➤ In battle with Mobile Suit in the review of Gundam Versus 🎮

The Gundam VS series made its debut in the arcade fifteen years ago: it was 2002 and the Japanese, who never get tired of Gundam, could finally give it a blast in a sort of Virtual On inspired by the legendary Mobile Suit created by Yoshiyuki Tomino in 1979. Then converted for PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast, that first Gundam VS spawned a long series of sequels and spin-offs that we rarely saw coming out of Japan, where instead they always did very well regardless of their actual quality. In the meantime, Gundam has become famous all over the world and now, finally, Bandai Namco has decided to look to the West as well. Last year we had the opportunity to play the mediocre Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS Force for PlayStation Vita, an experiment designed to take the pulse of our market and decide whether to try a more daring localization. This brings us directly to Gundam VS: translated almost completely into Spanish, the new game from Bandai Namco will probably determine the future of the brand outside the Rising Sun. Is it worth giving it a chance?

Interview with the producer

Does the PlayStation 4 version have new modes compared to previous episodes of the VS series?
Gundam Versus has been out in Japan for a few months, so we have already implemented some modes in the European version such as the competitive multiplayer that we had introduced after launch.

What prompted you, finally, to localize Gundam games in our country?
For a long time we have wanted to show the world the delights of "two-on-two" fights. Furthermore, by localizing the game for European countries, we hope to make it even more popular, so that we can expand to that market as well.

Do you have any new modes in mind to play online?
Yes and we will continue to update the software and propose new ones over time.

Gandammuuu!

Calling Gundam Versus "fighting game" is not exactly correct, even if in a certain sense it is always a matter of choosing a character and beating the opponent aboard a Mobile Suit: however, the setting is that of the fighting video games that take place in three-dimensional arenas in which it is possible to move freely in any direction. The rules that determine the clashes of Gundam Versus appear more complex, at first glance: it is also played in teams of three against three units and each team is represented by a numerical indicator that represents its "life". Each Mobile Suit has a certain value that depends on various factors and which in simple terms expresses its power: every time we defeat an opponent, we subtract the value of that Mobile Suit from the team indicator. The rest is easy to deduce. If the gauge reaches zero, the corresponding team is defeated. This means that you must carefully choose the Mobile Suits, especially if you are playing against organized opponents who could target, together, the most fearsome but also the most "prestigious" targets. From this point of view, Gundam Versus appears from the very first minutes a title designed also and above all for the online multiplayer mode that allows customized or ranked games of different genres. Played together with a friend, perhaps against other friends, Gundam Versus is a real blast, especially if you know Tomino's universe. The combat system is in fact quite intuitive, even if initially you have to get a little carried away with the commands. Realistically, however, Gundam Versus revolves around the four front buttons: with some exceptions, each Mobile Suit can attack from a distance, attack in melee, jump and change targets.

In battle with Mobile Suit in the review of Gundam Versus

What is the difference between Blazing Gear and Lightning Gear?
Blazing Gear is a skill that allows you to easily defeat enemies with more powerful attacks and that restores hits in teammates' magazines. The Lightning Gear instead decreases the power of the attacks but makes the movements much faster and restores the Boost of teammates.

How important are the Strikers in combat?
Each Striker differs from the others based on cooldown and how it attacks targets or helps the player who called it, so you can choose them to customize your play style. We would like players to unlock them and try everyone to figure out which ones are best for them.

A question of controls

The dorsal keys allow you to make some special shots, while the left analog stick is delegated to the Boost Dive, a key mechanic that, once mastered, clearly distinguishes the best players from the novices. In fact, it allows you to immediately fall to the ground, resetting the Boost indicator in a few moments. The latter is consumed every time we jump and stay in mid-air, but also every time we use Boost Step and Boost Dash, the maneuvers that allow you to "cancel" almost every animation in progress to start a new one, thus leading to the concatenation of long combos based on feints that can displace the opponent. The high consumption of the Boost therefore forces the player to carefully check his Mobile Suit, if he does not want to remain at the mercy of the opponent in the crucial moments of the fight. The control system of Gundam Versus is sufficiently intuitive, but it must be assimilated well and unfortunately slips on some bizarre decisions such as entrusting the parade to a sequential combination of keys: our Mobile Suit will only raise the shield by pressing quickly first up and then down, a not exactly easy operation in the midst of the most frenetic battles. It is a questionable solution that has given us problems especially online, also because most of the games we have tried to play have suffered an impressive lag that prevented us from fighting properly. Attempt after attempt, we concluded that this is a recurring problem linked in this case to the quality of the players' connection - and therefore can be circumvented by manually searching for lobbies with an at least acceptable connection quality - but unfortunately the number of challengers or allies has also turned out rather small and the queues, therefore, very long. The situation could change in the coming days but it is clear that over time the community will thin out further, affecting one of the most positive aspects of the game.

PlayStation 4 Trophies

Gundam Versus's 34 trophies are essentially unlocked ... by just playing. By completing the various modes, winning matches and purchasing Striker and other collectibles, the trophies accumulate almost automatically and are 18 bronze, 11 silver and 4 gold, to which the platinum trophy is finally added.

The Gundam House Rules

Gundam Versus is obviously a title designed especially for fans who already know the universe of the popular Mobile Suit and will recognize most of their favorites in the roster. Unfortunately, all the others will not even have the benefit of a Story mode that summarizes even only in an essential way the series represented by the Mobile Suits: in this sense, in fact, the single player component of Gundam Versus is rather disappointing, divided between a sort of mission "campaign", which is so reminiscent of the normal Arcade mode found in practically every normal fighting game, and an equally classic Survival mode in which you simply have to defeat a certain number of waves of enemies without dying. The single player modes pay the player with a currency that allows you to buy titles, icons or announcers that replace the unbearable Haro, but first you have to level up the various Mobile Suits. Fortunately, the Strikers are easier to unlock and add a small strategic variant to the fighting: they are in fact "characters" that we can recall by pressing a button to make them appear on the battlefield, where they will attack briefly before disappearing and triggering a short recharge period. . The Strikers number over one hundred and fifty and include most of the normally controllable Mobile Suits.

The latter, on the other hand, are more than ninety: it is an impressive number, yet we cannot say that we were satisfied with a roster that has many minor extras and an important number of great absentees. Faced with the inclusion of some of Reconguista's Gundams in G and Iron Blooded Orphans - some of the most recent television series - we were puzzled when we discovered that Bandai Namco did not include some VIPs such as the Wing Zero Custom of Endless Waltz or G-Gundam's God Gundam, not to mention the hugely popular 00. The explanation could translate into the world's most feared acronym after BSOD, or DLC, but it's still early to understand how Japanese society wants to move. That said, the care taken in the creation of every single Mobile Suit is truly impressive: the developer has faithfully reproduced every paneling or detail, animating the models with great attention. The same cannot be said for the scenarios in which we fight, all in all quite mild, although large and largely destructible. However, the fights appear very spectacular and engaging from the beginning, thanks also to a camera that throws a tantrum much more rarely than in the past. Finally, the sound accompaniment needs no introduction: Bandai Namco has simply re-proposed the most characteristic acronyms and melodies of each series, from the historic Tobe! Gundam! by Koh Ikeda to the most recent Raise your flag by Man with a Mission.

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Gundam Versus also manages to establish itself as a very fun team fighting / shooter especially when playing online. Unfortunately, at the moment the service is really poor and jeopardizes the future of a franchise that could have great potential, especially if Bandai Namco were to propose, in the future, a more interesting roster and a more nourished series of single player modes. For now, we would like to recommend it only to the most hardcore Gundam fans.