In the December 2012 issue of Arcadia Magazine, listing its most recent top ten most popular arcade games, Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost finds its way to the top of the list (with Under Night In-Birth and the new Guilty Gear arcade revision rounding out the top three). Amusement Journal also lists Full Boost as the highest earning small cabinet arcade game for the period of late August to early September 2012.

The Gundam Extreme Versus series is no stranger to steady popularity as the first iteration of Extreme Versus was arguably the most popular Japanese arcade game in 2011. Earlier in the year, the April edition of Arcadia Magazine listed Full Boost in second place behind Persona 4 U. With the RX-105 Xi Gundam from Hathaway’s Flash listed as the next unit unlock and still many more to follow (AMX-109 Kapool Corin Nander Custom from the intro for example), Full Boost looks to have a steady reign over the Japanese arcades until the end of the year. Here’s to hoping we hear of a console version soon.

We now know that Macross 30 will be getting a limited edition version. Priced at 11,800 yen, you will get all manner of pamphlets and other cruft. There is a mention of a DLC code for a special YF-29 (which may by the Roy Focker coloured variant we’ve seen toys of already). However, for the money this is pretty damn pricey especially considering that the Macross Do You Remember Love Hybrid BluRay boxset was similarly priced and gave a whole lot more. There’s still sadly no word on what the new variable fighter silhouette seen in the logo might be though.

4Gamer has an update on the forthcoming Macross 30. Whilst the screens are pretty much the same as what Famitsu revealed recently, albeit bigger and shinier, there are some other interesting aspects. Notable of which are that both Shoji Kawamori and Ukyo Kodachi are working on the game’s narrative. Whilst Kawamori is a pretty obvious person to have on board, it’s interesting that Kodachi is also present. For those unaware, he wrote not only the Macross Frontier novelisations but also Macross The Ride. The latter featured all manner of various variable fighters from across the Macross timeline, so it makes sense he’s doing something similar here. No news on an exact release date or price for the game but it is being touted as a “flight action RPG”, whatever that may mean.

Famitsu has a piece on a new rival in 2nd Super Robot Wars OG. Whilst it looks pretty cool, the name does sound a bit too close to the word “Fabulous” (which is pretty funny really). Bar that there are all manner of new screenshots for some of the combined attacks in the game. This is still scheduled for its November 29th release and you can pre-order you copy here here.

We now have some new information on Macross 30, courtesy of Famitsu, which is now fully called “Macross 30: Ginga o Tsunagu Utagoe” or “Macross 30: The Voice that Connects The Galaxy”. The big news is that this is indeed developed by Artdink and it leans toward an action RPG of sorts, though this likely means it has an Academy Mode bent as per Macross Triangle Frontier. The other interesting thing is that the game is set on the planet Ouroboros after a fold incident that has warped in the various characters from their respective parts in the timeline into one place (a tad Super Robot wars that). For those that know their mythology, the Ouroboros is a symbol of a snake eating its own tail that represents eternal return. Likely this is nod to the fact that a lot of the various Macross characters have found themselves in a shared predicament. The release date for Macross 30 has also been set for February of next year.

Update: We also forgot to mention that the variable fighter silhouette seen in the game’s logo appears to be an entirely new design.

Over at Famitsu it’s been announced that Bandai Namco are going to release a new Artdink developed PSP mecha action game called Battle Robot Damashii. What’s interesting about this is that it features mecha exclusively from the Robot Damashii toyline and it totally encroaches on From Software’s Another Century Episode games. The fact it’s on PSP is also a pretty good thing, as Artdink’s tech and processes are pretty matured for the handheld. So in that regard we’re expecting something functionally pretty tight and polished. The game will be released in February of next year.

As part of the marketing drive for the Zone of the Enders HD Collection released tomorrow in Japan, they’re will be a large bust of Jehuty placed in Akihabara on the Shimura Musen building. If followers of the KojiPro twitter account send the hashtag “#ZOE再起動” (the kanji basically says “restart” in case you’re at all curious) attached to photos of the bust they’ll be in with a chance of having a ZOE poster signed by Yoji Shinkawa.

Whilst we get why all this promotion is kicking off, the ZOE games were never all that popular when they were released on the (far more widespread) PS2. So all this feels very odd. We’ll be posting our review of the HD edition when we’ve given it a good playthrough over the next week or so.

In an update slated for tomorrow, the wondrous RX-178 Gundam Mk.II will be added to Gundam Extreme Versus Full Boost. If that wasn’t cool enough, the Super Gundam variant of the Mk.II will also playable (as your upgrade most likely). The unit only costs 2000 points too, which is a great bargain. Following that we’ll have a new Extreme Gundam to play with, as well as a daylight stage from G Gundam. Anyway, gameplay videos of the two new units are linked below.

As part of a SEGA Model 2 Collection, the original Virtual On will be released on both XBLA and PSN. Whilst the release date and price are unknown as yet, the port will feature online versus functionality. In addition, for the PS3 version, HORI are releasing a new pair of TwinSticks (costing 30,000 yen a piece). What’s especially interesting about this news is that both the PS3 and 360 will be getting the game, whereas in the past the HD ports of Oratan and Force were 360 exclusives. The release of these new PS3 sticks could also indicate a further release of the other games that also graced the 360 (fingers crossed). Anyway, this is good news and despite once owning an arcade cabinet of the game and all manner of other home ports, it’s always nice to see the original Virtual On getting some continued love.

There have been some interesting reveals at this year’s All-Japan Model Hobby Show as well as via Kotobuikya. In regards to the latter, Kotobukiya’s output has birthed the rather incredible kit above from Armored Core V (as was mentioned a while back). The sculpt being something of truly amazing finesse and it seems that there will be all manner of other kits available for it too (including tanks and helicopters from the game), so you can build your very own diorama.

Moving on from that, Wave have shown a variety of new garage kits. From Galient to Vifam, though what has really peaked our interest is this lovely Layzner Mk. II kit. Hasegawa even previewed a new Kagekiyo kit from Virtual On Force. If you want to see more of the hobby show, then AmiAmi has lots of lovely photos here, here and here.