Courtesy of our good friends at HobbyLink Japan, we’ve been sent a toy from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 to review. Specifically, the new GM Sniper II from the Robot Damashii range. The gaming significance of this design is also quite interesting and this review is meant as a companion piece to the forthcoming “White Dingo” version.

4Gamer has finally nabbed the Japanese release date for the upcoming Gundam Musou 3 as being the 16th December. They’ve even done some more comparison shots with the last game on how the cel-shading works now. As we said in our impressions, the game was fun and looked decent, though obviously more of the same. We’ll be picking this one up in December.

The next episode in the anime adaptation of Harutoshi Fukui’s Gundam Unicorn novels is still set for release at the end of October. To commemorate the upcoming release of the “Red Comet” a new promo video has been going the rounds. Despite showing off the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam and MSN-06S Sinanju in more luscious detail, it’s really quite something to hear ShÅ«ichi Ikeda’s voice again. Now only if the episode could get here three times as fast…

One of the most popular games at this year’s TGS, apart from Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, was that of Platinum Games’ upcoming third person shooter Vanquish. Unlike the already released demo, the TGS version had different bosses amongst other things. We also played the game on both the PS3 and 360, with the PS3 version seeming to run a bit smoother (which isn’t surprising considering that was the game’s lead platform during development).

In short, the game really was stupendously good and it did honestly feel like Casshern the game, with guns and set inside O’Neill cylinder. Our impressions after the jump.

One of the first games we played at this year’s TGS was Front Mission Evolved. Despite being readily available in the shops in Japan, the game graced at least three separate booths across both formats (that in itself was pretty damn crazy to be honest). As such saying that the game we played was a “demo” and that there’s room for improvement doesn’t really hold true here, the code shown at TGS was utterly final in the released sense of the word. So what follows is pretty much an overture for our review most probably, in short we weren’t that impressed.

From the number of tweets we’ve been getting, it seems only fair to answer some of your questions. The recurring questions we’ve got regard the absence of Armored Core 5, Bumpy Trot 2 and Macross Trial Frontier. In the case of the latter, there is a looping movie being shown at the Bandai Namco stall but despite the game being finished there’s nothing playable at the show (though the game footage does look lovely and it’s pretty clear that the game is indeed very similar to Artdink’s recent PSP games). In addition, Irem have quite a nice presence this year but when we quizzed them about Bumpy Trot 2 they simply had a “no comment”. As for Armored Core 5? Absolutely nothing, not even a video preview and due to From Software not having a presence at the show we’ve been unable to quiz anyone about it.

Considering that Front Mission Evolved is playable in about three separate booths this year (despite being available in the shops already in Japan) it may be that From Software decided to wait this one out, as Armored Core 5 is potentially quite similar in approach. In any case, it’s not as though From Software needed to be worried as after playing Front Mission Evolved quite a bit its is really quite painfully average.

Apologies for the slightly blurry photo above but we’ve managed to play a fair bit of Koei’s upcoming and now cel-shaded Gundam Musou 3. To give both releases a fair chance, we put some time into the PS3 and 360 versions. The show demo only has two playable units; the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam and the GF13-017NJII God Gundam. You can also pick your partners too, such as Kamille in the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam and Four in the MRX-009 Psycho Gundam. Our impressions are after the jump.

GAGraphic has finally previewed an upcoming and somewhat unassuming Robot Damashii toy, that of the wonderful RGM-79SP GM Sniper II. This version is using the Gundam 0080 colour scheme but this design has a worthy gaming history. Whether we’ll see the previously shown White Dingo variant remains to be seen however. The sculpt does look brilliant on this toy though. In any case, this version of the GM Sniper II is released later this month for 2,940 yen and you can pre-order it here.

In the latest issue of Famitsu, yet another Gundam Musou (aka: Dynasty Warriors Gundam) game has been announced. Whilst we’re not overly fond of the games, as they’re functionally Musou games with a mecha based veneer, we do enjoy them nonetheless.

That said, the line-up for this game is pretty thorough (see list below) and prior to a Gundam Extreme Versus port this game may partially satiate our Unicorn Gundam fixation. At present Gundam Musou 3 is scheduled for a Japanese release this Winter on both the PS3 and 360.

Update: Game Watch has covered the fact that this new Musou game will be using a form of cel-shading for the rendering. The official site has also been updated.

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.