Think all Gundam games are bad? Think again.
The Playstation Portable: a handheld gaming system that, quite frankly, has some problems in controls and games available. The PSP is also selling pretty poorly – having less than a fourth of the Nintendo DS' total sales at the time of this publication.
Now, considering the two elements being brought together, you'd expect a Gundam game on the PSP to be utterly bad, right? Prepare to be completely shocked: it's actually good. The only flaw? It's only available in Japan.
However, if you can find an importing website that carries this… or eBay… then prepare yourself for one of the best Gundam games around – and one of the best games on the PSP.
Like most Gundam games, this game focuses on the Universal Century time line of Gundam. This means no Gundam Wing, no Gundam Seed and no G-Gundam. Some of you may be turned off by that, I still wouldn't let it get in the way of playing the game.
Especially since it's so freaking fun.
Campaign mode allows the player to choose the side of either the Earth Federation or the space-based Principality of Zeon during the One Year War. While many of the missions will remain similar as you go through the game, the mobile suits the player can get are quite different – and some of those missions will change in difficulty greatly, depending on what side you're actually on, to say nothing of the area you select.
In fact, the game will even give you a decent selection in terms of where you want to go. While the first, third and fifth areas are all the same, the player can choose where to go for the second or fourth areas. For the second area, this is mostly just a personal preference – either going down to fight against the Federation (or alongside the White Dingos) in Australia, or going up to Europe to beat down the enemy. With the fourth area, though, the choice actually means something. The player can either decide to help out with the Jaburo invasion… or help out with the massively epic Battle of Solomon.
Regardless of how you decide to go, the One Year War will end at A Baua Qu – and the missions will still change slightly depending on which side you chose. If you chose the Federation, your final boss will be Char Asnable in his Zeong. If you sided with Zeon, the player will face down against Amuro Ray and his Gundam. But they're not the only ones you'll fight.
As you progress through the One Year War, many different Ace Pilots will almost be crawling out of the woodwork in order to beat you down or join up with you. These guys aren't just limited to the animated shows of Gundam, featuring characters from random video games, a couple from a manga side story or two, and even some from the spin-off Gundam MSV. However, in order to find these guys, you'll often need to score extremely well in other missions.
Not only that, but in Campaign mode, the player gets to essentially create a character. The player gets to select from one of four archetypes, two male and two female. From there, the player chooses if they wish to be a 'Normal' or 'Newtype.' This won't make-or-break your gaming experience, but it does change what suits can be used by your original character.
A normal pilot will be able to use the Blue Destiny series and Efreet, all of which are equipped with the EXAM system. It's complicated, but Newtype pilots aren't allowed to use them.
Meanwhile, a Newtype pilot can use many of the specific Newtype-use mobile suits on the side of Zeon. On top of that, they get more chances to dodge and an audio signal whenever the enemy tries to fire upon them (known in-series as a 'Newtype Flash').
And after the player's slaughtered their way through the One Year War? They can then join up with the AEUG or the Titans and fight their way through the Gryps Conflict shown in Zeta Gundam! Or they would, if the game didn't abruptly stop it at about halfway through the fighting.
Now, I have to admit, I've probably lost a whole lot of you guys who aren't Gundam fans – and maybe even a few who are. I do apologize for this, but it's literally a dream come true for someone who's just watched many, many Gundam games turn out to be crap with an extremely limited unit selection.
Don't worry if you've gotten lost – I'll pretty much pick up with the non-Gundam aspects of the game from now on.
Since this is an import game, there's something I've got to address right away: comprehension. With games released in, say, North America… this isn't exactly a problem (and I admit, I'm being culturally biased here) because the game is translated into the native language of that country. With import games (especially from Japan), though, there's often a chance that the game you import is incomprehensible and a total mess when it comes to trying to figure it out.
Luckily, this game isn't like that. While the dialog in this game is in Japanese, almost the entire game's menu system is set in English; and not the crappy Engrish, but actual English. The mission titles on the loading screen are also both in Japanese and English, and the only actual menu that's in Japanese is the mobile suit upgrade screen. If you don't understand a word of Japanese, this game is still insanely accessible to you, though some research might be needed to figure out what part of the robot to upgrade. This is probably the easiest-to-understand import game around when getting something from Japan, though the occasional mission objective will be obscured through the language barrier.
When it comes to most recent Gundam games, the visuals are often pretty horrible for one reason or another. With some games, it's because the developers were lazy – and with others, it's because they were rushed. With this game… that trend has actually been bucked.
Maybe it's because they only had to build off a previous game (Gundam Battle Tactics, also for the PSP), but this game looks absolutely gorgeous. In fact, it's probably the best-looking Gundam game I've played – even counting those games on the PS2! Even the effects are just plain awesome to behold – though one or two of the smaller effects do seem a little… underwhelming. The only flaw with this game's visuals is the fact that everything is pretty 'jaggy' on the PSP's screen, but everything smooths out almost perfectly once everything is in motion.
