In the latest Famitsu, the new “original generation” or OG mecha have been finally shown for the upcoming ACE R. This is quite common in the ACE games, as the first game had a Cloudbreaker (from Murakumo) and the Gespenst Mk.II (from SRW). Following on from this in ACE 2 and 3 were the Gunark and the Ixbrau (the latter designer by Takayuki Yanase of Gundam 00 fame). These new designs are interesting, not only stylistically but also in the fact that it shows that the “base” ship is not one from any given anime. Called the Ark Alpha, it has shades of the Novis Noah from Brain Powerd. The Alphato also bears a few uncanny similarities to the mecha in Argento Soma. In any case, we’re happy to see the OG tradition carry on through to ACE R.

The newly announced Nintendo 3DS, which sounds suitably wondrous, is also getting some cool third party games too. Even Bandai Namco are jumping into the fray and offering new Gundam and Super Robot Wars games specifically for the handheld. From a Gundam perspective, if they go down the action route, we could have something pretty mindblowing on a 3DS. As for SRW, there’s not much scope for sight bending functionality – as the games are predominantly turn-based strategy orientated. Still, it’s nice to see that the 3DS will be getting a slice of mecha gaming in the near future.

The upcoming Killzone 3 will be featuring an interesting new power armour of Helghast design. For those that played the last game, this shouldn’t be too surprising as the latter parts of the campaign also featured playable mecha too. What’s interesting, in the wider sense at least, is that Killzone 3 is another entry in an increasing list of upcoming games games that are folding in mecha based functionality into their make-up. From Gears of War 3 to the continued usage of Walkers in Red Faction Armageddon, not to mention Vanquish as well. It seems that the benefits of mecha are finally being explored and appreciated in the broader gaming context.

The official site for the upcoming 360 port of Virtual On Force has confirmed what many fans expected; a re-issue of HORI’s TwinStick EX peripheral to coincide with the release of the game later this year. The eye watering price tag of 30,000 yen is still in effect and it will also only available if you’ve made the requisite pre-order via HORI’s online store. Needless to say, this re-issue may not happen as both SEGA and HORI have to meet a certain number of pre-orders before they can enter production again. Bear in mind that a lot of Virtual On fans already sacrificed a kidney/leg/arm to obtain one of these the first time around, so I’m not sure who’d be left to buy this re-issue version.

We meant to cover this a good while back but lots of new games have been kicking off, so it got lost amongst that. In any case, the wondrous Border Break has been receiving numerous updates via the BB.tv channel, showing off the new blast runners as well as the new maps. What’s most striking in the video below is how much faster the game has become since we reviewed it. Whilst we greatly enjoyed the slower pacing before the Ver 1.5 update, as it made matches feel very tactical, it seems that this speed increase is something that’s quite short range and localised. As such we’re inclined to think that this development is actually a positive one, as it’s merging both the tactics that occur at range and a more instinctive approach to closer range combat.

The upcoming War for Cybertron has been given a multiplayer demo via the 360 online Marketplace, so go and download it basically. From the few games we’ve played it’s obvious, that despite being very pretty, the game reassuringly doesn’t suck total sweaty robot balls. Though, that said, it is worryingly generic (from a multiplayer standpoint at least). The really good news, for us at least, is that High Moon didn’t bork the mecha handling as they feel suitably weighty. We’ll be reviewing the game once it’s released later this month, so keep an eye out for that. Naturally, Megatron must be stopped…no matter the cost…

4gamer has some new screenhots of the upcoming 360 port of Virtual On Force. What’s interesting about these is that they clearly show a 4 player splitscreen multiplayer option (along with the already documented online setup). This is a nice concession to the fanbase, as the Virtual On scene (in Japan at least) are pretty closely knit and prefer the more social arcade-esque gatherings.

Separately, a few people have been asking me about the VR pictured above. Well, its name is Kagekiyo and he was a new unit introduced in Force. This was an experimental VR made by Dr. Yzerman of the Sixth plant “Satchel Mouth.” Yzerman attempted to pluck the soul of the fugitive warrior Kagekiyo, a retainer to the house of Hei, from the dead and trap it within the V-converter (something similar to how Specineff’s V-converter was created in case you’re wondering). Over time he managed to control Kagekiyo’s spirit, which allowed the VR to be relatively mass produced. The VR resembles a samurai warrior of the sixteenth century and is often armed with giant versions of basic samurai weaponry, notably that of a katana. Due to the use of Kagekiyo’s spirit, some pilots have claimed that their Kagekiyo VR often goes berzerk. Specineff was an earlier Dr. Yzerman creation and Kagekiyo was a partial spin-off from that line. This is yet another mecha design that also ties into my theory that contemporary mecha are heavily influenced from the cultural effects of the samurai.

