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.

Possibly our favourite Transformer, Shockwave (aka Laserwave, Astro Magnum etc.), is getting offered as a pre-order bonus for GameStop customers who buy the upcoming Transformers: War for Cybertron. Now, we know this news isn’t that current but this trailer showing off the pre-order bonus in game (and suitably voiced) is rather wonderful – though much of that is also down to the music being used.

Shockwave is an interesting design as it mirrors much of the similarities to the cyclops monster seen in Ulysses 31, a series that Studio Nue also worked on. Whilst Nue also worked on Diaclone, the Japanese toy line that birthed Transformers as we know it, Shockwave was an interesting anomaly to that as the original “Astro Magnum” toy wasn’t made by Takara. Whoever penned the original toy design, and we’re inclined to think it may have been Kazutaka Miyatake, we’re suitably chuffed that the new game will feature the mecha.

The model kit manufacturer Hasegawa have announced that their next Virtual On kit will be the VR Myzr from Force. Myzr was the follow on unit from Cypher from Oratan, as Myzr can also transform (something this kit will apparently do as well). This is all suitably timely considering the upcoming 360 port of Force on the way. For those confused as to why Kotobukiya aren’t making this kit, that’s because they only have the rights for the original Virtual On and Oratan. Hasegawa, on the other hand, have the rights to both Force and Marz – as they’ve been making kits alongside Kotobukiya’s output for some time now. No word on when the Myzr kit will be released but it will most probably be before the port hits the shops.

The official site for Another Century’s Episode R has finally been updated with details on the game’s new game system. Apart from the relatively familiar “Tension” setup, which fires off a series specific special move (similar to the Combination Attacks in the last two ACE games), there’s also talk of new Charge Attacks. What’s most interesting though is the new “Chase Mode”. This will act as a point of interest camera angle for certain events and bosses in the game. This is so you don’t miss the full picture of what’s happening around you, something that partially happened with the earlier games as you were always locked onto specific enemies. Admittedly, you’ll still have the free look function but this sounds like a pretty cool addition. Finally, ACE R will also allow players to swap out pilots per unit, much like in the SRW games. That said having Kincaide Nau pilot the Hyakushiki seems a bit…odd.

To commemorate the release of the updated port for Lord of Elemental, Banpresto commissioned a wooden sculpture (etched via chainsaw no less by a masked chap called Jason-san) of the suitably regal Cybuster. Game Watch has covered this quite nicely and shown the statue from a number of angles. Whilst the finish isn’t overly precise, it does have a rather lovely rustic feel to it. To me at least, that fits the whole Byston Well-eqsue nature of the design. In any case, the game itself is released today in Japan and you can order it here.

The port of the sequel to G.rev’s arcade classic, Senko no Ronde, was released earlier in the week. Entitled Senko no Ronde DUO the port is rife with a panoply of exclusive features, from an interesting story mode as well as online multiplayer (though hopefully the latter will fair better with lag this time around). We’ll be reviewing the game in the near future but in the meantime you can order the Japanese version here.

Gpara has some new coverage regarding the upcoming arcade game Gundam Extreme Versus. Specifically, on some of the newer units such as the 00 and Cherudim Gundam. The former will also have the option to switch to the 00 Raiser (this is a sensible balancing consideration as it was pretty uber in Next Plus). The ability to use options like Trans Am will also be linked into the new “Extreme Boost” function as well, which is tied to the EX Gauge. The Next Dash is also still present but will also have greater affect in melee, where attacks can be cancelled and combined on the fly. The update also talks about the ID card system and its compatibility with mobile phones (in Japan).

Over at Game Watch it seems that the Japanese release date for Front Mission Evolved has been confirmed as the 16th September. Interestingly, the article also talks of a release on Steam. The US release, confirmed in the trailer below, is two days before the Japanese one; on the 14th September. Naturally, upon release, we’ll be reviewing the game – so keep an eye out for that.

Along with the news regarding Another Century’s Episode R’s release date, which is apparently the 19th August, the official site also talks about premium downloadable content for those that pre-order the game. Specifically, the MSZ-006-3 Zeta Gundam Type 3 from the limited release one-off “movie” Green Divers. This design, in the movie at least, was hinted at being piloted by none other than Amuro Ray (as Tohru Furuya was used to voice the unnamed pilot). It was only until Gundam Evolve 9 that fans knew that, yes, this was Amuro’s custom built Zeta and it was dubbed the “White Unicorn” to boot (though this is not to be confused with Amuro’s later custom built Zeta Plus). In any case, having this unit available in ACE R is a nice touch and for those curious about the Type 3 Zeta, we’ve linked the entirety of Gundam Evolve 9 below.

Over the past five years or so there’s been a palpable trend within gaming in the West. Palpable in the sense in that it fundamentally affects the functional framework of the games themselves, to the extent that this change is almost taken for granted.

In the scramble for supposed mainstream appeal more and more games have opted to take a standardised approach to gaming functionality. On the one hand this allows for a much more accessible learning curve and an implicit understanding of how a game will operate. The down side to this is that ultimately many games end up playing the same.

Bucking this trend is also very difficult as much of the mainstream press get pretty worked up when a game requires them to learn something new. This, to be fair, isn’t their fault as they often have to cover multiple games in a ridiculously short amount of time. As such, due to the way that the gaming press operates, functional standardisation is something that is critically welcomed.

So when something as brilliantly wrought as Lost Planet 2 comes along, with its immense number of fascinating nuances and insightful design choices, it receives coverage that’s very much distorted and more than a little bit unfair on account of how the gaming press is structured. As such, we feel compelled to address this issue; as Lost Planet 2 is really quite bloody amazing.