Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent the 1/60 Destroid Tomahawk (Weathered Version) toy from Super Dimension Fortress Macross that’s on sale. This particular design is a unique one though as it has had some quite massive ramifications on mecha gaming over the years.

For the most part, the library of Gundam related games on the PSP is a remarkably solid one. With developers like Artdink and Capcom producing some truly excellent games. However, more recently Bandai Namco have become pretty complacent and gone back to their old ways of funding quick hack jobs to harvest some quick cash.

This is no new trait either, as the later years of the PS2′s life also saw a similar trend with woeful games like Gundam Climax UC springing to mind. What with lacklustre efforts such as Gundam Assault Survive, the writing has been on the wall for a while now. So it’s not with great surprise, though with some regret, that Gundam Memories has ventured toward the fecal end of the gaming quality spectrum.

The upcoming Shin Gihren’s Greed on PSP has received its first promo video. From the admittedly somewhat dated in-game visuals to the awesome rewrites of Gundam history, we’re not sure about this one yet. Whilst it’s very cool to have Amuro scream that the “Unicorn isn’t for show”, paraphrasing his line from Char’s Counterattack, but we had hoped the game element would have been improved somewhat. Admittedly this is a turn based strategy effort but after the recent Super Robot Wars Z2, you can’t just port an old game and expect that will be enough. That said, the re-animated footage does look suitably boss. The full promo video is shown below.

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The lesser appreciated Gihren’s Greed series of strategy games will receive another iteration in August on the PSP. Entitled Shin Gihren’s Greed, the game will feature new parts of the UC timeline, such as Gundam Unicorn. For those not versed in the series, the Gihren’s Greed games effectively allow players to rewrite Gundam history based off the decisions and outcomes of various battles. So this means you can have Char pilot a red custom RX-78-2 (which also travels three times as fast, obviously). Due to the various licenses involved, these games have never been officially released abroad so much of the narrative nuance and references are pretty much lost on the foreign fanbase due to the lack of localisation. In any case, you can pre-order the game here.

Sega’s red hot line of rhythm games for the PSP, starring the most popular Vocaloid of them all, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA, is about to celebrate a third release. In each previous instalment, the singing synth app mascot has a wide variety of costumes to choose from, to aide in her virtual idol duties. A few have paid tribute to past Sega titles; thus far we’ve seen garb that references Space Channel 5 and Valkyria Chronicles. So it wasn’t a huge shocker to learn that in the upcoming ver 2.5, players have a Sonic themed jumpsuit waiting for them, it being his 20th anniversary. But what did come as a shocker was the image above, which seemingly combines Vocaloid and Virtualoid. Nothing has been made official by Sega… according to Game Watch, it was leaked by Famitsu… but a Fei-Yen costume seems very likely. At any rate, it’s curious how Sega hasn’t pimped the character all that much thus far, considering how she’s a staple at pretty much every garage kit show in her native land these days. I can’t believe there isn’t an official Fei-Yen in schoolgirl threads statue already (unless there already is one that I’m totally not aware of… more than likely, some prize for a UFO Catcher game).

Update: The official Virtual On Force for 360 site confirms the Fei-Yen appearance with some nice screenshots too.

4Gamer has a pretty epic promo for Level 5′s imminent Danball Senki. Coming in at over 14 minutes, it’s pretty extensive. Whilst the game is released in Japan this Thursday, there’s still no word on whether this will make the jump abroad. From what we played at last year’s TGS, the game definitely had a lot of promise as well as the production value to back that up.

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What with Gundam Memories’ release a few weeks away, some more screenshots have surfaced on 4Gamer showing the variety of mobile armors in the game. Not to mention outlining three multiplayer modes; Time Match, Death Match and MS Hunt. The piece also spooges over a variety of new Gundam SEED Destiny units in the game, so your mileage may vary on that. We’ll be picking this up on release too, so a review will be forthcoming.

With the release of Gundam Memories less than a month away, 4Gamer has a new set of screenshots showing off more units in the game. Whilst it’s always nice to see the MSN-06S Sinanju featured, we can’t but punch the air with glee to see some more Blue Destiny units present. Admittedly we weren’t all that impressed with the trailer but we will still be nabbing the game come its June 23rd release. Hopefully it can undo the travesty that was Gundam Assault Survive.

Back in 1991 a small and fairly unassuming GameBoy game inadvertently started a franchise of games that have now reached their 20th Anniversary. It pitted all manner of super and real robots in a turn based strategy framework, allowing super robots with suitably preposterous abilities to high five with more rational mecha. This functional disparity is one of the many aspects that has made Super Robot Wars such a loved and cherished gaming heirloom over the years.

Cue the initial sequel to 2008′s Super Robot Wars Z, featuring pristine animation and above all insanely powerful super robots from Gurren Lagann to Final Dancouga all of which fist bumping the grittiest of all the real robots; the sturdy little Scopedog. On fan service alone, Z2 technically goes up to eleven but what’s more impressive is how the game has been functionally distilled into a fiendishly compelling strategy game.

The upcoming PSP game Gundam Memories received its first trailer recently which shows some gameplay footage. It’s clear already that this game will not be akin to Artdink’s Gundam Battle series but instead far closer to Yuke’s Gundam 00 Meisters game. Specifically in the way that combat is on a relatively fixed horizontal plane and the use of somewhat odious quick time events (which are now being called “Special Triggers”). Whilst it’s technically impressive what they’re getting out of the PSP, the game itself has us less interested than it did before. Plus, there’s also the unfortunate association with the ill conceived PS2 swansong Gundam Climax UC as the game operated similarly. There’s also a new write up over on 4Gamer as well, with some new screenshots.

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