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.

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.

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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.

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.

This design was originally intended to transform during flight but due to the technical limitations of the Model 2 arcade hardware, the transformation was dropped. However in the sequel, Virtual On Oratorio Tangram, the upgraded Viper II in the form of Cypher retained the ability to transform. Subsequently, in the later Virtual On games this transformation ability remained with the less potent Myzr VRs.

There were also earlier Viper variants but these never made it into the final game, the narrative rationale behind this was down to the instability of the original Viper I – as it would overload its systems as the frame wasn’t able to control the output from its V Converter and turn into an indestructible fireball. This is where the “she’s lost control” originated and that the improved Viper II could initiate this manoeuvre on command. Some have stated that this functionality was derived from the V-MAX system seen in Layzner, which turned the titular Layzner into an indestructible blue fireball. It’s hard to deny such similarities but Viper II’s attack was far less potent and only affected targets on the ground (if you jumped in game you’d avoid the SLC dive entirely).

Kit: 1/100 TRV-06k-H Viper II
Price: 4800 yen
Size/Weight: 31.2 x 19.3 x 11.3 cm/560g

The kit itself is moderately technical and does require glue in several places. The impressive aspect of the kit is how the armor panels ensconce the design itself, as they are utilised to reveal the inner panels as per the original design. This makes the kits more complex that it probably first appears, as how the parts interlock isn’t particularly obvious at first glance. That said, once assembled it is decently sturdy and suitably poseable. The jet wings attached to the V Converter can also be positioned for flight as well, which is a nice touch. As kits go though it’s not overly gimmick ridden, this is mostly on account of the relatively simple design itself though and not an indictment of Kotobukiya’s faltering engineering prowess. Even unpainted this kit still retains a remarkable level of visual accuracy when compared to how it’s rendered in game. However, we’ve still included painted pictures below.

Overall, as with other Kotobukiya kits, the sculpt is nigh-on flawless and it’s obviously meant for more experienced kit builders who appreciate the sculpt more than having a kit based toy. Even if you’re not a fan of the Virtual On games, this kit is expertly crafted and Kotobukiya are continuing to excel themselves in the arena of mecha gaming model kits.

To finish off, here is a video of two expert Viper II players squaring off. Enjoy!

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.

Gungriffon (Saturn)

In March of 1996, a new kind of mecha game was released to the world. Set in the first person, the player worked within the cockpit of an Armored Walking Gun System (or AWGS) mecha as they traversed massive battle fields also teeming with similar enemy units. As Saturn games went Gungriffon was graphically particularly advanced for the time and, despite a moderate learning curve with the controls, quite tactile too. Heavily inspired by the functional parameters seen in VOTOMS, the AWGS mecha in Gungriffon utilised rollers in their feet but unlike the AT’s in VOTOMS could also fly for a short period as well.

Unlike Virtual On, which was then 6 months away from a console release, Gungriffon was a very straightforward and direct mecha game. Where the player basically just had to point and shoot for the most part. However, unlike a standard approach to an FPS, the mecha retained their mass and subsequent momentum. Managing the additional roller and flight elements also added an extra layer of depth as well.

On paper, this sounds like an instant gaming hit and it had also gotten the drop on the first Armored Core by a good 18 months. In addition, it received a swift release across the world. So what went wrong?

The main issue with the original Gungriffon’s lack of sales was mostly down to the console it was released on. Despite all of its graphical veneer and functional prowess, the Saturn’s lack of popularity left the first Gungriffon almost dead on arrival. It garnered a selection of very positive reviews though and the Western press, for once, actually appreciated what the game was trying to achieve. However, the more mainstream gamers failed to take stock of the game’s existence. This was especially true outside of Japan.

Gungriffon II (Saturn)

Released two years later, Gungriffon II had a long list of improvements in the form of additional control features as well as 4 player multiplayer (if you linked your Saturn’s together). From the optional usage of Virtual On’s twinsticks to the ability for two players to control one AWGS. GameArts added a fair amount to the already existing game. Unfortunately, the game hadn’t moved on graphically at all and some even thought the game had regressed visually. This significantly harmed the game in terms of sales in Japan, though it still retained a favourable critical response in light of its functional improvements.

