4Gamer has a really nice report on the Premium Dogfight event that happened for Gundam Extreme Versus last year. Not only did players duke it out in a tournament on the current game, the development team were also present to talk about Full Boost. The latter sounds even more intense now, as the gameplay mechanics appear to be even more immediate and visceral. Considering how fast paced the current game is, it will be interesting to see how far the team at Byking will push it further. On top of that Full Boost will receive a new opening song called Fight It Out Feat.K (Pay Money To My Pain) by Akihiro Namba and Takeshi Ueda (audio clip below). If we’re honest, we’re a bit disappointed that Linkin Park didn’t do it especially as they’re such big Gundam fans (especially of the UC timeline). Finally, the Extreme Gundam (aka: that annoying boss in the current game) has received its own serialised manga in Gundam ACE called Gundam EXA. If you’re still on the fence about getting the PS3 port of the current game, then have a read of our review and remember you can still buy the game here.

Towards the end of last year an alpha test was carried out on Mobile Suit Gundam Online. Today, we received the results. Of those that signed up, 1,269 opted to play in the Federation whereas 1,320 chose to join Zeon. Despite the slight numerical advantage, the Feddies were more often than not victorious over the Zeeks (Go Feds!). There are also a fair few comments from the testers asking for various features, though whether any of these come to fruition remains to be seen. Another test phase is planned for the end of February apparently and no final release date has been set.

Despite a somewhat unfortunate release date, sharing it with Armored Core V of all things, Gundam Mokubo no Kiseki will be gracing Japanese shops sometime today (as it’s already “tomorrow” in Japan due to the time difference). 4Gamer commemorates this brave release date with yet another update about the game. We’re definitely interested in picking this game up eventually and review it but we’re going to be pretty busy with Armored Core V for a good while. In the meantine you can still pre-order the game here.

Following the recent promo video, we now have a slew of new screenshots for the upcoming Gundam Unicorn game as developed by From Software. In addition to the shiny new screenshots there are some interesting tidbits too. Namely that the previously mentioned DLC for the Hyakushiki-esque MSN-001 Delta Gundam (pictured above) will be available in the first pressings of an HGUC kit of the mobile suit this August. Not only will the mobile suit have its own mission but it also seems that it will be piloted by Quattro Vagina. Following on from this, in addition to the ability to upgrade your units you’ll also be able to customise their weapon load-out too. With some weapons offering a multi-lock feature. There’s also a slightly odd mention of using asteroids for cover, how this will work will be interesting to see as it sounds like it’s a similar snap-to affair as in Gears of War. Finally, emblems (with extra functional bonuses) will also be available in the game.

Whilst there was a bit of criticism over the graphical fidelity shown in the promo, we’re actually pretty impressed with the game thus far. Bear in mind the host work is animated, so a photo-realistic approach would actually be unfaithful and the game is also considerably cheaper than that of other PS3 releases. That said, we’re more interested in the way the game appears to be more manual in terms of control. So all this graphical willy waving is somewhat lost on us.

The upcoming Gundam Unicorn game developed by From Software has received it’s first promo. Clocking in at over 5 minutes, almost the entirety of it features in game footage from cutscenes to actual gameplay. The latter is the most interesting as it shows something a bit similar to the older Another Century’s Episode games but without what looks like a tethered lock system (in fact the game looks an awful lot more manual, bar the melee). In any case, we’re seriously interested in getting our hands on this now and what with it released at the beginning of March we haven’t long to wait. The full promo is shown below.

The third batch of DLC for Gundam Extreme Versus has been updated over at the official site. The new suits featured are the MSN-02 Zeong and the ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam at 500 yen a piece. In addition to this are the additional missions, as per the other updates (these are found in the “Extra” section in the Trial Missions menu in case you were wondering). One big difference about this new set of DLC is that as a thank you for the game’s good sales the Hi-Nu Gundam will now be available for free. This was originally a pre-order bonus unit but now the slow pokes can enjoy the suitably uber mobile suit too. All of these updates will occur on the 26th January.

Update: 4Gamer has a nice set of screenshots for the forthcoming DLC too.

4Gamer has a new update regarding the forthcoming Gundam Seed Battle Destiny for the PS Vita. Naturally, this will be part of the long running Gundam Battle series so for those familiar with the games Artdink are promising more of (roughly) the same. Nothing new in terms of the information about the game over the intro piece in Famitsu but there are more and larger screenshots of the game. It’s planned release will be sometime in Spring this year.

Since its release in Japan on December 1st, Gundam Extreme Versus has sold over half a million units. What’s interesting about this is that Japan basically shuts down for a week over the New Year, so these sales figures occurred in spite of that. As we saw in the arcades, it has garnered a very large and loyal following. If anything the two versions, console and arcade, have mutually aided one another it seems. The console version’s DLC will also factor into the success of Full Boost, as many of the new units will be appearing in that too. So there’s already some cross promotion going on. Talking of DLC, we’ve been playing around with PMX-003 The O and it’s nice to see the PMX-001 Palace Athene (pictured above) again. In any case, we’re glad to see the game doing well.

One of the classic Yutaka Izubuchi Gundam designs is finally getting the Robot Damashii treatment. That of the suitably majestic RX-93 Nu Gundam from Char’s Counterattack. To list the number of games and systems this mecha has appeared in would be a bit silly, as it’s basically been in pretty much everything. Like the RX-78-2 before it, the Nu Gundam is as iconic as it marks the closing chapter of Amuro and Char’s conflict and it is one of the few Federation mobile suits to employ Newtype controlled funnels. Anyway, we’re big fans of the design and normally, when it comes to Bandai’s business, the Hi-Nu Gundam normally follows suit (as the two designs share a similar base, of sorts). We’re putting money that the eventual Hi-Nu Gundam toy will be an online only purchase though, through Bandai’s premium online store. Anyway, the toy is out in April and you can pre-order it here.

Welcoming in the new year, Bandai Entertainment in the US let this drop on our doorstep. Followed by a pretty insightful interview, what’s effectively happened is that we are no longer getting a Western release for the rather special Turn A Gundam. If you remember, this was something we were pretty happy about when it was announced way back in 2010. The fact that Bandai Entertainment is effectively pulling out of selling and distributing anime outside of Japan is definitely a hammer blow for people who enjoy the medium abroad though and Turn A Gundam is just a deeply unfortunate casualty of that.