Please Play Gundam Extreme Versus

Anime is mainstream. There’s no way around it, it's a medium that through sheer force now stands next to pop culture giants like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that one about the wizards written by that lady with a particularly loud Twitter account. Celebrities list off their favourite Naruto fights in interviews, filmmakers open up about how various anime titles inspired their own imagery to the point of complementary plagiarism (Hi Darren Aronofsky).

Anime culture and gaming culture have become increasingly more intertwined over the past decade in the English speaking western fandom, considering video games are a near-ubiquitous art form now alongside cinema and television its impressive that anime culture has managed to keep up in the same spaces. It’s not rocket science don’t get me wrong, seeing that Japan produces 2 of the big 3 major consoles and the majority of anime content worldwide its no surprise that there’s significant crossover. To be extra clear I’m not talking about games with very Anime adjacent art styles, I’m strictly focusing on games based off Anime/Manga television series, movies, ova’s etc.

I want to take a stab at how a lot of these games fall into the same few rusted genre’s: mainly 3-d area fighters, bare-bones rpg’s and basic action-adventure titles, with a few traditional fighting games usually based on one particular anime, or anime studio's licence. And it can get really, really stagnant to see games pumped out with these archetypal game templates with a recognizable IP slapped on to make you pick it up. Big titles like Shonen Jump properties such as Dragon Ball, Naruto and My Hero Academia often pump out titles like these at a yearly rate with often little improvements and major changes between them. Now, I want to state that I hold no ill will against any of the developers working on these titles. God knows I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of the phone call when big daddy Bandai rolls up to demand a Dragon Ball game every year that goes from Raditz to Buu again and again. Often games attached to anime licences aren’t given the time, budget or manpower to have them make a bigger impact on the gaming community. I don’t want to crusade against folks who like these games, far from it. I’ve spent hours on titles like the Dragon Ball Z Budokai games and hold them close as an integral part of my fandom for that franchise. For many people, it’s just about living the anime through a gaming lens. For many players, games like the Naruto Ninja Storm series are perfect for this. Cyberconnect2 has the moment to moment hype of Shonen fights down to a friendship speech filled science. Iconic attacks are recreated with gorgeous cel-shaded and watercolour esque animations. The Ninja Storm games are the perfect fan-service playground to recreate our favourite hot-blooded moments from the series and to muck about in multiplayer with. But unfortunately, these games have created a sort of industry-standard template that various franchises have jumped on.

It seems like the approach a lot of companies take when adapting currently hot anime properties is too just take a Ninja Storm game and slam another anime’s characters on it and call it a day. It seems most major Shonen properties have at least one 3d area fighter that fails to capture the same level of polish as CyberConnect2’s games. In essence, my biggest problem with these games is that the fighting systems don’t feel deep enough to hold my attention for long, and what’s worse is that often characters move-sets don’t feel distinct enough from each other making the value of picking from a vast array of fan favourite characters somewhat mute. I’m not accusing every 3d anime fighter of this, and hold nothing against those who buy and enjoy them as previously stated, it’s just with these types of games becoming increasingly prevalent in the Anime game sphere I just lose interest in ever giving them a shot after tasting the same game again and again.

3-d area fighters like the Naruto Ninja Storm games and the Dragon Ball Tenkaichi games do a good job of simulating the shows they’re from, but leave something to be desired as deeper lasting games.

This leads me to Gundam Extreme Versus.

The Gundam Extreme Versus games are a series of arcade 2 v 2 3D area fighting games, based on the massive long-running Mobile Suit Gundam franchise. These games have been released in Japanese arcades since 2010 and each entry is eventually ported to home consoles. And excitedly one of the latest entries Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost ON, is coming to PlayStation 4 on July 30th. And it might be one of the best anime licensed games I’ve ever played.

Bias upfront: I’m a Gundam fan.

My anime lifeblood is giant robots. I love mecha with all my burning heart and soul. But I want to make this an authentic sale, and so I’ll tell you that Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost ON has been my first exposure to these line of games. I fell in love instantly and the Gundam license was honestly only a smaller part of why I now adore playing this game. So allow me to list some reasons why you should consider picking up Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost On when it comes out this 30th of July.

• Gameplay: The Gundam versus games have a unique fusion of different feeling game genres all rolled into one. I’d instantly forgive you if you assumed it was yet another 3-d area fighter. Gundam Extreme Versus to me is a healthy fusion of fighting games, character action games and 3-d Mecha combat games. It has the frantic split-second reaction times and constant mental chess of your traditional fighters, with you trying to outpace and predict what the opponents Mobile Suit will do next and how best to counter them. It has the slashing mixed with ranged combat of character action games such as Devil May Cry, not to an immense depth but the process of using different combos and combining melee and ranged beam/ballistic attacks to get as many hits in as possible before the opponents cool-down period makes you feel like an ace pilot. And finally the third-person perspective, the motion of zipping around iconic battlefields from the Gundam multiverses, boosting through the air reminds me of Zone of the Enders. You can see why this is high praise by reading my article about that game’s design.
  
