There was a recent gathering regarding the astronomy and physics that ensconce the Gundam mythos. Entitled Introduction to Gundam Astronomy: Where’s Side 7? Are Space Colonies Possible?, it featured luminaries such as Harutoshi Fukui (novelist and writer of the Gundam Unicorn novels), Jun Fukue an astronomy professor and of course Yoshiyuki Tomino.

As Tomino has a habit of doing, he seemed to spend a lot of the meeting pissing on other people’s chips. From saying that the whole premise is unrealistic to it being “just an anime”, Tomino even goes so far as to calling people who design the titular mecha to being somehow “empty”. Despite coming across as overly curmudgeonly, Tomino has a history of playing devil’s advocate and generally inciting debate – so interpreting his comment’s at face value and taking offense, is missing the point a bit. Considering that much of the technological and scientific background was openly based upon Gerald K. O’Neill’s work as well as the practical output of the JPL, shows that Tomino is just trying to get people to use a modicum of insight to question the saga as a whole rather than accept it blindly for what it is – something that the sprawling fanbase does do on occasion.

The first ever Original Generation focused Super Robot Wars game is getting ported to the Nintendo DS. Specifically, the Super Famicom entry of The Lord Of Elemental. This was an interesting SRW game on many counts, such as exclusively featuring OG mecha as well as rendering them at actual size (not in SD). Not to mention the oblique viewing angle, seen in many SRW games since. It’s also a game that many older Japanese gamers view with a fair amount of fondness, as the original game was released almost 15 years ago now. It seems that Banpresto are shrewd enough to cash in on nostalgia and port an already existing title to obviously fund the development of other projects. In any case, due to this being an OG title there’s an excellent chance it will receive a Western release. The game will be released in Japan on May 27th for 6,090 yen.

Over at 4Gamer there’s a new update on Gundam Assault Survive’s map system. As suspected, it does sound to be remarkably similar to how parts of the Dynasty Warriors games operate – in that maps are accessed in-game depending on completing criteria in a certain section, as well as both allies and enemies escaping to other maps as you’re playing.

There also seems to be hints of including the narrative from the original Gundam novels, as the G-3 Gundam seems to be part of a story mission and that was only ever used in the novels (though admittedly many other games have already used the G-3 as an unlockable). It’s worth pointing out that the finale in the novels is dramatically different when compared to the TV series and movies, so it will be interesting to see if it’s included or not.

Finally, we’re also happy to see the re-emergence of both the Xi Gundam and Hi-Nu Gundam from Gundam Battle Universe, again mobile suits featured in novels. Despite being wonderfully potent units to play with, both designs are suitably lovely in an aesthetic sense too.

The game is still scheduled for release on March 18th.

A new trailer for the upcoming Lost Planet 2 was release a few days ago, so if you missed it we’ve linked it below. The wonderful vital suits are shown but in a somewhat limited capacity unfortunately, normally on account of the showboating giant Akrid. That aside, like the demo confirms, this could be just bloody amazing. The game is released on May 18th and don’t forget to pre-order either the 360 and PS3 versions!

Whereas the iPhone has become the premier mobile platform to develop games for, Apple’s primary rival in that space, Google’s Android, has yet to catch on among developers despite promises of greater power and versatility. Mostly due to the fact that, upon the Android Native Development Kit’s release, the associated handsets were not up to snuff, though the current crop are more than up to the task at last. Yet the game dev scene seems relatively barren, though HyperDevbox might wake some folks up via their latest incarnation of Ex Zeus. The game was a mediocre at best on-rails shooter for the arcade and home systems (which went by a different name on the Wii, as Counter Force), but was a fairly impressive showcase of the iPhone’s graphical abilities, at least during it’s somewhat early days. This latest iteration supposedly makes full use of the NDK, can be launched from a micoSD card, and utilizes a custom sound driver.

