Latest Posts

News: Bangai-O HD Bursting Onto XBLANews: Bangai-O HD Bursting Onto XBLA IGN posted some impressions of a pre-alpha version of Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury, coming to Xbox Live Arcade. It sounds like the new game stays true to the formula used...

Readmore

News: Super Robot Wars L ScreenshotsNews: Super Robot Wars L Screenshots To accompany the latest promo video, 4Gamer has a veritable onslaught of in-game screenshots for the upcoming Super Robot Wars L. From Macross Frontier to Dancouga Nova,...

Readmore

Videos: Super Robot Wars L PVVideos: Super Robot Wars L PV The upcoming Super Robot Wars L has received its first promo video (which was shown at C3xHOBBY over the weekend). Despite the nice new Macross Frontier shots, the remaining...

Readmore

News: Virtual On Force at TGSNews: Virtual On Force at TGS Amongst a bevy of other games, SEGA will also have a playable version of Virtual On Force at this year's Tokyo Game Show. Whether they'll have any of HORI's sticks at...

Readmore

News: Gundam Extreme Versus at C3xHOBBYNews: Gundam Extreme Versus at C3xHOBBY 4Gamer has a nice bit of coverage on Gundam Extreme Versus' presence at this year's C3xHOBBY. Despite the presence of Kazuki Yao, the voice of Judau Ashta (amongst many...

Readmore

Mecha Damashii Rss

Toys: Video Game Robotics 2 Announced

Posted on : 15-08-2010 | By : Cacophanus | In : Toys/Kits

Tags: , , , ,

1

Over at Comiket, Takara Tomy have unveiled the next set of Video Game Robotics gashapon that were meant for a June release (that are now scheduled for December instead). In total, the series will contain four mecha from four different games. They are the PDF-802 X-4+ from Power Dolls 2, a PC turnbased strategy game with mecha designed by none other than Hajime Katoki. Followed by the HIGH-MACS 12 from the original Gungriffon and then the V-MH GLORY from the super rare Metal Slader Glory adventure game on the Famicom (later ported to the Super Famicom). The last mecha, of the four, is apparently a new blast runner from the upcoming Border Break Air Burst. However, all this may sound and look wonderful but the last set of gashapon in the range were pretty awful and they cost 700 yen a piece, these new toys cost 400 yen each. Considering the poor quality of the previous set, reducing the price for the new one doesn’t exactly bode well really.

Toys: Tokyo Toy Show 2010 Coverage

Posted on : 15-07-2010 | By : Cacophanus | In : Toys/Kits

Tags: , , , ,

0

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.

Kits: Belgdor announced at Wonder Festival

Posted on : 07-02-2010 | By : Cacophanus | In : Toys/Kits, Videos

Tags: , , ,

0

Over at Hobby Stock there is some nice photo coverage of the current Wonder Festival. Apart from cool stuff like an SD White Glint kit, Kotobukiya also announced their intent to make a kit of SAV-07-D Belgdor from the original Virtual On. Belgdor is an interesting design both functionally and aesthetically, as it was the most real robot VR in the game (as it used solid ammunition amongst other things). It was also one of the weaker units too but that didn’t stop the versus community from coming up with a variety of techniques to keep Belgdor competitive, with the usage of rowing being notable. Belgdor also received various updates in both Oratan and Force; from Grys-vok, to Stein-vok and finally the Vox series. No word on a release date or pricing as yet but like the other Kotobukiya kits it probably won’t be that expensive.

Watch Video »

(Either JavaScript is not active or you are using an old version of Adobe Flash Player. Please install the newest Flash Player.)

News: Custom Saturn TwinSticks

Posted on : 12-01-2010 | By : Cacophanus | In : News

Tags:

3

A chap by the name of “Aaron C.” has made a custom pair of TwinSticks for the Saturn port of Virtual On out of some cookingware and old joysticks. It’s a good piece of modding but the question remains; why the Saturn version? After all, Sega over produced the original TwinSticks and they are consequently readily available. Still, hats off for his initiative and he also states that he might come up with a Saturn/360 controller adapter, so he can use it on the recent XBLA port of Oratan. If you’re at all curious about the Virtual On games, we a have a very thorough feature about the series here on the site. Thanks to Persona for the heads up.

Kits: Viper II

Posted on : 05-12-2009 | By : Cacophanus | In : Toys/Kits, Videos

Tags: , , ,

0

viper2_cover1

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a kit from the original Virtual On to review. Specifically, Kotobukiya’s 1/100 scale Viper II. This was a lightly armored and mostly airborne focused virtuaroid, that also sported a very powerful secret attack – in the form of its “SLC” (or “She’s Lost Control”) dive. Like the other VR’s in the Virtual On series, Viper II was designed by mecha design magnate Hajime Katoki.

Our review covers the kit in its out of the box and unpainted form but we have also included painted photos towards the end. In addition, to give the kit some context, we’ve also captured some gameplay footage of the design in action from the recent SEGA AGES PlayStation 2 port.

Features: Gungriffon – The Forgotten Conflict

Posted on : 16-11-2009 | By : Cacophanus | In : Features

Tags: , ,

6

gungriffon_highmacs1.jpgAs a developer GameArts are known most for their work on the wondrous Grandia games as well as their input to the Silpheed series, but they’ve also produced a rather well wrought selection of mecha games too.

Specifically, the four Gungriffon games that have graced multiple consoles over the years. These games pre-date From Software’s perennial Armored Core series but due to a number of factors, both cultural and financial, the games have never quite garnered the appreciation they so sorely deserved.

This is not to say that the Gungriffon games haven’t been critically lauded over the years but they haven’t reached the broader appeal that something like Heavy Gear did for instance, despite both series sharing similar base rulesets for the mecha. Amusingly, the design of mecha themselves has often been mistakenly attributed to be Western in origin, despite the obvious linkages to Ryosuke Takahashi’s VOTOMS series, something that again Heavy Gear shares. As such, we’ll delve into the series as a whole and examine what has made these games remain such a cult hit.

Videos: Virtual On Seganet Archive Matches

Posted on : 27-10-2009 | By : Cacophanus | In : Videos

Tags:

0

vo_seganet_screen1

One of the lesser known Virtual On releases was the Seganet version that shipped at literally the end of 1996 for the Saturn. This utilised the then hugely cutting edge technology of dial up modems, to connect peer-to-peer with other similarly equipped Saturn gamers. This meant you could actually play online matches on the Saturn port of Virtual On. Pretty heady stuff. A few years later, in 1998, the Sega Netlink service was started up in the US and the Saturn port of Virtual On followed along with it.

Matt Schulz managed to capture his online matches from way back when and has uploaded them to his YouTube channel for all to see. For fans of the Saturn port and even Virtual On in general, these videos are definitely worth a gander.

Watch Video »

(Either JavaScript is not active or you are using an old version of Adobe Flash Player. Please install the newest Flash Player.)