As we’ve mentioned a few times already, the lovely Cloud Breaker 01 from the Xbox game Murakumo is now set for release in January of next year. Whilst the game was a bit bobbins, the mecha designed by Takayuki Yanase were beautiful to behold. It seems that PLUM have done an exemplary job too. You can also pre-order the kit here.

Update: GA Graphic has a nice update about the kit as well.

Back in 2001 From Software announced their support for Microsoft’s first foray into the console market. With games like Murakumo and Gaia Blade many of the Japanese press and public regarded the Xbox as a possible contender, after all this was a staunch Japanese developer making games for an American console. The thing was that whilst Murakumo was available shortly after the Xbox’s release in Japan, Gaia Blade disappeared into insignificance.

The promotional in-game movie for Gaia Blade that was shown at the 2001 Tokyo Game Show displayed a rather lush “real time simulation” RPG set in a mythical almost ancient Greek inspired landscape. A scantily clad female warrior dispensed with multiple beasts in a pretty brutal fashion.

Roll forward a year to the following Tokyo Game Show and now people were asking what had happened to Gaia Blade. This time there weren’t any in-game movies but instead a few instances of pre-production artwork. Again, set in the mythical world but now with bipedal mecha and the game’s name had been changed to that of Gaia Gear. Admittedly, very few were surprised to see mecha in a From Software game but they were confused after seeing in-game footage of what looked to be an entirely different type of game. The question on everybody’s lips was what in the hell was From Software doing?

A year later a game finally appeared, the name had changed yet again as had the setting but the same design of bi-pedal mecha were present; the world had finally been introduced to Chrome Hound: Age of Arms.

The current Wonder Festival coverage has recently surfaced and there is a veritable panoply of mecha gaming related kits that have been displayed. From the the wonderful Kotobukiya stall showing the first Nineball from the original Armored Core games as well as the Sobrero from Armored Core For Answer. In addition, their Jehuty kit also finally reared its head too. However, the most impressive kits shown are from PLUM’s stall with the suspected Valken kit shown as well as an amazingly intricate Cloudbreaker 01 from Murakumo, the latter was originally shown at this year’s Winter event.

Similar to a post we made back in 2009, GameSetWatch have found another industrious individual has taken the epic Steel Battalion controller and used it for
DJ-ing purposes. Called the “Zero System”, no doubt a nod to Gundam Wing, The Asterite as he’s known also has two additional joysticks to help him mix. Again, we always find this re-purposing of gaming hardware pretty nifty and we’re always happy to see more use made out of the brilliant Steel Battalion controller.

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Famitsu has the scoop on a big LAN party for the suitably wonderful Xbox game, Tekki Taisen (or Steel Battalion: Line of Contact) that was renowned for its online play setup. Specifically the “Project FireWorks” group has organised this awesome gathering as well as helped to show off the scratch built VT kits by a chap called “nanaC”. The event gathered over 100 fans of 5 by 5 teams, some even brought their own homemade cockpits. Many met one another for the first time too, despite having played together via an online battlefield. In any case, it’s nice to see that the fans still support games like these. Whilst there is a new Steel Battalion game on the way, we still think a properly complex controller is still what made the original games so very special. Thanks to Atsushi Kawashima for the heads up.

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What with Wonder Festival 2011 Winter going on, a bunch of places online have been reporting the event. Whilst the unnerving majority of the figures being shown are of scantily clad ladies, there are also still a fair few mecha on display. Specifically the announcement of a RIOBOT figure of Detonator Orgun, that was featured in Super Robot Wars W, to the somewhat more niche Cloud Breaker 01 kit from Murakumo.

Whilst this is yet another cool looking kit from PLUM, of prior Leynos fame, the Murakumo mecha are curious due to the man who penned them. Specifically, that of Takayuki Yanase who’s had a rather gilded career as a mecha designer in his own right since he left From Software. Something that From Software have been keen to capitalise on, as this design was featured (albeit modified) in the first Another Century’s Episode, not to mention the Ixbrau units Yanese exclusively designed for Another Century’s Episode 3. He even worked on the OG mecha for Super Robot Wars W too. In any case, whilst Murakumo was a pretty wonky game the designwork was lovely. So this is yet another kit that’s been added to our wish list.

If you want to have a gander at the remaining reportage for the current Wonder Festival, then GA Graphic and AkibaHobby (pages here and here) should satiate your needs. A mild warning though, as some of those links aren’t exactly work safe. We’ve also included some videos of the Cloud Breaker 01 in action below.

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A chap on flickr by the name of m_o_n_k_e_y has been rendering various cool mecha in Lego form. Specifically, he’s moved onto the vertical tanks from the original Steel Battalion games on the Xbox as designed by the wonderful Junji Okubo. The above model is based on the Vitzh, that’s basically the grunt of the VT forces. The guy has even had a crack at the internal cockpit as well, which is pretty cool really. Thanks to Persona for the heads-up on this.

What do you get when you combine Halo’s number one star and a Zaku II? You get the custom job you see above, built upon a Master Grade Gundam Zaku II Ver. 1.0 kit. Via Figure.fm.

As a developer, From Software are known for their mechanical expertise but they also have several teams at work on other genres too. One such group birthed a selection of Xbox games that were functionally quite woeful but visually rather accomplished. The two Otogi games helmed by this team were consequently, and somewhat mistakenly, elevated by the Western press as being somehow noteworthy. At the time I was personally thankful that this same team wasn’t undermining the work of the Armored Core series, which already had a hard enough time as it did abroad in terms of the press.

Then Metal Wolf Chaos was announced and it was apparent that the Otogi production was supposedly behind this, well at least on paper. In reality, many of the Armored Core team were apparently “getting involved” in the game’s creation and the final result is something truly surprising and quite functionally invigorating.

As 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.