Recognize this arcade mech game?

[Ghegs]

In Game Center CX episode 153 there's a quick shot of an arcade game where a mech jumps up in the air and turns into a jet. Video here, it's on the left side of KOF 2002. Anybody know what that is?

[rancor]

Without a doubt in my mind I can say that it's one of the earlier Gundam games. I played the hell outta those when I first started going to game centers here, and in the pic is the first stage that I've played a hundred times.

[KAI]

Z-Gundam - AEUG Vs. Titan, no doubt about it, love that game.
The NTCS-U PS2 port is a mix of AEUG Vs. Titan and Federation Vs. Zeon, go for it if you can Ghegs.

[Zeether]

That transforming robot is probably the Z Gundam going into Waverider mode. Too bad the later Gundam Vs. games didn't make it here, but then again PS3 is region free...except the most recent one hasn't been ported yet.

[KAI]

Good to see I'm not the only one playing the Gundam Vs series. Gundam SEED Destiny: Federation Vs. Z.A.F.T. II Plus is one of my favorite games of all times, highly recommended.

[Skykid]

Good to see I'm not the only one playing the Gundam Vs series. Gundam SEED Destiny: Federation Vs. Z.A.F.T. II Plus is one of my favorite games of all times, highly recommended.

Such good timing, I almost opened a thread to ask about this game. So can you fill me in on some of the finer details, because I was playing this for the first time in the arcade yesterday and apart from some decent graphics, it didn't seem too hot compared to Virtual On. I must be missing something because it's super popular.

So far I know: it's a team battle arena setup. You need to dispatch all the enemies before they dispatch your team first. There are a crapload of Gundam to choose from (and pilots). I don't understand the modes, rush, power and something else.

Any quick tips to help get my bearings would be cool.

[null1024]

I've been playing Gundam vs Gundam on my PSP.
It's no Virtual On [and whenever I play it, I want to play VO instead, hahah], but it's a fun enough game.

[KAI]

The game has 4 buttons: Sword, Shoot, Jump and Target Change, by pressing Sword+shot you use your sub weapon, with Sword+Jump you can execute a special melee attack, and you use your special shoot with Shoot+Jump.
By tapping the jump button twice you can perform a Boost Dash (consumes the Boost Gauge)
Some units can perform a block movement by pressing Down and Up.

SPEED, RUSH and POWER, those are the 3 awaken modes, to activate them you need to fill you Awaken Gauge (by hitting enemies or getting hit) and press the sword, shoot and jump buttons at once.
Speed: makes you faster.
Rush: allows you to shoot without recharging.
Power: make you stronger and increase the damage of you melee attacks.

Basically, you need to empty the Battle Gauge of the enemy team. The Battle Gauge consist of 1000 points. When a mobile suit is destroyed, the gauge goes down according to how much it costs. For example, if you use The Strike Freedom (as I do), you loose 590 points every time you die.

This game is gold, I hope you can learn to love it.

[nZero]

I really prefer the pace of the Universal Century games, FvZ:DX and Gundam vs Zeta Gundam were incredible fun but I could never get into any of the ones that came after that.

[Skykid]

This game is gold, I hope you can learn to love it.

Thanks for the overview, I'll give it another go today. Sounds like Power is for me, since I quite enjoy going for dash melee attacks. I didn't realise doubling the buttons did certain things, I thought I tried it but perhaps I was pressing the wrong ones.

Re: Mechs and pilots, is there really not much difference between them (there's a lot to choose from!)

[KAI]

Pilots don't make any difference, Mobile suits do, some of them can transform into mobile armors (Flying ships or beasts) by holding the jump button then taping any direction twice.
I think I'm forgetting a lot of things about the mechanics.

[Skykid]

Cool, it's only 10p a go so I can pretty much experiment until I get a handle on it.

I lied, it's 5p a go - you get two credits per token!

Anyway, played several times tonight. It seems okay, quite fun and I'm starting to get a feel for it, but I nearly always get trashed on the 2nd scenario. Also, there only seems to be 3 or 4 stages per route, is that right?

There are a few things I still don't get: when you pick a Gundam, they have values, like a kind of currency - but there's nothing stopping me from just picking the biggest one and wreaking havoc.

And, before you choose a starting stage, you pick a team (that part's self explanatory) but then you also have an option to pick one of four 'lines'? I'm not sure how that works at all. TBH stuff like currency in games like this feels tacked on, I prefer a straightforward arcade experience of pick one of a handful (not ten million) robots with differing characteristics and fight your way through the stages until completion - but I'm still willing to be convinced.

[KAI]

You sure you are playing Rengou Vs Z.A.F.T. II?

ZAFT II has 9 mission per route (or 10 if you get high ranks), and gives you a different random team partner after each mission (you can't choose them).
The game is pretty well balanced. Just pick something like the Destroy Gundam and try to survive with only 1 life in stock. Choosing better units makes the game harder, not easier.

[Skykid]

You sure you are playing Rengou Vs Z.A.F.T. II?

ZAFT II has 9 mission per route (or 10 if you get high ranks), and gives you a different random team partner after each mission (you can't choose them).
The game is pretty well balanced. Just pick something like the Destroy Gundam and try to survive with only 1 life in stock. Choosing better units makes the game harder, not easier.

Dunno, it's just called Gundam Seed II is all I know. Didn't see 9 missions per route (seemed less than that.) And thanks for explaining about the big robots, that makes sense.

As for the 'lines', I'm guessing that's got something to do with how many cabs are linked up, i.e., up to four players? So in multiplayer a line represents a team?

[KAI]

Not sure what those lines mean, but seems like you can't play the single arcade mode when the cabs are linked.
Just out of curiosity, can you take a picture of that line selection screen?

FULL BOOST looks so damn good, I want to play it so bad.

[LtC]

I put quite a lot of time on Gundam Extreme Vs on the PS3. Great game, and the netcode was excellent. Shame it was never released in the west.

[Skykid]

You sure you are playing Rengou Vs Z.A.F.T. II

Bit of an old bump, but yes, played it again today. Picked one of the low tiered mechs (cost less points) and made it to the 5th round.

So literally, better mechs make the game so much harder it's really difficult to progress? Should one consider the three rows of Gundam as easy, medium and hard difficulty settings then?

Anyway, really enjoyed the run today, primarily because progress was being made and I wasn't getting licked on round 2. There are some tactics in there for sure, mainly with timing, which at the moment is really difficult for me to decipher. I seem to be able to completely miss a melee attack when I think I have an opportune moment, and the 3rd and 4th simultaneous button attack (in the case of my Gundam today, an overhead spinny kick) is also tough to land.

[KAI]

Yep, that's basically the risk and reward system of this game. The game may be easier with low cost mechas, but I've cleared the game using them, I just love to use the ultra-fucking-overpowered Gundams.

[Skykid]

Yep, that's basically the risk and reward system of this game. The game may be easier with low cost mechas, but I've cleared the game using them, I just love to use the ultra-fucking-overpowered Gundams.

So what's the reward part? Is there meant to be some card system for this game, because the Vewlix's are generic and have no readers fitted.

[KAI]

When you play the single mode, you receive a rank based on how many mobile suits you kill and how many times you die. If you play with zakos you will die a lot of times and get a shitty rank, + if you get enough S ranks, you can play some bonus mission.