As for the arenas, things are a little bland. While outdoors arenas like South America's Jaburo base look pretty nice, other areas wind up looking rather bland. This only gets to be a problem once areas are repeated later on in the game, but often times you'll be too busy shooting the crap out of the enemy to notice.
As for music, it definitely varies. Some of the music is taken right out of both the original Gundam series and Zeta Gundam, and the music chosen is usually fitting for most of the stages. On top of that, some music from previous Gundam games (Encounters in Space, Zeonic Front and Side Story 0079) also pop up quite often, and the selections from those games also fit extremely well. It's still a little odd to hear instrumentals that are almost 30 years old continually pop up in a video game, but it works.
As for the voice acting, there's a lot of it. Unfortunately, it's all in Japanese – but it looks like most of the Japanese voice actors came back to voice their characters. However, one or two voices do sound like stand-ins – specifically, Amuro Ray. I honestly can't tell if it's because his VA is getting older or if it literally is a stand-in, but it just sounds off. On the other hand, though, all of those characters who were never given voices before now have some pretty dang good voice actors.
The controls in this game are also insanely good, even when compared to some of the newest Gundam games on the PS2 and PS3. The control pad controls the movement of your mobile suit, and double-tapping a direction sends your suit thrusting off to the direction you chose. It feels a little clunky at first, but as you upgrade mobile suits and get used to it, the gameplay works insanely well. From there, we also have multiple ranged weapons.
Pressing the circle button will use the suit's main weapon, and the square button uses the backup weapon (usually either head vulcans or a grenade). On top of that, if the Mobile Suit has multiple hand-held weapons, holding down L and pressing square will switch out the weapons down the list. Triangle is a melee attack, and they can be strung together into a pretty simple combo easily. Finally, X is the boost button – allowing for jumping or thrusting in a few directions easily. When combined with the double-tapping thrust, the player can zip about the map very easily. L is the practically required blocking button, and R is the button that allows you to lock the camera onto an enemy, with the control nub cycling through the lock-on targets.
And while this all sounds pretty humdrum and bland, combat itself is insanely fast-paced for a Gundam game – something that should please many people looking for a great Gundam game.
On top of all that so far, there's even a special meter bar located with the player's stats. This bar will go up in segments slowly throughout a battle, filling up when just about anything happens – good or bad. The bar itself will fill up twice overall, and there's a reason for that.
Each hand-held weapon has a special attack, performed by holding down L and then hitting either the circle or triangle buttons. Beam weapons will fire a massive beam of death and most solid-based weaponry will often fire dangerously-explosive rounds of some sort. The melee weapons will often be some sort of an uppercut, with some major damage dealt – sending the enemy flying across the map. On top of that, L and X will unleash a massive booster thrust – sending the player careening across the map at breakneck speed. This is pretty handy when trying to escape from, or even getting to, an enemy force. Doing this sort of special attack will drain one single segment from that meter. But we're not done yet…
Once the meter has filled up entirely once (or twice), the player can pull off a suit-specific boost attack by pressing both the triangle and circle buttons at the same time. The suit itself depends on what is unleashed, but the attack is always devastating. The different Zaku-types will often unleash a Judo-style punch that utterly destroys most enemies in one hit, while the classic Gundam and AEUG's version of the Gundam Mk.II will unleash a massive beam saber attack that sends the enemy flying away like a home run hit in a baseball game. This sort of attack can't really be spammed, though, because it literally drains away one full charge of the meter, giving the player two uses in a row at best.
Honestly, this is probably the best-controlling Gundam game I've touched in ages. While some of the controls weren't instantly obvious to me, I was able to figure things out through guesswork pretty quickly. I just can't describe how well the controls work any better than this, and I was honestly shocked that it was this fun.
When it comes to replay value, though, this game is a little on the sad side. Overall, the campaign mode is pretty short. If the player doesn't mind burning right through the game, it can be thrashed in less than a day easily - especially considering the game does not cover all of the second war it claims to cover. There's always the fact that you can get more mobile suits and pilots by playing through, as well as leveling-up the mobile suits they've unlocked in the campaign mode.
There's a VS mode as well, allowing the player to go up against a friend or the computer in several modes of combat. However, much of the menus for selecting these specific VS modes are in Japanese – which makes for some sad trial-and-error at times.
Beyond that, however, there just isn't that much else to bring the player back to the game. I wish there was, because it's so freaking fun, but… ah, well. Can't have everything, I guess.
In the end, this is a wonderful game – the fact that Gundam is somehow involved with this game is just a bonus for Gundam fans and fanatics. If you're a fan of Gundam and have a PSP, you literally have almost no excuse not to import this game – especially since the PSP is completely region-free when it comes to games. Just make sure your firmware is up to date, and everything is perfect for play. On top of that? The loading times are even manageable! On a PSP game!
Even if you're not a Gundam fan you might want to check this game out – it's that good.
Gameplay: 9
Visuals: 9.5
Audio: 8.5
Replay Value: 5
Personal Tilt: 10
Comprehension: 8.5
Final Score:
8.5 out of 10