With the latest trailer for Vanquish, we finally see what the game looks like in action and I have to say that my initial skepticism about it has all but vanished. The game’s pedigree is excellent, being created by Platinum Games (Bayonetta, Mad World) and headed by Shinji Mikami (Devil May Cry, Resident Evil) but the early screenshots and teaser trailer released to the gaming public made the game seem, at best, an interesting take on the overused “space marine” trope all too common in current-gen titles.

The new trailer puts any doubts to rest because not only is the action as frenetic as we would expect from Platinum Games, but rather than simply using space-age armor to explain away the amount of damage these characters are capable of soaking up, we can see in the trailer that the main character’s powered armor provides him with additional movement options as well–one scene shows him boosting from one set of cover to another almost instantaneously, while another has him using his thrusters to gain enough vertical range to smash a foe.

It’s nice to see designers thinking about what ways these wonderful “space marine” armors could change combat, and while the scale of powered armor doesn’t exactly match that of mecha, and thus is really a whole different kettle of fish, a lot of the solutions are the same–just as giant robots shouldn’t be treated as human analogues, humans in powered armor should have different skillsets following from their upgrade. While Vanquish isn’t the only game in recent memory to play with the trope (Section 8 being a good example) it’s good to see some of the most talented people in the action game business working on the problem.

On more firmly mecha-related territory, I’d also like to point out some interesting similarities between Vanquish and Mobile Suit Gundam. Both deal with humanity expanding into space not onto different planets, but rather in O’Neill cylinders floating freely in space that use rotation to generate an approximate feeling of gravity, and both have these colonies eventually being used as weapons, by taking advantage of the plentiful solar energy resources of outer space.

While it’s hard to tell where the homage ends and genuine cultural absorption begins with the Japanese and their (perfectly reasonable) obsession with Mobile Suit Gundam, I do find the use of Gundam as a reference point interesting, because much as the mobile suit’s use in Gundam is to provide a vehicle that can operate equally well in space, under Earth’s gravity, and in the artificial “gravity” of O’Neill cylinders, Vanquish is taking the commonly used Western term “space marine” quite literally, as Vanquish’s power armor seems to be designed both as a spacesuit and as body armor, used to infiltrate a structure floating in space. Most of what are called “space marines” in the press tend to be neither, operating on planets rather than in space and not being any more mobile than regular troops being shipped to a far-off planet.

Hopefully Vanquish will be the great game that it looks like it will be, and that it will create a renaissance in the West regarding the Men In Space Suits, Holding Guns, Shooting Aliens genre, maybe even something a bit closer to the original Western concept; when the West made Starship Troopers into a movie we kept only the fascism, while Japan kept only the robots. Needless to say, Mecha Damashii supports robots over fascism.

The Niigata City Art Museum is holding a new exhibition showing off the work of one Kunio Okawara. Entitled the Mecha Design For 1/1 Mechanical Designer Kunio Okawara Exhibition it features, amongst many other things, a full scale heathawk (thoughtfully embedded in the gallery floor). The heathawk was the predominant melee weapon of choice for the initial Zeonic mobile suits in the original Gundam, which means it’s been sported in multiple games since. Both the MS-05B Zaku I and MS-06F Zaku II are suitably notable – though many other mecha, on both sides of the conflict, also sported the weapon. Being the classy chap he is, Okawara was actually present at the exhibition on May 29th signing autographs and most probably fighting off screaming groupies.

The exhibition is going on until the 1st July and only costs 700 yen for entry and, unfortunately, there’s no word on whether they’ll roll out a full scale SPT-LZ-00X Layzner cockpit anytime soon.

The official Virtual On Force port website had another update today, this time with a trailer of the game in action on the 360 (with a rather cool reveal at the end, in the form of two Tangrams). Unsurprisingly, the original arcade assets have been handled without much fanfare; as the 360 is considerably more potent that the original Hikaru boards that ran the game. Though we’re still unsure whether a home port of Force is actually a good idea. Admittedly, Oratan’s XBLA sales have been mighty impressive but Force was considerably more flawed and in part helped to limit the success of the series from that point on. In any case, we’ll see how well this new port fares once it’s released at the end of the year.