Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2

Have you ever wanted to pilot a mecha from your favorite Gundam series, while destroying anyone and anything that gets in your way? Well Koei in co-operation with Namco Bandai Game and Sunrise are here to grant your wish once again with Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2! O.K. enough of the advertising, but seriously I would highly recommend this game for any Gundam fan that might be reading this.
As you start the game off in Official Mode you are able to play as one of four playable characters, more become unlocked as the game continues. Deciding to go old school I went with the very first Gundam pilot, Amuro Ray in all his 1979 glory. Once your pilot is chosen, he or she will say some odd little catch phrase that allows you to get an idea of the inner workings of your character’s personality. Now you begin to follow the anime’s original storyline that your character is from. If you are new to the Gundam universe fear not, you are given the chance to read a brief synapses of the character and of the events that lead to, and are occurring in the war you will soon be joining. Once you have chosen the first mission the narrator will fill you in on how, in this case, Amuro acquired and began piloting Gundam. Once this is done other characters from the series will proceed to talk to you, filling in more of the story for you the player. After certain key missions are completed more of the story line will be revealed, eventually giving you the basic plot of the anime from your character’s perspective. Then again if you don’t care about any of the story or already know it you can skip it all and go straight to the fighting! Huzzah fighting! Keep in mind however that when you first go into your mission to make sure you go into Player Settings and then to Action Info check your mech’s controls. Different mechs have different controls and abilities so failing to check its moves may cause your death once more mobile suits are acquired and played. For example the mass produced models can only do a simple hit combos, shoot, and use a very lame SP (special) Attacks. The Gundams on the other hand can combo their regular hitting combos with a gun or sword attack, and have a much more effect and cooler looking SP Attack.
Once you’re done with Official Mode you can continue to play as your character in Mission Mode. In this mode over 100 new missions will be available for you to play, allowing you to gather more parts for not only our own mech but also for mass produced units and other Gundams. When you gathered all of the pieces of these units you’ll be able to use them in battle and complete missions where only that suit can be used. A perk that fans will appreciate is the ability to not only ally with and or make enemies of pilots from other series, but you also get to gain the license to pilot their Gundams.
The controls for fighting are hard to get the hang of at first, and you’ll probably die and be confused the first few times you play. Once you get over this you’ll find yourself being able to defeat almost enemy that comes your way. The exception is Mobile Armors who will be your worst enemies. These oversized mobile suits have a wider range of attacks and do at least twice as much damage to you as you do to them. The creators of this game foresaw your impending doom and were considerate enough to give you a briefing on how to attack the enemy just before your first fight, in hopes that you might win. However this still takes a bit of effort on your part, and oh yes your in an enclosed field so you can’t escape and health is not always on hand and your allies usually cause more trouble then their worth… sigh. Yet again the creators help you out by allowing you to Interim Save as many times during battle as you want. The movements of your suit are broad and mechanic as would be expected from fighting robots. Then again so are everyone else’s movements so you are not a disadvantage by any means.
The graphics for this game vary depending on what you are doing. If you’re dealing with the characters then you’re going to be dealing with their original anime format allowing you to tell the older series from the newer ones. It’s like comparing the original Speed Racer from the 1960s to something you see now, you can tell the difference in quality. When you deal with the fighting portion of the game the mechs and battlefield are what you would expect to see with regular game graphics. The best graphics occur when watching the cut scenes, but that’s to be expected as well.
Overall this game is a lot of fun and I’m glad I bought it. It practically pays for itself since you can clock over 70 hours on just one character between Official and Mission Mode. I can’t see giving this game anything but 8 out of 10.