Improving on the original…
Unlike the first GBA, this game has 9 separate in-depth stories. Three stories from both Gundam W and Mobile Fighter G and two stories from MSG. all the story lines take place in each of their respectable universes, contain individual dialog and have a small ending. The down side is that the story is still not the best part of the game.
The gameplay for GBA2 is its best feature aside from fanfare. It’s quit a lot better then the first game. All the graphics and sound were updated as well as the combo system and overall speed and flow. Every character has a set of health bars, energy bars and ammo amounts. You lose all your health, you die. You lose all your energy, you overheat and risk high damage to your mobile suit because you won’t be able to fly or dodge. You use all your ammo; you lose the ability to fire your gun or guns. There is a large amount of imbalance in GBA2 that was not in the first. Some special moves for instance need VERY precise accuracy and if you miss you can kiss your butt goodbye. Furthermore; in the story they do more damage and can be a tad on the side of cheap AI which no good 2D fighting game can be without. The fights themselves are combo based and for the most part have been made more simplistic then the first GBA. There is a normal attack system of hard kick, soft kick, hard punch, soft punch that replaced the old system of high-low. When the attack buttons are pressed with other buttons or directions in a sequence you can do special moves known as “combos”. These combos do more damage then basic attacks or basic combos (just chaining basic attacks together) and super combos (which have a limit of 3 per round) do even more damage (unless you miss). The parts of the fight that set it apart from most other 2D fighters are the ability to “strafe” which is basically a “sidestep” that avoids enemy attacks but uses some of your energy bar. And the ability to fly. All the mechs in the game are able to use the “jump jets” on their mechs to hover, dash and fly until their energy runs out. There is also a “mode on” ability which basically enables controlled flight for as long as your energy lasts.
The real fun comes in the VS mode. You and a friend can choose from 30 Mobile Suits. Most need unlocking before you can use them. Each of the mechs are piloted by each of their respectable pilot characters from the Gundam universe. Once you choose your characters, you are then able to choose the stage and finally fight to the death! There are also various other modes such as “VS computer” mode where you fight the computer instead of a friend, “Survival mode” where you see how many enemies you can take out before you get taken out and two Time Trial modes where you fight to beat the clock.
There was a huge update to GBA2 which included full anime visuals as well as cut scenes, less blockyness and even more crisp looking environments and mechs. The backgrounds are completely in anime and look stunning. The pilot character art is done in anime as well and even get in-battle cut scenes for special attacks. The mechs now look like well rendered anime sprites. The coolest part is that when an area of a mobile suit takes a large amount of damage; the area of the suit becomes “battle damaged”. In other words they loose paint, parts or shape as well as having visible electrical discharges.
The few cut scenes you get are short and contain the text of what’s being said but now there are voiceovers on most of them. They look nice and fit the bill quite well.
The in-game sound was upgraded as wel. The music is mostly hard-rock/metal sounding battle music with only a small amount of re-mixed Gundam series rips. The sound effects are he typical Gundam series rips (I wouldn’t expect anything less from BanDai). And finally, the voice over work was superbly upgraded. It’s no longer just the one echo guy(he is still in it but they cleaned up his voice so it doesn’t eco and now it’s understandable and not annoying. It still seems very arcadey.), now it’s him and a girl doing the menu, character select, pre, post and in-fight narratives. Also, all the characters that are in the game have their voice in the game for special attacks and a few combos. The 9 story mode characters talk in most of their cut scenes as well.
The replay value is pretty high if you are into the Gundam series or if you are a 2D fighter buff but it’s not a game anyone can enjoy. It’s a tad difficult to learn some of the combos if you aren’t huge into 2D fighters. The Story mode replay however, is somewhat low. Once all the suits that are unlocked by beating storymode are unlocked; it’s doubtful you’ll play it again as there isn’t too much point in watching a story again and again when you can just practice against the AI or play a friend is VS mode.
As for weather to rent or buy Gundam Battle Assault 2; I’d say if you are interested in Gundam and/or 2D fighters give it at least a rent. I personally think it’s worth a buy but that’s just who I am. If you played the first one and liked it, get this one because it’s better. If you played the first one and didn’t like it, try this because it’s better, what have you got to lose?