Developer: Namco Bandai Games
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Platform: PS Vita, PS TV
Tested on: PS TV
Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS-Force – Review
With Gundam series still being squeezed out every so often and the huge amount of attention the franchise still gets in Japan, it’s only natural that games are still being released, surrounding the classic mobile suits, as well as newer models. Nonetheless, after the Dynasty Warriors interpretations of the Gundam series, we haven’t seen that many titles in the West. Now Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS-Force has made its way to the PlayStation Vita (and TV) but in many ways Bandai Namco isn’t quite living up to the standards the Tecmo Koei games brought with them.
Story
The plot of this title is rather peculiar and nonsensical at the same time. You, an unnamed Gundam pilot, or at least in your mind, run a simulation, where you’re accompanied by Aire and Tereno, who are virtual combat instructors. You aren’t simply training for battle, you’re actually replaying historical battles, to save the world from total destruction. Why replaying these battles will actually save the world, no one knows, and we reckon the developers don’t know either. Nonetheless, as you run through this virtual database of events, you also uncover anomalies, which revolve around similar events in history, albeit of a parallel universe. Again, not that much explanation here, so it’s best to simply go with the flow and try to place the battles in the grand scheme of things one by one.
Graphics
Graphically Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS-Force isn’t that much to look at. The gundams and the enemy mobile suits all look quite decent, and rather true to the source material, albeit a tad rough around the edges. It’s mainly the areas that lack details and they are also often void of life. Trees look like a green bundled mess, buildings are seemingly made out of cardboard and there’s just nothing going on in any of the stages, except the few enemies you’ll have to overcome. Even enemy bases look like a simple turret with nothing surrounding them, which makes the overall appearance rather bland, for a game that’s all about grand battles.
During certain sections of the game, there are no subtitles when your character speaks, or during short intermissions when a new character appears. While these small one-liners often don’t have any special story value, my Japanese isn’t really up to the task of determining what my character just said.
Sound
After a rather impressive and catchy intro song, things turn a lot more timid. The background music is still decent, albeit more of an ambient type, making it hardly noticeable when playing missions. Other than that, you’ll have to make do with the quite splendid Japanese voice acting, which gives the game a certain authenticity, which is well appreciated. There’s enough voice acting to keep things fresh for a mobile title such as this one.
Gameplay
Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS-Force is a mix of fighting and strategy, that works on paper but does lack a lot of its core gameplay mechanics when played on the little screen of your PlayStation Vita. Nonetheless, you’ll mostly be tangled into combat with other mobile suits and handing out orders to the troops supporting you on your conquest through the history of different Gundam pilots.
All in all, this game is a collection of many smaller missions, where you’ll either have to capture bases, defeat certain bosses or simply duel with one or two other mobile suits. All of these missions often take between five to fifteen minutes, making it ideal to play a few missions on the go, at least if the game was easy to plow through. Before long you’ll notice that the game is quite hard, and that it’s mainly due to the very clunky and irresponsive controls. You’ll quickly notice that the game responds extremely slow to your commands, and if you tend to miss another mobile suit, they will not hesitate to pound you to punish you for your mistake. If you then throw in very dodgy fighting mechanics, you’ll have yourself a very frustrating experience. The only intuitive feature this game has to offer when it comes to its controls is simply when you turn it off.
Nonetheless, the game does have a few fun ideas, and tends to spice things up by tossing a few alternative missions in the mix, which means the game does offer you a change of pace when you’re either conquering bases, or duking it out with other robots. Capturing the bases is pretty straightforward, as you simply head over to the base (which is always a simple turret), knock it into submission and then you’ll have yourself a point where minions will spawn, who will attack the other points, all while the enemy forces try to do the same to you. Often you’ll have a main base, which you can’t let the enemy get their hands on, and you can also decide to give orders to the grunts accompanying you. These extra fighters can often be chosen before the start of the mission, if they don’t exceed a certain points cap. This also means, if you pick a very powerful mobile suit, you’ll be able to bring less support troops with you. That being said, during these missions you’ll also be able to repair your Gundam and your allies, deal extra damage, etc, if you have accumulated enough points. These points are added simply as time progresses, when you capture points and so on.
The dueling missions are a tad easier, where you’ll have to pick your Gundam or simply have one chosen for you, and whittle down your opponent’s health-bar. The latter means that it’s possible that you’ll actually have to kill your opponent several times, before his overall meter is depleted, allowing you to win. Of course, he can do the same. All in all, this type of mission if the one that gives you the most oversight, but in many ways, these missions will test you when it comes to dodging enemy attacks, as you can’t call for reinforcements or special abilities that will repair you, boost your damage etc.
In certain ways the game motivates you to try out different Gundams, be it by locking certain machines the first time you play a mission, or the fact that you’ll have to repair your robots whenever you have used them. While repairing doesn’t take time, it does cost you points you gain by completing missions. Most of the time you’ll have enough points, but still, if you’d rather save up first and see which machine suits you the best, as they all have different moves, this mechanic tends to motivate just that.
If you’re not keen on plowing through the story mode, which eventually unlocks more content, you can also opt to play missions you get to customize. Pretty much the game’s way of offering you a skirmish mode, where you can replay maps you like, and add certain conditions.
Conclusion
Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS-Force tries to put down an experience that is reminiscent of their Dynasty Warriors counterparts but tends to fail on nearly every account. The concept of this game is well thought out, but the poor execution, clunky controls and horrid fighting mechanics tend to destroy everything this game was supposed to be. True Gundam fans will be able to have some fun with this abysmal homage to the Gundam series, others best steer clear of it.
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