Not that long ago, Banpresto funded the development of a rather insane Gundam arcade game called Senjo no Kizuna. The player would literally sit inside a panoramic cockpit and pilot a mobile suit. In addition, each of the hugely expensive cabinets would be connected via an online network to other such machines across Japan. Upon its release, Banpresto soon realised they’d cornered a new part of the arcade gaming market. As queues lengthened to play the game, the main draw wasn’t just the amazing cockpit but also its online capability.

It wasn’t long until other publishers like Sega decided to get in on the act. Learning from Banpresto’s example, Border Break was birthed along with a new arcade board called the Ring Edge. Sega also didn’t miss a trick either, instead of having a theatrically huge cockpit they instead opted for a smaller and more standardised cabinet, whilst also upping the potency of the board that would run the game (as Senjo no Kizuna’s was suitably basic in a graphical sense, which is why its PSP port was even feasible). However, to classify Border Break as a mere herd following cash-in would be a great injustice. To be perfectly frank, Border Break is probably one of the most refreshing mecha games seen this decade.

One of the most potent “original generation” mecha in Super Robot Wars is finally getting the figure treatment. Specifically the RaiOh from Alpha 3 will be released in June of 2010 for 15,750 yen. In addition, this is a Dengeki Hobby magazine exclusive item with a fixed pre-order period ending on the 15th February. Thankfully, Tokyo Hunter is taking orders so you’re not completely stuffed when it comes to tracking one down. There’s no word of RaiOh’s upgraded form, that of DaiRaiOh, making a similar leap to toy form but we can always hope. In any case, we’ve also included some game footage from Alpha 3 below of the RaiOh and DaiRaiOh taking a few names.

In addition, Terada-san (one of Super Robot Wars’ producers) recently announced in the series’ official blog that a new and as yet unannounced game will be released sometime in 2010. Here’s hoping it’s a shiny new 2D effort on either the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

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You may remember a while back that we posted about a collection of classic mecha gaming gashapon released by Takara Tomy. Truth be told, most of the figures in the set were pretty woeful but a few weren’t. Notably, that of the assaults suits from both Leynos and Valken. It seems that the Japanese online shop, AmiAmi, is releasing a custom desert camouflage Valken figure from the same line. In addition to sporting a new colour scheme the toy also has the booster pack attached to its rear. This was seen in the second mission of Assaults Suits Valken (or Cybernator as it was released in the West). The figure will be released in March 2010 for 1000 yen, though you can pre-order it now from AmiAmi. Many thanks to Matthew Hawkins (aka Fort90) for pointing this out.

Bandai have recently released a new Nintendo DS stylus set and DSi pouch via their Plex subsidiary. Entitled the “Touch Pen G” set, the package contains two styluses, both from the RX-78-2 Gundam’s weapon loadout; that of its beam sabre and beam rifle. Following on from that there are two DSi pouches called the “Smart Pouch G” set, in either Federation or Zeon colours. Admittedly, the Gundam’s beam sabre and rifle may look a tad odd within a Zeon styled pouch but it’s a small sacrifice when you think that each time you touch your DS screen you can shout in your best Tohru Furuya impression; “soko da!”.

Valve’s Steam digital download service has been having a holiday sale, with daily deals with extreme price discounts, and one of today’s is Mr. Robot for $1.99, down from the usual $9.99. Mr. Robot isn’t what I would normally term a “mecha game”, per se, but more of an Western adventure/puzzle game with some fairly good mechanic designs, but at the current price point I figured I’d let the terminology slide. It’s developed by Moonpod, an indie company who also produced the excellent Starscape, and Mr. Robot was released to what were excessively positive reviews for an indie title at the time of its release.

Even if you aren’t interested in Mr. Robot, checking out Steam’s daily deals until January 3rd is definitely advised, because some of the price drops are extreme, even for a few fairly recent titles. While I and many others don’t feel secure with the idea of owning a digital copy of a game over a physical copy, getting hot titles for a fifth of the price makes the idea a lot easier to swallow.

The upcoming Heavy Guard Type II kit from Border Break has been previewed over at GA Graphic. As with all Kotobukiya kits, the sculpt appears to be very accurate and the Heavy Guard Type II will make a nice addition to the other, almost released, Border Break kit; the Cougar Type I. We’ll also be reviewing Border Break in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that. This kit will be released in March 2010 for a very reasonable 3675 yen, you can also pre-order this kit here.

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.

The Crysis mod almost three years in the making, MechWarrior Living Legends is now finally out in Beta form. For those eager to get cracking with the mod, a list of download mirrors is available here, though you’ll need an account on their forum to access the thread in question. Admittedly, the mod has been delayed over a year now but considering that this is being done for free by a collection of dedicated fans means that the rest of us should learn to be more patient. In any case, they’ve done a truly splendid job and it shows that fan based work is by no means to be sniffed at. It’s also worth noting that this mod is not to be confused with the upcoming multi-platform MechWarrior reboot, though it does seem to give Piranha Games’ effort a graphical run for its money.

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For those that have followed the Armored Core games over the years, many of you will know that Shoji Kawamori penned much of the mecha design. However, in the newer games such as Armored Core 4 and For Answer his role was almost non-existent. Instead From Software opted to use the very talented in-house illustrator, Yuzo Kojima. That said, in the case of For Answer, Kawamori was called back to create one specific design; that of Line Ark’s White Glint.

Due to the fact that it was such a strikingly elegant design, White Glint consequently adorned all the packaging and was exclusively featured in the opening CG movie (which we’ve included at the end of the review). So, when Kotobukiya were announcing they were releasing a model kit of the design earlier in the year many fans were suitably happy with the news. What follows is a photo review of the kit in a partially painted form, followed by fully painted photos.

Over at GA Graphic, they’ve previewed the upcoming 1/100 scale Hi-Metal Fire Valkyrie toy from Macross 7. The toy is interesting on several counts, firstly is that it’s rebooting the Hi-Metal line from the early 80’s and second is that the finish is especially accurate for a toy of this size. The Fire Valkyrie did already receive toys and kits around the time of Macross 7’s release but the toy was woefully proportioned and the kits required almost total disassembly for transformation. This toy, on the other hand, is remarkably accurate to the original design and isn’t overly large either (normally detailing requires larger moulds). Naturally, the Fire Valkyrie was featured in both Macross Ace Frontier and Ultimate Frontier on the PSP but the unit obviously had to play very differently as Nekki Basara doesn’t actually shoot any enemies in the series, instead choosing to sing at them whilst piloting his custom Valkyrie with a guitar. In any case, the toy is released in January 2010 and costs 7350 yen, you can buy it here.