponentially more art resources and greater code risks. Picking SEED was a relatively “safe” choice as after the original Gundam as it’s one of the pantheon’s most successful entries and if Artdink ballsed it up then the precious UC timeline brand would be untarnished on the new platform. Not to mention that Gundam Assault Survive didn’t really help Artdink in securing more UC timeline work.

In any case, we are very happy to report that Artdink didn’t balls up this new game at all and in fact it’s rather good indeed.

As of today Assault Gunners is now available on the PSN store to buy, for a very affordable 1,480 yen no less. In addition to this there is also some day one DLC, moreover it’s entirely free as well. Don’t go crazy though, as the DLC is simply new voiceovers from some SDN48 members and here’s a video of them feigning interest too. Bar this rather hackneyed PR stunt, the game itself is actually pretty decent. Admittedly it’s based off the Destroy Gunners games made by Shade but Assault Gunners has far superior controls and looks a lot nicer too. Once we’ve played it a bit more we’ll be sure to post our impressions.

As was announced a good while ago, those pretty nifty people at Sentinel have finally previewed the forthcoming Riobot Jehuty (shown above). The Riobot range are primarily made of plastic but are normally beautifully sculpted with amazing articulation. Compared to the recent Revoltechs, which are nice enough for the price, this toy will be in a whole other league in terms of quality. No words on a specific release date or price, but the figure will be around 15 cm tall. In any case, this is one of our hotly anticipated toys and the pictures above only help to cement our conviction that it will be pretty damn awesome.

Famitsu has the scoop on Assault Gunners, a new PSN download mecha game for the Vita out at the end of June. Like the other download only games for the Vita, the price tag is a similarly reasonable 1,480 yen. For that you get a 30 mission story mode, a Horde mode clone called “Inferno” and 4 player ad-hoc multiplayer. There’s also a load of customisation available too. All that aside, the game looks to be pretty damn solid indeed. We’ve been craving for some good mecha games on the Vita for a while and now a whole bunch arrive at once. Developed by Marvellous AQL, it’s directed by Kazuyuki Ogawa (of Clock Tower fame) and produced by Shinji Motoki (who recently worked on the pretty awesome Muramasa game on the Wii). Anyway, a demo is out for the game today and we’ll be buying as well as giving the game a good once over on its release on June 28th.

Hot on the heels of their massive Metal Gear Rex replica is an equally impressive Metal Gear Ray from the same craftsmen at threeA. It was first publicly unveiled a few weeks back, at a showcase in Hong Kong, alongside upcoming figures for Halo and Portal.

But it was difficult to get a real sense of Ray’s size, though the safe bet was that he’s just as huge as Rex (if not more so.) So thanks to close up pics, via Kojima’s Twitter, we finally have a better idea. Mostly due to Square Enix’s Play Arts Kai Gray Fox, which stands close by and offers a true sense of scale. Anyone familiar with that figure knows already how big it is, so seeing it appear relatively diminutive speaks volumes.

Details are scant, other than what the pictures tell us. Like how its mouth can open; it remains to be see if he’ll shoot water, which was a primary means of offense in Metal Gear Solid 2. Ray is also without a tail, a key defining trait of the mass production unit. Perhaps one will be included in the final package, which can be applied at will? Like the battle scars that one can apparently adorn Rex, according to previous pictures.

No word yet on availability or price, but it appears to be coming along just swimmingly, and will more than likely have the same $500 or so price tag as its predecessor. Even though Rex is the most popular among Metal Gear diehards, Ray has plenty of fans nonetheless, who would be more than willing to give it a home as well. Provided that they’ve managed to pay his older brother off at that point. Also, Arsenal Gear next, please.