A sad trend for giant robot games is that they tend to be very slow and lacking any type of intense battles, thankfully then, Koei have come up with one of the best cross overs since Aliens Vs Predator, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam.
Dynasty Warriors Gundam is set in the Gundam universe. Gundam first came to TV back in the 80’s, and since then has had many relaunches, it is based on a large war between Earth and other colonised worlds.The main battles are fought with the use of giant mechanized battlesuits, Mobile Suits, and through the series, battles were fought in space, earth and alien planets, with many fatalities on both sides of the war.
The game has a few modes, the first of which is versus mode, where you battle against a friend with another controller, however the main parts worth mentioning are the Original and Official stories. The official story follows the story arc of the Gundam shows from the perspective of your chosen character, there are only a few to choose from at first, but as you complete more levels, more characters become available to play with. On your first play through with each character you will not be able to select which Mobile Suit to use, however, once the story is completed you can chop and change as you like. The original story pulls all of the characters from Gundams long history and puts them into one story, not beng a massive Gundam fan I could not say if this is any good compared to other Gundam stories, but stand alone, it is a fun premise and makes for some huge battles.
The battlefield itself is cut up into fields, blue areas are yours, yellow and red are your enemies and these must be taken over. To do this you must defeat a set number of enemies in each field, along with the occasional boss or guard. As you take out enemies they may drop power ups like increase attack, increased defence, speed, or even parts to improve your Mobile Suit later in the game. As you play through each field, you will be given orders by the field commander or an ally, this could be to take over certain fields, defeat certain enemies, protect a ship or save an ally in danger. One of my bug bears from other Dynasty games seems to have been rectified, the map in the top right corner is so much clearer, it is very easy to navigate to a crisis point, also when a ship or player is in danger, their icon flashes on the map to help you move to it, and trust me, this will help in some of the later levels when your allies are spread thin and they all need help.
Battles themselves are fast and frantic, at points you will not be able to see your character as there are so many enemies trying to take you out, but a few hefty combos and the screen will clear out. Attacks are kept to a simple melee, pistol and special. The pistol is really weak, however combine this with a melee attack and you will start pulling off combos, your special gauge refills on its own, so once that is full you can unleash hell.
Each Mobile Suit has their own style and there are loads to choose from, there are nifty and quick robots that need loads of punches to do any damage, to the large sumo type Mobile Suits that hold two swords and a sly one pops out from the middle for a cheeky attack. There is also a Darth Maul type double ended sword to use.
As you play through the game, you are able to alter certain parts of the Mobile Suit, though not physical changes, you can use upgrades to increase armour, attack, speed and other areas, it is down to you how you use these.
Dynasty Warriors Gundam is one of those games that is really good, but will probably not appeal to people as it is too different from the norm of sports and racing. For me this is what gaming is all about, huge mech suits in endless battles, great playability and a constant urge to play just one more level.
