In a move that’s more than a little bit uplifting, Capcom it seems haven’t entirely abandoned the Lost Planet series. A new Capcom developed cel shaded and anime styled game called E.X. Troopers has been announced. Both 4Gamer and Famitsu have the scoop, along with a nice promo trailer (shown below). Functionally it looks a bit more arcadey in places, with the player dashing around a bit now, but it’s still very much a Lost Planet game. Especially as many recognisable Akrid are present not to mention the all important Vital Suits. Released on both PS3 and 3DS, the game will also be playable at this year’s Capcom Summer Jam. Interestingly, Shintaro Kojima (the game’s producer) also worked on the Monster Hunter series so expect even more of that type of functionality in this game. It also seems that May’n, of Macross Frontier fame, will involved musically too. In any case, our faith in Lost Planet has been reaffirmed and we can’t wait for this when it’s released later this year.

Hasegawa have announced the first of possibly three new Myzr kits from Virtual On Marz. Specifically that of the YZR-8004 Myzr Delta IV Type R “Fair Bianca” as piloted by Sylvie Fang. One of the Three Splendid Roses, the the mecha were distinctly moe (even back in 2003) and having them swing their sassy mecha hips was pretty odd even back then. In any case, we’re just glad another splendid Hasegawa VR kit is on the way. This is also obviously based on their prior Myzr kit and as such will similarly transform. Our personal favourite VR from Marz is still the godly Shirokis Temjin. In any case this Fair Bianca kit is out in June for a reasonable 6,720 yen and as always you can pre-order it here.

Gundam Battle Operation has received a new ground combat trailer. Showing off the human sized combat, the trailer doesn’t exactly help to assuage our fears. Whilst it’s the same team behind Gundam Senki 0081, we’re definitely getting flashbacks to the pretty awful Gundam Operation Troy. That said, since the beta a bunch of changes have gone in. From visible enemy life gauges to more easily visible hit markers and stun grenades for foot soldiers (the latter being in the trailer). The stun grenades look to be a pretty handy option but seem a bit overpowered in the trailer, as they cripple a mobile suit pretty effectively. The game is meant to be released sometime at the end of June but no specific date has been set as yet.

One of our most anticipated kits is that of Volks’ upcoming IMS LED Mirage V3 from the wondrous Five Star Stories. Now we know that not only will it be released early next year but the price tag comes in at 23,100 yen. There was also a recent pre-order bonus, that finished yesterday, where you not only got a small price reduction (at 19,950 yen) but also a nice die-cast metal speid included too. Unlike the other Volks garage kits, this is part of the injection plastic range and is consequently a lot cheaper than if it were made of resin. The final kit is also pretty damn large as it clocks in at around 30cm in height. In any case, this kit looks to have a truly exquisite sculpt and we can’t wait to get one of our own when it’s finally released.

A nice new promo for Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost has been uploaded by those nice people at Namco Bandai. At over 6 minutes it features a variety of new mobile suits as well as many familiar ones. The latter are also pretty interesting as it seems that many of them have had some new moves added, which is a nice touch. We also got pretty excited to see the MS-08TX(EXAM) Efreet Custom shown in a cool intro movie (something that each series got in the previous game) but our hopes were dashed against sharp pointy rocks when it wasn’t shown in game. Hopefully we’ll get to see it in action sometime soon. In any case, the full promo is shown below.

The recent alpha test for Mobile Suit Gundam Online has been given a full on report, coupled with a pretty interesting in-game video. In short, the game plays like a standard TPS, with WASD and mouse control (something you can pretty much deduce from the video below). Whilst it does look a bit dated what the game is doing technically is no mean feat; as it handles over a hundred online players per match. Our only real concern is the strange and rather excessive use of motion blur, hopefully that will get toned down at some point. Still no news on a release date for this but it’s expected sometime this year.

A new event has been announced for the forthcoming Zone of the Enders HD Collection. Called “Zone of the Enders HD Night Fastest in the Universe Reboot Preview” it will be held on May 25th at the Shijuku Wald 9 theatre. Most of the key staff will be there too. Tickets for the event will cost 3,000 yen and will be purchasable through Konami Style starting May 2nd at 10am. Following on from this, more places have started to show off the upcoming Jehuty HD Edition kit from Kotobukiya. As always, the sculpt looks utterly spot on. Considering that over ten years have passed since the original game was released and the only models available were hideously expensive garage kits, it’s nice to think that we’ll actually have a choice now. You can pre-order the HD edition kit here.

For a third week running, the suitably awesome Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen is in the top of the Japanese charts yet again. This isn’t wholly surprising but it is testament to the fact that the game is genuinely very good indeed. It also illustrates another fine point; that no hardware is truly dead and software is all important in a platform’s success. Listening to all the hardware naysayers over the years, it’s now very clear that much of their outlook is desperately parochial.

That aside, we’ve subsequently done numerous repeated playthroughs on the game since our review and it gets better with each sitting. Our favourite unit, by quite a large margin, is also the suitably godlike YF-29 Durandal. Admittedly it’s only available towards the end of the game and then only via a secret unlock, but even so it’s just so damn awesome. The animations are also pretty amazing too. We cannot stress enough how much this game needs to be in your life right now, so buy it already.

In a cool community based move, From Software are running an emblem design contest for Armored Core V. The winners will receive a “special award” as well as have the emblems included in a free DLC emblem pack. Unfortunately, the means by which you submit the emblems requires you to use the ACV Link feature. This is something that’s only available in the Japanese release of the game and links the game to your profile over at the Armored Core Official Partnership site. The contest will finish on the 10th May at 3pm.

Before people get all pissy at this, first blame Namco Bandai for removing the feature and second shout at them (not From Software) to include it. Since the game’s release abroad, From Software have been blamed for a bizarre amount of the community issues with the game. When in reality that’s Namco Bandai’s responsibility, something they massively dropped the ball on no less.

That said, Namco Bandai did manage to sort out a preview of all five of the bosses this weekend. Normally bosses only trigger due to territorial disputes but considering the fact that we’re still waiting for the patch, they unlocked them a little early to help appease the now pretty pissed fanbase. The bosses are a partial nod to the Arms Forts in Armored Core For Answer but more a reference to the old massive MT’s players used to face in the original games. Whilst it’s recommended to play against them with four players, you can actually take them out on your own (normally with some judicious usage of Overed Weapons).

For those that buy the first release of the forthcoming Macross Do You Remember Love BluRay Hybrid Boxset, they’ll also get a nice PSN download code for the original PSone shooter. Originally released on the Saturn and then ported to the PSone, it was actually a pretty damn good shoot-em-up and we very much enjoyed blasting our way through it back in good old 1999. It even came with demos for Macross VF-X2 and Patlabor: Game Edition. What was very notable about the game however was its use of some lovely reanimated cutscenes (as produced by Gonzo).

There’s also a pretty cool exhibition going on in Shibuya, Tokyo regarding Macross. Starting today and running until May 13th, tickets cost 500 yen each (400 yen if you’re a student and free if you’re a kid at elementary school) and it covers pretty much the whole gamut of the saga. If you’re in the area, then check out the Parco Museum page about the event for more details.

In addition to this news is the fact a lovely 5 minute HD promo for the BluRay was released yesterday (shown below). Voiced by non-other than Mika Doi (of Misa Hayase fame), the promo also has footage of the game in action too (around the 3:25 mark). Don’t forget you can still pre-order the pretty damn awesome boxset here.