News: Gundam Extreme Versus 2 Initial Roster And Location...
As the rest of the world has Gundam Versus on the PS4, Japanese arcades are gearing up for the upcoming Gundam Versus Extreme 2. On May 12 and 13, stores in Tokyo and Osaka...
News: God Gundam and Master Gundam DLC Coming To Gundam...
It's been a long time coming, but God Gundam and Master Gundam are finally joining the Gundam Versus roster as the next DLC units in January. While we've had several melee...
News: Aegis Gundam, GM Sniper II White Dingo Ver. and...
This December, even more suits are being added to the ever growing Gundam Versus lineup. The first is Aegis Gundam, last seen in Gundam SEED Destiny: Rengou VS ZAFT II Plus...
News: Atlas Gundam DLC Coming To Gundam Versus
If you were hoping for more Gundam Thunderbolt units, there's good news! Atlas Gundam will be joining the Gundam Versus roster as DLC in late November. This will more than...
News: Gundam Versus To Add Phantom Gundam As DLC Unit
As we await the upcoming Western release of Gundam Versus on September 29 on top of unreleased units such as Pale Rider and Gundam Guison Rebake, Phantom Gundam has been...
Thanks to our friends over at ACO, I’ve happened to stumble upon this neat Armored Core 3 Silent Line animation from around the game’s release back in 2003. It’s created by Mist Crown – a rather talented Japanese flash animator. Enjoy!
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!
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnnCXT-Bnk4]
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.
The game appears to look a tad bit sharper than the iPhone version, or it could simply be the video smoothing things out. Anyhow, all this hotness comes at a price; only the most up to speed devices can support the game, which means only Droid and Nexus One users for here in the states. It’s available now in the Android Market for $3.99, a full dollar more than the iPhone version. Hmmm. Via Engadet.
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.
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IwRUOzuLhE]
At least the cast isn’t all moe, which is somewhat of a surprise, given the archetype’s popularity as of late. Though to be honest, instead of girls that vaguely resemble Temjin or Bal-Bas-Bow, most appear to be from shmups, either from Triggerheart Exelica or Otomedius, primarily the blue haired character. You’ve also got one that has shades of Anubis, from Zone of the Enders, along with this other one who vaguely resembles Eika Ichijo, from Sky Girls, or at least the mecha suit. Sorta. Okay, not really. Anyway, for those that wish to give it a try, the demo can be attained here (hope you all have better luck than myself). Via Select Button.
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.
The wonderfully talented composer Kinuyo Yamashita is in a bit of a pickle over her English Wikipedia page. Despite being a credited composer on multiple games and having her own Japanese Wikipedia entry, it seems that the English side of things refuse to acknowledge her large body of work.
The reason we mention her here is that she recently composed the score for the PC shooter Gunhoud (which we will review soon, we promise). A few peeps, including the indomitable Eric Caoili over at Game Set Watch, noted that the Gunhound’s music bore a striking similarity to the various Castlevania games. Well, that’s because it was written by the same very gifted lady.
In any case, get on over to Wikipedia and help sort this nonsense out. It might also be worth showing that full blown orchestras have performed her work too, just saying. After all, what the world be without the wondrously memorable Vampire Killer?
Over at Moeyo (link somewhat NSFW) there’s a suitably cute preview of Kotobukiya’s upcoming D-Style White Glint from Armored Core For Answer. It turns out that, like it’s bigger Variable Infinity cousins, the D-Style variant will also be customisable (once other designs make the transition obviously). The eye detailing will also be accurate as per the original seen in the game as well. This little chap is currently being displayed in the Kotobukiya Direct store in Akihabara.
