Last Raven Portable received a new trailer today for its Battle TV service. These are player submitted replays that are then uploaded as videos for the public at large to see. It’s a pretty cool service, as capturing PSP footage to something like YouTube is a bit of a technical faff. The trailer nicely encapsulates the general skill seen across almost all the Battle TV videos thus far and it’s nice to see From Software supporting their large fan community like this too. Last Raven Portable will be receiving a Western digital release via PSN at the beginning of May.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a toy from Victory Gundam to review. Specifically, the Robot Damashii V2 Assault Buster Gundam. In addition, to give the toy some context, we’ve also linked some anime and gameplay footage of it in action in Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus at the end of the review.

A few places have been covering the recent release of the Metal Composite Gundam Unicorn toy as of late. Despite being a remarkable piece of engineering, some inevitable comparison shots between this toy and the previously released 1/100 scale Master Grade kit have surfaced. Now, before your brain melts out the side of your head, the Master Grade is on the left and the new Metal Composite toy is on the right. The fact that they look nigh on identical is testament to the technological advances Japanese toy production has made in the last decade. Bear in mind that the kit on the left would have had to be assembled and painted by hand, whereas a factory produced toy – which has a diecast endo-skeleton no less – looks just as good out of the box. This is why the Metal Composite toy also costs in the range of 18,000 yen but unlike a kit you can actually play with a toy without it breaking. In short this looks like the ultimate incarnation of Hajime Katoki’s brilliant design and is well worth grabbing before it goes out of stock. The Unicorn was also featured in Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus, a game we enjoyed quite a fair bit in our review.

Bandai have announced a new range of toys helmed by Hajime Katoki, hence the “Ver. Ka” suffix (as that stands for “Version Katoki”). The first in the line is the Lancelot Albion from the second season of Code Geass. Admittedly, there was a Robot Damashii variant of this design already but it seems that this version will be bigger and far more detailed.

As far as games are concerned, both the original Lancelot and the Albion upgrade were only really featured in the somewhat lacklustre Code Geass adventure games that were released on the PSP, PS2 and DS. The mecha haven’t been given an action game as yet nor featured in something like Super Robot Wars.

The mecha design in Code Geass was actually penned by the gaming luminary Yasuda Akira, or “Akiman” as he is more affectionately known. So having his work re-touched by another gaming mecha designer, in the form of Katoki, might be a little strange for him maybe (though Katoki is admittedly respected by other artists, despite his somewhat frosty demeanour). The next Ver. Ka toy in this new line will be the indomitable Gurren Lagann, which is briefly previewed at the bottom of the page linked above.

In any case, this new Albion toy will be available in June for 5040 yen and you can pre-order it here.

Gundam Assault Survive has been released in Japan today. This is the successor of sorts to Artdink’s range of Gundam Battle games, with a few new elements from Dynasty Warriors thrown in for good measure. This is also the first Gundam game Artdink have made that branches out from the Universal Century timeline, as it features mecha from both SEED and 00.

The 26th Miyazawa Model Exhibition is currently underway and despite the worryingly deluge of moe related nonsense, there are some mecha trinkets that are quite interesting. With the GFF Metal Composite Gundam Unicorn, pictured above, being paraded before its grand release at the end of this month. There are also various Kotobukiya kits on display as well, from Border Break to Armored Core and even Virtual On.

Talking of Unicorn, the recent Blu-Ray release in Japan has managed to shift 56 thousand copies in its first week, which is pretty damn good. It will be interesting to see how the series develops though, as that will have an inevitable knock effect to the gaming side of things. It’s clear that Japanese fans want some of that Universal Century timeline though. With any luck the Project Pegasus team that helmed One Year War on the PS2 might even get a shot at making a new Unicorn themed effort. That would be, as they say, “seriously sweet”.

The second episode of the most recent addition to the Universal Century saga, Gundam Unicorn, is slated for a release in Autumn of this year. At this rate, there will be 2 episodes a year, so from this we can assume that the 6-episode OVA will last 3 years. The second episode is entitled Akai Suisei, or Red Comet, which is a reference to Char Aznable’s nickname as he used a red mobile suit most of the time (with the exception being in Zeta Gundam, when he piloted the golden Hyakushiki under the comical moniker of Quattro Vagina). The useage of the term Red Comet also belies the origins of Unicorn’s main antagonist; Full Frontal.

Considering the expected length of the Unicorn OAV, it’s fairly safe to assume that Bandai will take the plunge with a dedicated gaming tie-in. The fact that the Unicorn Gundam has been prominently featured in Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus a full-on Unicorn game is hardly beyond the realms of possibility. Here’s hoping Team White Dingo helm it and it lets you pilot a plucky Jegan or ReZel, as the grunt units are always more fun in these kind of games.

It turns out that the fantastically talented Hidetaka Tenjin is having a second book published, with the first being his brilliant Macross specific Valkyries. Simply titled as Hidetaka Tenjin Works the book contains a total of 84 illustrations; 34 from Gundam, 10 from Macross, 6 from Votoms, Aquarion, Eureka Seven, Patlabor as well as other fighter jets.

The PSP games Macross Ace Frontier and Ultimate Frontier also had box covers by Tenjin as well, so they are notable from a gaming standpoint. He’s no stranger to other games too, as he penned the amazing cover for Gradius V.

It’s also worth pointing out that much of the amazing CG work seen in Macross Zero was assisted by Tenjin, so he’s not just your average model kit box art illustrator. The book is released later this month and you can pre-order it here.

Over at 4Gamer there’s a new update on Gundam Assault Survive’s map system. As suspected, it does sound to be remarkably similar to how parts of the Dynasty Warriors games operate – in that maps are accessed in-game depending on completing criteria in a certain section, as well as both allies and enemies escaping to other maps as you’re playing.

There also seems to be hints of including the narrative from the original Gundam novels, as the G-3 Gundam seems to be part of a story mission and that was only ever used in the novels (though admittedly many other games have already used the G-3 as an unlockable). It’s worth pointing out that the finale in the novels is dramatically different when compared to the TV series and movies, so it will be interesting to see if it’s included or not.

Finally, we’re also happy to see the re-emergence of both the Xi Gundam and Hi-Nu Gundam from Gundam Battle Universe, again mobile suits featured in novels. Despite being wonderfully potent units to play with, both designs are suitably lovely in an aesthetic sense too.

The game is still scheduled for release on March 18th.

For those that like some mass produced spirit in their mecha, the recently HGUC kit of the D-50C Loto from Gundam Unicorn appears to have serious knee joint issues. Set at 1/144 scale the kit is also tiny, to the extent that it can double as one of the feet on the Soul of Chogokin Dancouga!

The Loto is also part of the wider canon, as it acts as the base for the Guntank R-44 seen in Gundam F-91. In any case, if you were thinking of buying this kit – then you might want to hold off until Bandai resolve this flaw.

The mecha from Gundam Unicorn were recently featured in Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus, though the Loto was absent from the roster there are rumours that it could be included in the upcoming DLC.