Welcome to the wonderful world of mecha gaming, this meagre blog will attempt to be your host through the dazzling and often very confusing splendour of this misrepresented gaming genre. The name of the blog comes from the Japanese word for spirit or “tamashii” (é­‚), however when this is prefaced with another word the “t” is softened to a “d”, hence “damashii”. Many mecha designers in Japan refer to the spirit a certain mecha can evoke, so the title of the blog was pretty much taken from that. The site is split into six main areas of coverage; news, reviews, videos, toys/kits, features and books.

Reviews and Tamashii

Each of our reviews finishes off with what at first glance may appear to be a score out of ten. In reality, we mark our games on how close they get to the tamashii/spirit of implementing a functionally coherent interpretation of the mecha mythos. Naturally, this encompasses how well they play as games in their own right but also encapsulates something that other reviews often do not appreciate or understand; the cultural context these games are placed in. The reason for a numerical “score” is that this makes the result more easy to understand and interpret.

Policy on Review Copies

All the games we review are paid for individually by the writers themselves. We have never and will never accept “free” review copies from publishers. Considering that gamers paid their hard earned money on what they want to play, we think it’s only fair we do the same. That way you know the opinions are our own and not the result of a publisher’s interference. When it comes to our toy and kit reviews, we are sent these by HobbyLink Japan but the manufacturers have no input on our final verdict.

Meet the Editors

Ollie Barder – Cacophanus
twitter | youtube | column

Christopher Bruso – Tollmaster
twitter | youtube

Matthew Hawkins – Fort90
blog | twitter

Michael Purdie – GarnetCrowAX
twitter | youtube

David Dino – Donkey Show
twitter | youtube

Nicolas George – Distantmantra
twitter

Logo

The Mecha Damashii logo was created for the site by Japanese mecha designer Junji Okubo and is used with permission.