Gundam fans and Action fans will not be dissapointed.
To start on the graphics, the graphics are nicely done for a Playstation 2 game. The Gundams stay true to their original designs and look very realistic in terms of gaming graphics. The battlefields are also as well designed, there’s no “clouded distance” to show signs of laziness on the part of the developers and the buildings that you battle in between are destructible enough to be considered as part of the field. Sometimes buildings can be used as cover, but chances are that you won’t be using that to your advantage too much since they are usually destroyed in a matter of seconds. Another great thing to talk about the graphics is the use of the anime cut scenes that sometimes occur. When you get a message from one of your commanding officers or comrades in arms, you get to see them talk to you in their anime form. Their in synch with what they say and they make you feel like you’re watching the anime all over again.
For the sound, the sound in this game does not fall short of living up to the greatness in this game. The music alone is a great remix and stays very true to what the original Mobile Suit Gundam had. The sound effects are also realistic and have all the familiar sounds that you heard from the anime. Be it an explosion, an electric surge, a gun shot, or a simple contact with another object, the sound effects are ones that you know from the show and contribute to the nostalgic feel of seeing the anime. Going into the gameplay… Like I said earlier, you can choose whichever of the sides you most want to play as. If you want to stay true to the main story, you can play as the Earth Federation, but if you’ve been one of the fans who would like to see Zeon claim victory, then this is your chance to proclaim “Sieg Zeon!” When you start on your missions, you get to choose which Gundam to take to the battlefield and wipe the (insert enemy here) clean off the map. There is a wide variety of missions for you to immerse yourself into when you get to the battling. Some ask that you take out enemy convoys, some ask you to beat the opposing side into a pulp, some ask you to defend your equipment, and some may even ask you to take on the heroes of the series. I know what you’re obviously thinking about fighting the heroes: “Hey! This means I can take down Amuro before he even becomes a nuisance to Zeon!” Well good luck on achieving that. The Heroes of the series are practically impossible to beat since your attacks don’t do as much damage on them as they would on normal enemy Gundams. The fact that it’s so hard to kill the heroes is probably one of the few downsides to the game. Not only because they’re practically impossible to defeat and you can’t change the story that dramatically so soon, but they can also be a problem when you’re trying to defend your own forces or equipment as they can easily destroy them quite quickly. Thankfully they don’t pit you against the hero units in every level, so you will have easier missions to work with.
Despite the weak points that this game faces, it has more than enough good ones to be considered near perfect in my personal opinion. The back of the game case sums up the greatness better than I could in this review. This game won a Golden Award from the all-stingy Famitsu magazine proclaiming: “…great! It’s easy to control and exactly the same as the arcade game with even more features!” I honestly didn’t know that there was an arcade version of this game, but maybe it never reached America. You also have outer space combat for fast paced action just like in the anime. Even better this game requires a lot of your attention since playing as both sides have over 200 missions to play through (Someone order replay value?). To sum up what is advertised, this game also has the original voice actors from the Mobile Suit Gudnam anime. Even if the developers are lying about this, the voice actors sound convincing enough to sound like the real thing to me.
So would this game be for anyone to play? Without a doubt, this game is well worth every penny that you pay for it. This game deserves to be bought on sight, whether you’re a Gundam fan or not (Who knows, this game could bring you into our world…). Overall, if you’re a fan of the Gundam series, want to proclaim “Sieg Zeon!”, dedicate a well worth amount of time into an action game that is more than worth playing, you should get this game and enjoy it for all it’s worth.