Dynasty Warriors: Gundam

Dynasty Warriors Gundam is essentially a cross between the Dynasty Warriors and Gundam universes. The gameplay is basically exactly the same as Dynasty Warriors only the game is set in the Gundam universe. You play as 16 or so different pilots and mobile suits from various Gundam anime. Present and accounted for are characters and mecha from the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Gundam ZZ, Gundam Wing and Turn a Gundam. Modes of play include original mode, official mode and versus. You can set the difficulty to easy, normal or hard.

Original Mode is a brand new Gundam storyline created just for this game. You pick any one of 16 pilots as you investigate a stange planet that appears around earth and fight off the mysterious and new Musha Gundam mobile suit. This mode has characters from various Gundam storylines, that normally wouldn't be in battle together, fighting for their lives. For example you'd have Amuro Ray from the original Gundam and Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing in the same battle.

There is also the Official Mode which follows the storyline from either Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam or ZZ Gundam. You can play as Amuro Ray from Gundam, Kamille Bidan from Zeta Gundam, Judau Ashtau from ZZ Gundam, Char Aznable from Gundam/Zeta Gundam, Sirocco from Zeta Gundam and Haman Karn from Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam. Versus mode is just that, you and a friend battling it out with your favorite mobile suits. Sadly there is no online play but you can play offline via split screen mode in either the versus mode or co-op in the official or original modes.

One thing you'll notice right away is that the English voice acting is absolutely atrocious. It's just horrible and there is no reason to listen to it when you have the option of switching the dialogue to Japanese with English subtitles. The nice thing about that is all of the original voice actors from the Japanese animes reprise their roles for the game.

Before a mission begins you will see the various victory conditions (or losing conditions) as well as a layout of the map that shows where your troops are and where the enemies are. The level design is very similar to that of Dynasty Warriors. You see a lot of red and blue dots on the screen that indicate who are your allies and who are enemies. You are given tasks to take out certain enemy locations (fields), defeat certain enemy commanders or to guard your own allies. All it really comes down to is destroying as many enemies as fast as possible.

The losing conditions usually consit of characters or mobile suits that must survive the battle or else it's game over. This can be a problem because often times you'll notice that frequently you'll be fighting off a boss when one of your allies calls for help. Then you'll have to drop what you're doing and go run over there to help them before they get killed and you loose the mission. It can be quite frustrating at times, but travel in DW:Gundam is a lot easier than in other Dynasty Warriors games, since thankfully you are piloting giant machines capable of flight or at least they have rocket packs that allow for faster movement then if you were just on foot. Even then, sometimes you won't make it to your allies in time and you will loose the game right then and there. Luckily there is a save feature that lets you save the game whenever you want so this helps avoid those problems.

The controls are simple enough and they work well in combat, however the camera is a huge problem with this game. Basically you'll have to constantly move the camera around so that the camera stays behind your character so you can see what the hell you're attacking. Otherwise you'll end up looking at your character as you're swinging at something offscreen and have no idea if you're connecting your hits or not. So you'll find yourself constantly hitting the camera reset button so it centers behind your character. Very annoying.

When you defeat an enemy commander or guard, sometimes an item will drop. The item can be either a temporary power up (increased armor, damage, speed, health, etc.) or it can be a special equipable item that will increase your melee, ranged shots, armor, health or speed. After a mission you will see what items you received, if any and then you have the option of equiping them in the intermission screen. There are around 15 different items but then there are 4 variations of each one, all with different stats. If you play the game on the hard difficulty you will obtain the best versions of each item.

While you are in combat and facing an enemy commander sometimes there are some neat cutscenes that will take place. These CG cutscenes are directly from the various anime your characters appear in. It is really neat to see these scenes in 3D, especially if you're a big Gundam fan like me, and are familiar with the various anime. Note: if you are playing the original mode, there will be cutscenes as well but these are brand new ones created just for the story. Another neat thing that may happen while you are facing a guard or commander is your swords will clash and the screen will pause as your characters yell out various battle dialoge.

The other big problem with the game besides the camera, is that the combat gets pretty monotonous. You have a slash attack with a melee weapon, your long range attack, and then your super attack. There are really only a few different combos that you can perform and you'll probably end up using only 2 or 3 of those. Some people may even go through the whole game pressing one button the whole time.

Overall this is a decent game but it really shines in the hands of a true Gundam fan. If you've never played a Dynasty Warriors game and have no idea what Gundam is, you probably will not like this. But if you love Gundam as much as me, you're going to have a great time piloting your favorite mobile suits in this hack and slash action game.