One of the more interesting Robot Damashii toys, that of the Zegapain Altair, has finally been released in Japan. Interesting in the sense that this mecha was the titular protagonist in the similarly titled Zegapain and that the series itself was strongly funded by Microsoft in Japan. The plan was to tie in two exclusive Xbox 360 games, Zegapain XOR and NOT, that were very plain ZOE clones alongside the series. Despite the insane amount of product placement in the anime, the most obvious sign of Microsoft’s handiwork was the revolting colour of green they picked for the mecha itself. Despite being a rather innovative mecha design, penned by Rei Nakahara, the saddest thing about the whole thing was that Microsoft hired Cavia to develop the games and it was patently clear their heart wasn’t in it. Though to be honest, who could really blame them when the host work featured a hideously bright green mecha. This then is the testament to the design itself; as this toy is a palpable reminder of when Western intervention in Japanese anime and gaming pop-culture just doesn’t work.

Along with the normal release of the game on December 22nd, for 6,090 yen, Virtual On Force will also be available in a Memorial Box version for an eye watering 10,290 yen. The bump in price is on account of three factors; a 6 disc set of ALL the music from every Virtual On game as well as an artbook covering the 15 year history of the franchise. The final icing on the cake is that it will have a custom created box-art penned by Hajime Katoki himself. Put simply, we’re getting the Memorial Box. The official site has also undergone a functional makeover, as it now covers the VR line-up in the game as well as the World background.

After ten years, it finally seems that Turn A Gundam is coming to the West. As Bandai Entertainment plan to bring the 50 episode anime series to Western shores in the coming future, whether this will encompass the two movies as well remains to be seen. Since its release in Japan Turn A has become a cult series, due in part to the somewhat bizarre and originally very controversial mecha design, penned by none other by Syd Mead. Over the years these designs have grown on the fanbase and many know appreciate the fact that series was very much ahead of its time. From the gorgeous score by Yoko Kanno to the deft characterisation and narrative from a calmer Yoshiyuki Tomino, Turn A is a series that is quite a mature and thoughtful work. The fact that it will finally receive a Western release is good news indeed, though arguably a tad overdue.

Unsurprisingly, Turn A has graced multiple games over the years. From Super Robot Wars Z to the Gundam Musou games as well as Another Century’s Episode 3 not to mention the Gundam Vs games, the SYSTEM ∀-99 (WD-M01) ∀ Gundam has made its mark on gaming in recent years. Due to the immense potency in the anime though, it’s a problematic unit in terms of games design; as an attack that can wipe out all technology via nano-machines is a bit tricky to implement in a functional sense. The gaming connections of this series also span to the character design too, as Yasuda Akira (or “Akiman”) was one of the original designers on Street Fighter II, amongst many other Capcom games. He went to work with Tomino again on the brilliant Overman King Gainer, which even featured a protagonist who was an ardent gamer.

4Gamer has some new coverage for the upcoming 360 port of Virtual On Force. Despite showing the four-player splitscreen mode, the above screenshot was of more interest really. For those that may not know, that’s a picture of TWO Jaguarandi’s against a MBV-04-10/80adv “10/80 ADV”. The best description for the above picture is probably along the lines of “incongruously terrifying”. This somewhat insane screenshot actually shows a special mission in progress, which is interesting as it’s something Virtual On Marz attempted as well, in terms of its level structure at least. Having a 10/80adv pitted against the Force era Jaguarandi’s does seem brutally unfair though.

SiliconEra has an interview with Shinji Hashimoto, producer of Front Mission Evolved, teasing some sort of cross-promotion with Hideo Kojima and his PlayStation Portable game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

This cross-promotion seems to be in addition to an already announced cross-promotion between the two games, where items unlocked in Peace Walker will be available in Front Mission Evolved, and/or vice versa. Considering the very different nature of the two games’ mecha, I’m wondering how this will actually work; if it’s robot-to-robot part swapping it could look awkward, albeit possibly interesting. The mecha in Peace Walker are heavy tank-like walkers and reworked versions of Metal Gear Solid 3’s Shagohod, while Front Mission Evolved’s mecha conform more to the Real Robot standard of quick-moving humanoid weapons, equipped with thrusters and ground rollers.

