News: Armored Core V Top of the Japanese Charts
Well, the sales figures for Armored Core V's first week in Japan are out. For the PS3 version, the game shipped a respectable 163,906 units placing it at the top of the...
News: Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen Site Opened
The official Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen site is now open for business. Whilst there are no promo videos as yet, it does collate all the new series featured and their...
News: Web Power Dolls Gets New Mecha
The new browser based Web Power Dolls will be getting a new mecha, as designed by ToMo. Above is a sketch of a lighter weight mecha with more hard points. Its primary...
News: Mobile Suit Gundam Alpha Test Results
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...
Kits: Nineball (Armored Core Ver.)
To commemorate the release of Armored Core V today and courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we've been sent the Nineball (Armored Core Ver.) kit from the original...
The official Super Robot Wars Z 2 Saisei-hen site is now open for business. Whilst there are no promo videos as yet, it does collate all the new series featured and their respective screenshots (which are also duplicated over at Game Watch, minus the flash leprosy obviously). We’re just glad that Final Dancouga is still present and correct. That said, seeing the mighty Shin Mazinger Z sporting its God Scrander (pictured above) brings warmth to our heart. This being the same God Scrander that in its post-modernist brilliance actually transforms Mazinger Z into a giant rocket propelled fist. We can also highly recommend the Soul of Chogokin toy too, if you can find it. Anyway, the game is still set for its April 5th release and you can pre-order it here.
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.
As expected, we now have the second part to the awesome Super Robot Wars Z 2. Titled Saisai-hen, it will continue the narratives of the multitude of mecha series featured in the first game (which we utterly adored). However, there is one new addition to the roster that has caught our eye, specifically that of Taiyo no Shisha Tetsujin 28-go from 1980 (pictured above). It’s an interesting choice and one we wholeheartedly approve of. Though to be fair, we’re more excited to play with the ATM-09-DD Burglary Dog from Shining Heresy, as many of the series involved will receive the latter part of their mechanical menu in the game. In terms of the game’s release, it’s still on the PSP and will be out on 5th April for the pretty steep price of 7,330 yen. For those that pre-order the game, they’ll also receive a lovely digest book for their trouble. In addition, your save data from Hakai-hen will net you more cash and other bonuses in Saisei-hen. Depending on your clear count of the first game, those bonuses will change too apparently. Considering that Banpresto are still pushing the whole 20th Anniversary of SRW (despite the fact that it was actually last year), expect big things for this release. For us though, April can’t come soon enough.
We’re now but a few days away from the release of Lord of Elemental II: Revelation of Evil God. There have also been a few recent updates over at 4Gamer too, showing that the intermission screens will have characters talking to you (which is nice) and the ability to rank up your upgrades for your weapons. The latter basically seems to work after you’ve maxed out an attack, so you can make it even more uber. More importantly the game is release this Thursday and you can buy it here. Don’t forget that you can also get the boxset, also sold here, that features the first Lord of Elemental game too.
4Gamer has the news that both Super Robot Wars Alpha and Alpha Gaiden hit the PSN store yesterday for 1,500 yen a piece. The Alpha series was a shift for the SRW series in terms of the difficulty (as in not fascistically impossible) and used more elaborate battle animations. It was also one of the first SRW games to feature the mighty variable fighters from Macross. As with the other SRW archived games on PSN these can also be played on your PSP. Annoyingly, the PS Vita doesn’t do PSone archived games as yet (though weirdly it does do the PC Engine games) but we’re pretty sure it won’t be long until they’re PS Vita compatible. Finally, the article also talks of a 20th Anniversary event on the 18th March next year. No details really on what the event will be but we’re assuming that JAM Project will be present to scream their awesome lungs out.
There’s a new shiny update over at 4Gamer for Lord of Elemental II: Revelation of Evil God. It covers a variety of new characters in the game as well as highlighting some interesting aspects in regards to moving around the landscape. Specifically, if the element for a certain machine corresponds to water, then it will be able to move more easily through and thus cover more distance. It also seems that this effect can be passed over to other units too. As always, it’s looking very pretty still and don’t forget you can pre-order the box set here.
Over at the official Lord of Elemental II: Revelation of Evil God site, there’s now a second promo video available. Unlike other sites, Banpresto have finally decided to stream their footage via YouTube. This means we no longer have to put up with crappy laggy footage hosted on an antiquated server in Japan somewhere. The promo itself is also rather lovely too obviously and the animation is still looking insanely good. The game is still set for its January 12th release and you can pre-order the box set (of both games) here. Thanks to Spyrle for the heads-up.
4Gamer has a new update about the forthcoming Lord of Elemental II: Revelation of Evil God. Showing all manner of units featured in the game, it also hammers home after the recent promo how pretty this game will look. This is especially true of the new maps, as these appear to have had quite a large amount of work poured into them (at least as much as the combat animations). This is quite a surprise as the environments in these games often take a back seat visually.
There’s now a new promo video for Gundam Mokubo no Kiseki out. Apart from showing some rather dated FMV footage, the video does actually show a fair bit of gameplay. It’s very clear that the game’s two modes of battle will work out to be pretty interesting but what’s especially refreshing is how fluid the full battle mode appears. Basically, this looks like it could be a proper little hand-held RTS. The full video is below.
Famitsu has a new update on the forthcoming PSP Gundam strategy game Mokuba no Kiseki. Specifically it covers some of the game’s commands and in part explains the two battle modes present. In terms of the latter, it seems there is not only a wider battle mode but also a localised battle mode too. The wider battle mode allows the player to move squads of units around, whereas the localised mode allows for micro management of each pilot. Subsequently the commands are broken down between these modes. The wider battle mode commands are as follows; hidden enemy search, accelerating to cover more distance (similar to SRW) and the ability to spread Minovsky particles to cover your squad’s movements (this is what the prior “hidden enemy search” ties into as well). It’s interesting that unlike older RTS games, where the player has to investigate unknown areas this game will allow players to blanket out their presence at will. This is a really nice touch as something that’s always been missing in Gundam games is the whole way the Minovsky particle effectively rendered contemporary warfare obsolete within the context of the narrative. As for the localised commands, these are; supporting nearby allies and evacuate nearby danger. Overall, this is sounding like an interesting little strategy game and one we’ll be keeping a close eye on.