What do you get when you combine Sega’s Virtual On and generic anime babes? Why, you get Val Force of course, a doujin game from Yumesoft (it appears to be their one and only release thus far). I tried all morning in vain to get the demo to work on my end; after a lengthy download session… it always takes me forever to nab anything from Japan… the game simply wouldn’t run, and I’m not sure why, since I don’t understand Japanese. But I think it has something to do with me not having the latest DirectX installed, though being on a Mac via Bootcamp might be the real culprit. Anyhow, going by the video alone, it appears to be a thoroughly competent VO clone, provided if you don’t mind the extra dose of X chromosomes.

Over at Game Watch there’s a nice update for G.rev’s upcoming 360 port of Senko no Ronde DUO. In addition to the screenshots there’s a lovely limited edition illustration also displayed, that looks suitably “art nouveau” in terms of aesthetic inspiration. It also seems that the limited edition release, at 9,240 yen, will also feature another drama CD (boasting of a cast of up to 60 characters). In any case, the game still seems set for it’s late April release. So don’t wait to pre-order your normal and limited editions!

As we previously posted, the online Armored Core Battle TV service is now live and hosting a selection of gameplay videos. This is currently hosting videos from the recently released Armored Core Last Raven Portable but there’s no reason why the same service couldn’t be offered for something like Armored Core 5. The videos themselves are also quite interesting and whilst it’s clear that the PSP controls do limit movement somewhat, the final result is a lot like the PS2 original. Naturally, a review of Last Raven Portable will be forthcoming.

Separately, the campaign code site for Armored Core 5 is also up and running. So if you have a copy of Last Raven Portable, then it’s time to collect your online trinkets!

Irem, the company mostly known for the long-lived horizontal shooter series R-Type, showed off a trailer for Bumpy Trot 2, a sequel to the game known in the US as Steambot Chronicles, all the way back at Tokyo Games Show 2006. Since TGS 2007, when they showed off a new trailer to coincide with the announcement to move the game to the PlayStation 3, there has been next to no information about the game’s release, and no new data has been added to the official website, which remains as just a basic splash page.

The original Steambot Chronicles was perhaps the most ambitious mecha game ever produced, being a kind of mecha-oriented Shenmue, an open-world mecha game where the player’s options included not just fighting in arena battles and against bosses, but also allowed the player to trade resources, play the stock market, explore ancient dungeons to find artefacts for a museum, play in a band, and talk to the many townspeople and learn their stories. While a true sequel to such a game would take a while because of such depth, especially for a company as small as Irem, we’d expect to hear at least something about the game’s development, especially from Irem, whose website tends to be updated in a timely manner (and whose April’s Fool joke always seems to impress). So was the game quietly cancelled?

Perhaps not. A fan of the game got tired of waiting and just straight up and asked Irem directly, with a vague answer given back that the game was still in development. Perhaps Steambot Chronicles 2 might be the mecha games version of Duke Nukem Forever, but at least there’s still hope of the game coming out.

While we have never received a true sequel, a PSP Bumpy Trot game was localized by Atlus as Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament, but that game was a mere shade of the PlayStation 2 original, and I, like a number of other fans, prefer to forget the game existed entirely.

The much anticipated RTS sequel, Supreme Commander 2 has hit the shelves. Many improvements over the last two games have been implemented (SC2 runs much smoother than the original and Forged Alliance). The most notable changes maybe those of the economic model, tier system, and the large focus on the economy. The economic model has been simplified, so rather than the complex system of mass and energy gain/drain, the whole drained portion was chopped.

Instead of distributing the resources earned each second amongst all working engineers, they have replaced it with a credit system. If you want to build something, you must pay the full price for the item up front, then send one engineer off to build it. You can no longer have 50 engineers rush build something in a couple seconds. The whole tier system was removed. Instead of upgrading your factories to build more powerful units, you instead earn “research points.” Your ACU will slowly accumulate RP over time. You can build research facilities, or kill enemy units to get RP faster. You can then use your RP to improve your units, or unlock new ones. This all boils down to a larger focus on commanding your army. Chris Taylor promised us all of this and did not fail to keep his word. You can grab Supreme Commander 2 on both PC and the 360.