Ultimately though, the game remained as taut as its previous offering but unlike the previous game this iteration wasn’t published by GameArts. Instead ESP stepped in and covered off the financial backing. This might explain why it was rushed to release, as ESP probably wanted to make good on their investment before the Dreamcast was released later in the year. This would have explained the obvious lack of visual polish prior to release. This wouldn’t be the first time that a separate publisher sullied the Gungriffon series either.

Gungriffon Blaze (PlayStation 2)

After the lacklustre sales of the Saturn games, GameArts obviously decided to put Gungriffon on a console that had a greater number of units in the marketplace. Gungriffon Blaze was the game that followed this thinking and was launched on the PlayStation 2 very near to the console’s release. Admittedly, they took a gamble but the reasoning that the PlayStation 2 would follow on from the success of the original PlayStation was suitably sound at the time. They’d also put more development time into this sequel and the subsequent polish was self evident.

Consequently, Blaze did very well and not only garnered further critical acclaim but also reached gamers the prior two Saturn efforts had wholly failed to. Unfortunately, Armored Core 2 was released literally a week before Blaze in Japan so this was the first and only time the two series battled it out on the same platform. Despite it’s quality Blaze was pretty much eclipsed by Armored Core 2 on launch, which is obviously unfortunate but Armored Core had greater momentum as it had secured a bigger and more loyal fanbase in the years earlier.

That said, Blaze is possibly the finest iteration in the Gungriffon series. As its speed and responsive controls made it a truly visceral arcade experience, though some argue this was down to Capcom’s input as they published the game in Japan. It’s also one of the most accessible iterations as the controls, compared to the Saturn games at least, used dual analogue inputs. This was something that Armored Core, the Gungriffon series’ main rival, wouldn’t match for another four years until Armored Core Nexus was released.

It’s hard to fault Blaze on functional level, though there were a few annoying control issues these were mostly irrelevant after a very brief learning curve. A learning curve considerably less foreboding when compared to Armored Core 2. Yet in spite of all these obviously accessible features, Blaze still couldn’t quite make a dent in its competition.

Gungriffon Allied Strike (Xbox)

On paper, Allied Strike offered considerably more than Blaze could have ever hoped to. Online multiplayer was one major element but the player could finally utilise both a first and third person camera now too. However, Allied Strike was a completely travesty for the series.

Functionally whilst quite precise, the overall game ran very slowly. This is not to say its framerate was in any way lacking but that the AWGS’s themselves moved at a slower pace. In addition the flight controls from Blaze were quite noticeably directionally limited, as was the rolling functionality. So you were locked in more in terms of your basic movement. A lot of this may have stemmed from the new online multiplayer focus, so as to keep multiplayer matches more tactical and balanced, but the singleplayer game suffered quite noticeably as a consequence.

The most bizarre fault of Allied Strike though was how badly it looked. Considering that this was released four years after Blaze and on more potent hardware, you would expect a bit of a visual facelift. At the very least a much greater level area and draw distance, things that would actually functionally matter.

Unbelievably, Allied Strike looked worse than Blaze did for the most part and had a far shorter draw distance to boot. Again, fingers have been pointed at Tecmo as they acted as the Japanese publisher for the game and that they actively encouraged feature creep to keep the game competitive with successful Western FPS games at the time. Though in typical fashion they probably still expected GameArts to hit their release date, so again the developer focused on making the game work at the expense of the visual polish.

Allied Strike was critically panned on release, mostly down to how painfully dated it was and that the immediacy seen in Blaze was long gone. In some ways, Allied Strike tried to emulate a simulation type of approach, which didn’t really fit the series’ lineage.

It’s a sad footnote for a series that has, despite its best intentions and innate quality, been undermined by factors like the host hardware and shortsighted publishers. That said, there’s still an opportunity here for GameArts to make something more considered for this generation of consoles, as Blaze is evidence enough that the Gungriffon series can deliver. Whether they’ll seize that remains to be seen though.

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.

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