One of the first Revoltech toys we bought was the pretty damn great Overman King Gainer (we even have the Xan too). Well, for those that missed out, the figure is getting re-released in October. Now whilst King Gainer has graced many a game over the years, the big gaming deal about the design is that it was penned by Akira Yasuda (of Street Fighter fame, amongst many other things). It’s also a very unconventional mecha design and that’s one of the reasons we like it so much. Anyway, we can recommend this figure to pretty much everyone, so pick it up once it is re-released later this year.

So it looks like we’ll be getting a few Virtual On Force VR’s and a Virtual On themed area added to the recently released Phantasy Star Online 2. It’s worth clarifying that these are just costumes for player characters and aren’t actually full blown VRs in the traditional sense. The Virtual On lobby will be opened at the end of July until the middle of August. A promo video of the new costumes are shown below, they kick in around the 2:31 mark.

Following on from the somewhat improved set of DLC for Gundam Side Stories, there’s now a new mobile suit out. Specifically that of the mighty RX-79[G]Ez-8 Gundam Ez8 from the 08th MS Team OVA. At 300 yen it’s a bit cheaper than usual but this is likely because it shares animation and weapons from the already existing Ground Gundam types in the game. That said, the model is all new and that is something at least.

Following on from the last batch of disappointing DLC for Gundam Side Stories, we now have a new set released. Featuring the YMS-15 Gyan this is at least a new mobile suit rather than just cheap re-skin. Focused around close combat, the Gyan was a formidable mobile suit in the original Gundam series. It’s also more of a classic design for the fans and so that is at least something to be happy about. There’s also a new VR Mission available now too and it looks like a decent challenge as well.

Well we now have some cheap knock off DLC, as the G3 Gundam is a playable DLC unit in Gundam Side Stories. The reason this is basically a knock-off DLC pack is because the G3 is basically a re-coloured version of the standard RX-78-2 Gundam. Used at the end of the novel version by Amuro Ray, it’s just a higher performance version of the regular Gundam. Normally the G3 is given as an unlockable unit but clearly Bandai Namco are just being lazy/greedy this time around. At 400 yen it’s also a bit ridiculously priced too. A video of it in action is linked below.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a toy from one of our favourite anime series, that of Aura Battle Dunbine to review. Specifically, the Robot Damashii Zwarth that’s on sale. In addition, to give the toy some context, we’ve also linked gameplay and anime footage of it in action at the end of the review.

Following on from the Layzner Mk2 announced recently, Bandai will also be releasing a Layzner with V-MAX parts early next year. This is a partial re-release of the original Layzner toy from 2007, just with a different set of armor to swap out. This is also a toy of the first Layzner and doesn’t have the parts to build the New Layzner seen towards the end of the show. The base also doesn’t talk or light up on this new version either. In addition to all this we recently finally received the final fansubbed episodes for the show. Whilst we don’t normally post fansub links, Layzner is somewhat special and we’re just happy more people can finally see this great series.

Following on from the Gundam Unicorn themed DLC for Gundam Side Stories we now have the second set released today on PSN. This includes some new VR missions as well as two new mobile suits; the Pezun Dowadge and the Efreet Nacht. We’re sorta meh on the former but the later is cool as we enjoyed Gundam Senki 0081. This could also mean we might get some 7th Gundam DLC too, which would be pretty nice. Talking of VR missions, the game is actually better without all the story stuff getting in the way. Much like the older PS2 Gundam games, the core gameplay on its own holds up much better than when it has to tell a story. This was true in Journey to Jaburo with the Tactics Battle setup, that later basically made up the backbone of the far better Lost War Chronicles. Without all the manky cutscenes to ruin the ambiance, Side Stories is actually really solid.

So since Gundam Side Stories launched it’s been getting pretty terrible user reviews. Now in Japan these tend to have more weight with fans, more so than press reviews in fact, but this also means that we’ve already seen some initial price cuts. Whilst this is not an official reduction, a 40% decrease in price is pretty massive. Admittedly this is for the standard edition of the game, as the limited edition is still at full price, but even then this is pretty serious. It’s likely this has happened because outlets like Amazon have excess stock they need to shift, as the user reviews have relegated the game to the online bargain bin. Whether this price cut will shift over to importers is unlikely though, at least for the interim. In terms of sales, the game has done sorta average (at around 80k in its first few days). In any case, we ‘re hoping Bandai Namco will learn from this episode and either give these games a bigger budget or focus the scope to use the budget they already have.

One of the biggest mistakes Gundam games make is when they try and put you in the shoes of a Newtype. It always ends up being disappointing as it is an impossible thing to get right. We’re not meant to be Newtypes, not yet anyway, and Gundam games should acknowledge this.

This is where the Blue Destiny trilogy came in. Released across three mini-games, they placed you as a grunt GM pilot on the front-lines. Not only that, you got it all via a faithfully claustrophobic first person cockpit view. Put simply, this approached nailed what the Gundam mythos was about in a way that hadn’t been done before. It’s also one of the best Gundam games ever made.