After much anticipation, the new and updated promo video for Another Century’s Episode R was shown in Akihabara today. This is the longer promo that stores use to promote game and as such is over twelve minutes long and features predominantly gameplay footage – something that hadn’t been seen until now. There are a fair few interesting developments but the first major one is the open inclusion of the Original Generation of Super Robot Wars mecha, such as the Cybuster, Alteisen Riese and ART-1. Admittedly these aren’t the first OG mecha to be featured, as the Gespenst Mark II appeared in the original ACE back in 2005, but these new OG mecha are featuring full characterisation for their pilots and haven’t appeared in an ACE game before.

Moving on from that, there are a fair few important functional clarifications to be made. Notably that the “chase mode” is actually an on-rails shooter section and that the boost gauge is ominously absent throughout much of the footage – to the extent that much of the encounters seem to be heavily scripted from a camera and lock-on perspective. This is something that does concern us, as the original ACE games afforded a large amount of freedom in terms of movement and removing that would be a functional regression really. This could be easily explained due to the selection of the footage in the video however, as it mostly shows the more flamboyant aspects of the mecha rather than full-on moment to moment gameplay. It also seems that each series also has its corresponding base ship too now, from the Argama to even the Macross Quarter. In any case, the new promo shows the game to be incredibly impressive and we’ll be eagerly picking this game up on its August 19th release. Don’t forget that you can also pre-order the game here.

In Japan they’ve got both a full sized Gundam and a full sized Tetsujin 28-go, plus coming soon a full sized EVA, or the head at least (more on that soon). Meanwhile China, one can find a full sized Optimus Prime.

The sculpture looks far closer to the Michael Bay version it’s modeled after than the Taiwan counterpart from earlier this year, though it’s still made of the same basic elements: spare car parts and other bits of junk. Coming in at 40 feet in height and 6 tons in weight, the Autobot’s commander in chief is the centerpiece of the newly opened Green Dream Park, located northwest of the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium, which hosted the Olympics in Beijing two years ago. The park features a wide variety of environmentally conscious objects, all utilizing recycled materials, to help encourage the nation to act and think green in a similar fashion.

Folks who actually dig the live action movie design will surely be impressed, while the rest of us will shrug out shoulders and state “eh, it’s alright… I guess?” And for those wondering why no one had yet to tackle the G1 version, it’s been done already, in China as well, but it didn’t turn out so hot…

The upcoming arcade game Gundam Extreme Versus has finally had its official site updated, along with a Twitter feed to go along with it. Thankfully, they’ve opted for a more traditional site (over a flash based monstrosity) so we can link to pages directly, such as the game’s current MS List. This is slightly curious though, as we saw a V2 Assault Buster Gundam in the location test videos a few months back but the MS is noticeably absent from the list (as is the Unicorn Gundam, despite adorning the site’s main page art). In any case, we’ll be keeping an eye on this game over the coming months especially considering that a PS3 port is very likely at some point.

We’ve been keeping an eye on the upcoming anime TV series Mokei Senshi Gunpla Builders Beginning G for a while now. Meant to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Gunpla, it features a model kit building protagonist flanked by his tubby hamburger eating friend (which is quite realistic) and his female love interest (obviously not very realistic). What’s interesting is that despite the vast amount of product placement at work here, the characters seem to play out their Gunpla differences via matches in Senjou no Kizuna. With the main villain piloting a custom coloured Hi-Nu Gundam it will be interesting to see how this series is received by the Japanese public. At the very least the series will highlight the broader pop-cultural context Gundam has created over the years and that gaming is still the means by which people can actually pilot a mobile suit.

4Gamer have managed to cover two new gameplay videos for Carnage Heart EXA. The first video shows the traditional AI controlled OKEs battling it out based of the programming they’ve been given, whereas the second video shows the manual control mode in action. It’s clear that Artdink’s recent mecha gaming expertise on the PSP has paid dividends with EXA. Whilst we were deeply disappointed with Gundam Assault Survive, it’s nice to see Artdink go back to their roots like this and it’s clear from this videos that EXA will be excellent.

A fair few places are covering this year’s Tokyo Toy Show, with Dengeki Online’s contribution being pretty thorough. From the upcoming Super Robot Chogokin Cybuster, pictured above and featured in the recent Nintendo DS port of The Lord of Elemental, to the Composite Ver. Ka Temjin, it’s clear that mecha gaming has had quite the impact on the Japanese toy community in recent years.

4Gamer has some new coverage for the upcoming 360 port of Virtual On Force. Despite showing the four-player splitscreen mode, the above screenshot was of more interest really. For those that may not know, that’s a picture of TWO Jaguarandi’s against a MBV-04-10/80adv “10/80 ADV”. The best description for the above picture is probably along the lines of “incongruously terrifying”. This somewhat insane screenshot actually shows a special mission in progress, which is interesting as it’s something Virtual On Marz attempted as well, in terms of its level structure at least. Having a 10/80adv pitted against the Force era Jaguarandi’s does seem brutally unfair though.

SiliconEra has an interview with Shinji Hashimoto, producer of Front Mission Evolved, teasing some sort of cross-promotion with Hideo Kojima and his PlayStation Portable game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

This cross-promotion seems to be in addition to an already announced cross-promotion between the two games, where items unlocked in Peace Walker will be available in Front Mission Evolved, and/or vice versa. Considering the very different nature of the two games’ mecha, I’m wondering how this will actually work; if it’s robot-to-robot part swapping it could look awkward, albeit possibly interesting. The mecha in Peace Walker are heavy tank-like walkers and reworked versions of Metal Gear Solid 3’s Shagohod, while Front Mission Evolved’s mecha conform more to the Real Robot standard of quick-moving humanoid weapons, equipped with thrusters and ground rollers.

I wouldn’t mind the big secret being a face-off against the venerable Metal Gear REX from the original Metal Gear Solid. I’ve been waiting years to go mano-a-mano (well, mecha-to-mecha) against that monster without support from an insane cyborg ninja. Getting help from an insane cyborg ninja always felt like cheating.

A somewhat disgruntled Satoshi Kubo recently mentioned that a new Super Robot Wars anime is on the way and that he’s not working on the project due to the involvement of one Masami Obari (pictured above with the Max Gohkin Dragonar 1). Despite Kubo’s somewhat petulant demeanour, the news of an Obari helmed super robot show is most welcome. As Obari has pretty much encapsulated the “hero spirit” in much of his mecha designs. Admittedly, he’s faltered somewhat in recent years as Dancouga Nova was pretty underwhelming, especially compared to the brilliant original. In any case, a new Super Robot Wars anime normally heralds a big game release and a proper 2D PS3 or 360 game is long overdue (XO doesn’t count, as that was effectively a GameCube port). That said, we just want Obari to go back and pitch Dai Mazinger again.

Update: It appears that a new SRW game on the PS3 may surface at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, which ties in with the release of this new anime quite nicely.

The wonderful full size Real Grade Gundam is nearing the final stages of completion in its new home of Shizuoka. Over at Gundam.info, they’ve also got a new set of night time photos showing off the new beam saber in action. What’s curious is that the light source inside appears to be a form of arcing plasma (similar to those in a plasma lamp). If the frequency of the arcs are fast enough you could get quite a nice dramatic effect. The Gundam will be open to the public again from July 24th 2010 till January 10th 2011.