TGS 2005: Super Robot Wars MX Portable Hands-On

TOKYO--One of the pleasant surprises in Sony's and Banpresto's TGS booths is the presence of Super Robot Wars MX, a PSP version of the popular strategy game featuring an all-star lineup of superdeformed robots. The long-running series originally made use of a standard turn-based combat system wherein you moved units on a grid and engaged your enemies. Though that system has remained central to the core mechanics of the series, the growing power of consoles and portable systems has allowed developer Banpresto to evolve the series. The PSP version of the game shows off the latest the mixed-media approach taken by the recent PlayStation 2 games to spice up the battles.

The work-in-progress version of the game let us dive into a battle and direct a fighting force made up of assorted gundams. The game handles exactly like the previous games in the series: Battles are turn-based and split into player and enemy phases. During the player phase you can move your forces and attack when you get in range of an enemy. Optional animated cinematics play during combat to spice up the attacks. As with the earlier games, you'll notice that certain mechs have loyalties among themselves, which yield assorted benefits on the battlefield. As you defeat enemies you'll earn experience for both your bot and its pilot. One of the engrossing aspects of the series is matching the right pilot and mech together, ensuring success during combat.

The visuals in the game were standard 2D sprites, and the game's view was an overhead look at the battlefield, which featured an optional grid overlay. Once you initiate an attack, a cinematic featuring your unit will play, complete with voice and dramatic close-ups of weapons fire. The audio was console-quality crisp on the PSP, which is a cut above the still-impressive effects heard in the GBA entries of the series.

Though it's hard to get much out of a playable demo of a deep strategy game like SRW MX, we like what we saw. The game handles exactly like its console cousins, and the visual upgrade over the previous portable versions on the GBA is a good thing. The only blemishes in the package that we noticed are the many different loads during combat. Granted, this is something that happens in the console games, but given the game's portable nature, we're hoping they'll be trimmed down to something more manageable before the game hits the streets. As always, anyone looking to see this game hit that States can keep on dreaming. Super Robot Wars MX Portable is slated to hit Japan early next year for the PSP. US-based fans should get their preorders in now.