As suspected, the logo for the forthcoming PS3 game Macross 30 does indeed show the silhouette of a new a variable fighter. Now we know it’s called the YF-30 Kronos, though in the case of the latter it may either be Kronos or Chronos (as the katakana “クロノス” isn’t overly revealing on that front). We’re guessing it refers to the Titan (Kronos) rather than the god of time (Chronos) but we may be wrong on that. In any case, this variable fighter is also designed by Shoji Kawamori and is likely to be featured in the game.

The Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost website has been updated with a plethora of new mobile suits. Aside from the RX-105 Xi Gundam and the XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero, whom were previously announced, a total of five new units have been officially added to the foray. They are the YAMS-132 Rozen Zulu from Gundam Unicorn, MBF-P01-Re Astray Gold Frame Amatsu from Gundam Seed Astray, Mashymre Cello’s AMX-011S Zaku III Custom from Gundam ZZ, GN-007 Arios Gundam from Gundam 00 and the GP-03 Gundam Dendrobium (pictured above) from 0083 Stardust Memory, which was last  playable in Gundam VS Gundam Next Plus.

This coincides with the recent Full Boost mobile site leak, where even more new mobile suits are shown, including some previously mentioned. Those units are the following: XM-X3 Crossbone Gundam X-3, ZGMF-X88S Gaia Gundam, G-Armor, AMX-109 Corin Nander’s Kapool, AGX-04 Gerbera Tetra, RGM-79FC Striker Custom, and Gundam AGE-1. While not visible, the MSA-0011 S Gundam also appears to be in as well as text mentions the ALICE system that resides in the S Gundam that was featured in Gundam Sentinel.

There’s also a little surprise for Gundam Extreme Versus players out there on the PS3. “The Best” re-release will be accompanied by new DLC units on December 13th. The two units are the Xi Gundam and GP-03 Gundam Dendrobium and they will go for 500 yen each. There is also a special six pack DLC for 2,000 yen that includes the previous 6 DLC units. Hopefully Namco Bandai will continue to fill in the long void between now and the probable console release of Full Boost with more unit DLC for console players. As a huge Gundam Extreme Versus player myself, I am definitely looking forward to jumping online with these two new mobile suits.

Check the video below to see the new PS3 additions in action. If you look closely, the footage for Xi Gundam is the same as the recent Full Boost character reveal as well.

It seems that, due to a pretty serious bug found late on in development, Gunhound EX will have its release date moved to January 31st next year. Whilst delays can be somewhat irritating, this is only a month longer and the more bugs they fix the better. Personally, we don’t mind waiting as we loved the original PC game and we don’t want either Dracue or G.Rev rushing a release. Don’t forget you can still preorder both the standard version and limited edition, the latter comes with a soundtrack and small artbook.

Looks like Heero Yuy is the latest pilot in Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost to have two units in the game. The TV version of Wing Gundam Zero is the next playable mobile suit to be unlocked in December as a 3000 cost unit.  The last time we saw a playable Wing Zero in the Gundam Versus series was in Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus.  It will be interesting to see what new tricks are added to Heero’s new suit considering Wing Zero Custom has taken some of its moves from the Next Plus iteration of Wing Zero.

New bosses such as Big Zam and a new form of Extreme Gundam and the Sanc Kingdom map will also be included in the game’s next update.

We’ve been meaning to post our impressions on Hawken since the NDA was lifted for the closed alpha and beta testers (of which we were one). As we’ve been quite busy, it took us a while to get around to this. Whilst we’ve had all manner of weird PR about the game trying to make out it isn’t a mecha game, the truth is that this is very much an old school hardcore mecha game (in the best possible sense). What follows are our impressions from playing the alpha and beta builds.

What with the release of 2nd Super Robot Wars OG next week, 4Gamer have a great piece featuring some of the more classic units in the game. From the mecha seen in the Masoukishin games to the mighty Raioh from Alpha 3 (shown above). Just seeing Raioh again in-game brings back so many fond memories. In addition, there’s a new 14 minute digest movie showing the game in action (linked below). More of a straight playthrough than a swanky trailer, you get to see the game as it is. Don’t forget you can still pre-order your copy here.

Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo has broken Japanese 2012 box office records since being released last week on November 16. The third installment of the Rebuild of Evangelion has brought in $13.9 million in its opening two days, claiming the title of the biggest opening weekend in Japanese cinema this year. The title is expected to surpass the earnings of the other two titles with 1.0 earning $25 million in 2007, and 2.0 earning $50 million in 2009.

Evangelion 1.0 and 2.0 were previously featured in Super Robot Wars L. Perhaps we might get some of the newer units and storyline from 3.0 in a future Super Robot Wars sequel. Still no official word as to when 3.0 will be released in the West.

On the 26th November the increasingly awesome Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost will have the RX-105 Xi Gundam added to its ranks (as a 3000 point weighted unit). This is a mobile suit piloted by Bright Noah’s son Hathaway in the series of novels called Hathaway’s Flash. The mecha designs were also penned by Moriki Yasuhiro, of Zeorymer fame, and were aesthetically quite distinctive. The Xi Gundam has been in a fair few games over the years but rarely in action orientated titles, the last time we got to play with the unit was in the rather good Gundam Battle Universe on PSP. So to have it directly playable again is something we’re pretty excited about. A short video of it action in Full Boost is shown below.

It seems that we’ll be getting a PSN game archive release of Virtual On Marz next year. This was a pseudo-port of Force on the PS2 that had a rather broken singleplayer campaign. What’s interesting is that this will have support for HORI’s upcoming PS3 TwinStick peripheral. Now, we’ve played the game on a pair of modded Saturn sticks and it does indeed play a lot better, so to have something that offers the same thing in an official capacity is a good thing. Still no word of an Oratan or Force release on the PS3 but this is at least a step in the right direction.

In the December 2012 issue of Arcadia Magazine, listing its most recent top ten most popular arcade games, Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost finds its way to the top of the list (with Under Night In-Birth and the new Guilty Gear arcade revision rounding out the top three). Amusement Journal also lists Full Boost as the highest earning small cabinet arcade game for the period of late August to early September 2012.

The Gundam Extreme Versus series is no stranger to steady popularity as the first iteration of Extreme Versus was arguably the most popular Japanese arcade game in 2011. Earlier in the year, the April edition of Arcadia Magazine listed Full Boost in second place behind Persona 4 U. With the RX-105 Xi Gundam from Hathaway’s Flash listed as the next unit unlock and still many more to follow (AMX-109 Kapool Corin Nander Custom from the intro for example), Full Boost looks to have a steady reign over the Japanese arcades until the end of the year. Here’s to hoping we hear of a console version soon.