4Gamer has a nice bit of coverage on Gundam Extreme Versus’ presence at this year’s C3xHOBBY. Despite the presence of Kazuki Yao, the voice of Judau Ashta (amongst many others), the interesting announcement is the presence of a new Kunio Okawara design in the game, called the Extreme Gundam. Similar in many ways to the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam but it also has a reverse “face” currently hidden from view. This will be a boss unit in the game and there’s no word on whether it will be playable as yet.

The upcoming Super Robot Wars OG anime directed by none other than Masami Obari has finally received its first PV (shown below). Despite the somewhat unnerving character design, having the cockpits shake and rattle in both the PTX-007-03C Weisritter and PTX-003C Alteisen is rather refreshing. The PV is also quite long too and shows a good chunk of footage.

Over at this year’s C3xHOBBY show, all manner of new kits and toys have been displayed. Of note are the figures made by Griffon Enterprises, as they will feature prominent mecha from various Armored Core games. The first of which will be the updated Nineball as seen in Armored Core Ninebreaker in the spring of next year, shortly followed by Dual Face from Armored Core Nexus. Both of these will be around 12cm tall and made from PVC. It must be said though that even in prototype form, the Nineball toy has a wonderful sculpt to it and it also seems the grenade launcher will be articulated as well.

As the release date for Front Mission Evolved looms ever closer, the marketing campaign is going into overdrive. From appearances of the game at GamesCom to a somewhat spurious “interactive trailer” (linked below). We’re still a bit sceptical about the game, as the wanzers appear a tad twitchy. In any case, we’ll know for sure when it’s released at the end of September.

Banpresto have a pretty sketchy record when it comes to mecha action games. After numerous botched attempts they did the smart thing and hired From Software to helm a series of mecha games called Another Century’s Episode. Linked in spirit to Banpresto’s turnbased strategy focused Super Robot Wars series, it featured multiple mecha from disparate mecha series in an action game context all high fiving for the win. Of the three games that were released on the PlayStation 2, it’s hard to find fault with any of them. From Software knew what they were doing and had finally been allowed into the playground where all the cool mecha toys were kept, so the results were obviously rather wonderful.

When ACE:R was announced, there was a sizeable amount and quite justifiable excitement over the game. As this would be the first entry to be in HD on a new and more powerful console. However, as this was meant as “rebirth” Banpresto mistakenly involved the SRW team on the production, most probably to bring the two massive franchises into a closer alignment – or some such mind numbingly stupid corporate agenda. The outcome is something rather unfortunate indeed.

Game Watch has announced that on release of Virtual On Force in December customers who pre-ordered the game will have access to a “fetish unlock code”. This will allow players to increase the chest size of both Fei-Yen and Angelan, effectively giving the VR’s larger robotic breasts (pictured above).

Being a long-term player of the games, I find this “feature” palpably creepy and more than a little unsettling.

Over at 4Gamer they’ve shown this week’s sales and bearing in mind that Another Century’s Episode R was only released last Thursday the fact it’s at the top of the charts with a whopping 219,849 sales is very impressive (especially as it’s higher than the three previous games). What’s less impressive is actually how bad the game is and despite the somewhat suspicious glut of positive reviews in the Japanese games press, the public are really not happy with the new game. Whilst our review will be forthcoming in the next day or so, for those that sat on the fence for this you really shouldn’t bother and the remainder that imported (including yours truly) we share your pain. Here’s hoping the inevitable next game in the series isn’t as bad as this one was.

In the latest issue of Famitsu a new hand-held Super Robot Wars title has been announced, now with an “L” suffix. Whilst a new SRW game is always nice news, the fact it’s yet another DS title does grate somewhat. As Banpresto have a habit of regurgitating content between versions, with SRWL being no exception to this as the line-up reuses a large amount of series from W and K (amongst other things). Whilst there are some new series featured, such as Macross Frontier and Linebarrel, it’s still a bit of a rehash. Admittedly we get why Banpresto are doing this, as the DS is massive in Japan and re-using assets is cost effective but come on – where’s the PS3 SRW 2D turn based strategy epic we’ve all be waiting for? In any case, SRWL will be released in Japan on November 25th.

Updated: Famitsu has some new screenshots for the game on their site and the official site has gone live too.

Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a toy from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann to review. Specifically, the new Composite Ver. Ka Gurren Lagann. In addition, to give the toy some context, we’ve also linked some anime and gameplay footage of it in action from its Nintendo DS game at the end of the review.

One of the most terrifying opponents in From Software’s series of Armored Core games is the ultimate incarnation of Nineball, that of Nineball Seraph. First introduced as the final boss in Armored Core Master of Arena, it was one of the first transforming antagonists seen in the series. However when Seraph reappeared in Armored Core 2 Another Age, as a secret boss, this was when its reputation as a brutal opponent surfaced. Colloquially known as “jetboy” amongst the Western gaming throng, Seraph would obliterate almost everyone that tried to face it in combat.

It seems that Nineball Seraph has finally made it into the just released Another Century’s Episode R, though with a few minor modifications admittedly (with the shoulders being notable). This would be the first time, since the original Another Century’s Episode, that a From Software mecha made it into the series (as the last was a Cloudbreaker from the Xbox game Murakumo). Whether this is a playable unit remains to be seen though. In other news, the wonderful Hi-Nu Gundam has been confirmed as a secret unlock in the game as well, this would mark the unit’s current generation debut in an action game. In any case, we’ve linked the video of Seraph’s introduction below as well as its appearances in Armored Core.