  Its pure robot anime goodness, huge laser beams erupting across the screen and anime characters screaming their lungs out as you activate your boost mode and desperately attempt to land your finishing blow with the soundtrack of your suit of choice blaring makes you feel like you’re living a season finale of a Gundam show (I’ve been caught on several occasions yelling broken Japanese phrases during heated matches).
  
  In short, it plays like nothing I’ve ever experienced before and the fast-paced nature and fluidity of the matches keep me coming back for more every-time.
  

• Balancing: Balancing a competitive game is both key to the experience and inevitably futile on the development side. It’s incredibly difficult to create a constantly balanced and completely fair fighting game experience, with every balance patch shifting something out of gear trying to fix another issue and beginning the cycle again. With over 180 suits in its roster, Gundam Extreme Versus will inevitably have some suits that will be higher on the tier list than others but it’s the built-in points system that helps balance matches in a unique way I don’t think I’ve seen in any other competitive game attempt.
  

  Each Mobile suit is divided into a different cost bracket: 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000. Each team of 2 is given 6000 points for the match, the goal is to eliminate your opponent’s points by defeating their mobile suits. When a player respawns it costs the set amount of points designated towards that suit. I love this system because it means you have to really consider how and what you play with. Sure you could go nuts with the heavy suits and rush in with the maximum health and biggest arsenals, but if you don’t know that suit well or get outmaneuvered and blow up, that’s 3000 points down the drain meaning depending how much your opponents suit costs might now mean that they cannot afford to die.
  
  Quite often I’ll find myself targeting the suit my partner’s fighting; if I see that it’s of a higher points value if it goes down it will put the opponent’s team at a great disadvantage. But at the same time, I have to watch my back for their partner who will know this and will be trying their damnedest to keep me off their teammate. I adore this combat dynamic, always watching over my shoulder, making split-second decisions that could turn the tide of the match in a single move. The system is fantastic because lower-level units can absolutely decimate in the right hands, its all about getting accustomed to your favorite suit and knowing how to push it to its maximum effectiveness.
  

You can select from over 180 Mobile Suits from 30 plus Gundam titles, with healthy representation from across most entries in the franchise.

• Variety is the Spice of… Giant Killer Robots: During my time playing the Gundam Extreme Versus Betas every Saturday I’ve enjoyed experimenting and now have a solid list of suits that are my go to mains. And what I made sure to do was to try and get good with a suit of each points category and when doing so I found myself engrossed, experimenting with everything they were capable of. Different Mobile Suits possess unique abilities and specialisations that vary from suit to suit. Some will be all melee, some will be all ranged attacks. Other units will have separate abilities like stunning opponents momentarily with certain attacks or being able to switch weapons on the fly to mix up combat encounters.
  
  One of my favorite examples of this is how the Full Armour Unicorn Gundam functions: It begins as the bulky suit packed to the rim with extensive armaments but as a result can’t do melee attacks and has a slower moving speed. But the player can eject the heavy weapons and move quicker and pull out their beam sabers for a more balanced experience, but that’s not even its final form. In a last ditch effort players can ditch more weapons to become a melee focused rush down type of character whilst using automated turret shields to disrupt enemies at a distance. This is one of many examples of suits with alternative modes that need to be carefully used in different scenarios.
  
  I guarantee that there is a Mobile Suit for everyone here, its just about playing around enough to truly find out.

• No knowledge of Gundam? No Problem! : My Saturday evenings for the past 4 weeks have consisted of me and 3 friends going head to head for hours at this game, and what’s crazy is that between them I think they’ve seen maybe 2 Gundam shows, possibly less. They are definitive proof that you need absolutely no prior knowledge of the expansive and at times intimidating Gundam franchise. The mentality of ‘BIG ROBOT COOL, HAS BIG LASER’ is absolutely valid and if anything is highly encouraged here. It really doesn’t matter what level of Gundam fandom you’re apart of. Found a cool suit that looks great and plays even better? Great! Absolutely go for it. I myself have gained a new appreciation for suits from Gundam shows I’m not overly fond of. I might not be the biggest fan of say, Gundam Wing or Gundam Seed, but I have so much fun playing suits like Wing Zero, Tallgeese, Perfect Strike etc.
  
  It’s brought me irreverent joy to see my friends dive into this game and get almost as invested as me… I later regretted this as some of them began to beat me at a consistent rate and had to resort to the grave dishonor of cheap spamming tactics and yelling very loudly over Discord to distract them.

Newtype Flow

Gundam Extreme Versus captures the action spectacle of other anime titles but maintains a competitive gameplay loop that doesn’t need to rely on its license for you to have a good time.

So in summary: Please play Gundam Extreme Versus. It’s fast, it’s frantic, it’s full of energy and I love it. If you want a unique anime game experience this year I guarantee you that this will deliver. Plus with features like single-player modes, split-screen co-op and versus etc. its the perfect game for casual and competitive play both online and on your couch. And if it gets you into Gundam as a whole, welcome aboard friend, you’ll thank me later.



Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost On releases on July 30th for PlayStation 4 worldwide.