I wouldn’t mind the big secret being a face-off against the venerable Metal Gear REX from the original Metal Gear Solid. I’ve been waiting years to go mano-a-mano (well, mecha-to-mecha) against that monster without support from an insane cyborg ninja. Getting help from an insane cyborg ninja always felt like cheating.

Game Watch has a nice breakdown on the upcoming Front Mission Evolved that shows, amongst many things, the backpacks that the wanzers can equip. From anti-missile hardware to, the more interesting, hover/flight backpack. Interesting in the sense that wanzers have historically been ground specific mecha, much like the AT’s in VOTOMS in fact as they too have “rollers” in their feet. Admittedly, some of the Front Mission games have allowed the wanzers to jump and hover but this was relatively rare in the series as a whole. There’s no reason why it can’t work though and the backpack element means it’s by no means a permanent fixture either. The update also shows some of the antagonist characters, with emphasis on bewbs no less. The Dylan mercenaries sport wanzers with skulls for heads, just so that gamers get that they are the “baddies” (way to go on the narrative subtlety there). In any case there are lots of nice screenshots to look at and, for all our worries about the game, it is looking nice.

After HORI finally received all its pre-orders for the release of the TwinStick EX peripheral, it now seems that that sticks are going into production again. In addition, the sticks have been emblazoned with the Virtual On Force logo to tie in with the port’s 360 release at the end of the year. You can also order the sticks again here and thankfully the sticks will also still work with the Oratan 5.66 port that was released on XBLA last year.

Over at Gpara they’ve covered the news that an old Temjin statue will go on tour around three Japanese art museums in the coming months. Specifically the Aomori Museum of Art, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art and the Iwami Art Museum. This is also part of a robot art festival but it nicely ties into the upcoming release for the Virtual On Force port coming later this year. This specific Temjin statue, the MZV-747-J, was actually used at the 2002 Tokyo Game Show to announce Virtual On Marz’s release. The problem is that the 747 series of Temjins in Force sport a different and more subdued colour scheme, so this statue is a bit out of date with that really. This Temjin from Marz also featured in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 on the PS2 and the recent Super Robot Wars K on the DS.

As a series, Transformers often gets a bum deal when it comes to gaming. In recent history at least, the majority of the games made using the license have been functionally atrocious. However, much of this was down to the games being lead by the nose by the original intellectual property and, for the last few games, down to idiotic schedules on account of them being film tie-ins. Thankfully, games like Batman: Arkham Asylum have shown that if you use the framework of the IP to build a game at its own pace you can end up with something decent.

Activision did just that and between film releases decided to fund a dedicated Transformers game which wasn’t stringently bound to the narrative idiosyncrasies of a series that’s, to be fair, pretty mongrel at the best of times. High Moon have managed to tackle the challenge with a remarkable level of craftsmanship and for the first time in a long while I’ve been able to play a refreshingly good Transformers game.

As part of Bandai’s increasingly infuriating Tamashii Web shop exclusives, they have finally announced that they’ll be releasing Soul of Chogokin Spec toys of both the Dragonar 2 and 3 units from Metal Armor Dragonar. Now, Dragonar has had somewhat of a resurgence since it was featured in all three of the PS2 Another Century’s Episode games (though it had obviously been featured in a multitude of Super Robot Wars games prior to that). Up and till this point however, Bandai had only released toys of the Dragonar 1, specifically two variants of the design; one with original proportions from the show and another that was stylised by Masami Obari. These new toys obviously seem to fall into the latter Obari stylised camp, not that we’re complaining. At present it’s not clear whether these toys will also sport the “lifters”, backpacks with wings on effectively, that were used in the show but we may see more options surface in the oncoming months. Both toys will be released in December, though you’ll obviously have needed to pre-order them online first. Personally, we’re holding out for the day when they finally release a Dragonar 1 Custom.