Gundam: Battle Assault (video game)
A fighting game set in the Gundam Wing universe.
Gundam: Battle Assault is a 1998 fighting video game developed by Natsume Co., Ltd. and published by Bandai for the PlayStation. Based on the Gundam franchise, it is a follow-up to Gundam: The Battle Master (1997), which was released only in Japan. The game was localized for English-speaking audiences after Mobile Suit Gundam Wing began airing on Cartoon Network.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Natsume Co., Ltd.
- Publisher
- Bandai
- Director
- Mitsuo Matsumoto
- Producer
- Kosak Kawamoto; Norihiko Ushimura
- Designer
- Kunio Suzuki; Shunichi Taniguchi
- Programmer
- Hiromichi Komuro
- Hiroyuki Iwatsuki
- Toshiyasu Miyabe
- Artist
- Atsushi Shigeta; Kunio Ōkawara
- Composer
- Nobuo Ito
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Gundam: Battle Assault is a fighting game that takes place within the storyline of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. It offers two modes: Story and Versus. The story follows Heero Yuy, the main character of Gundam Wing and pilot of the Wing Gundam, as he works to destroy remaining enemy Mobile Suits under the command of Treize Khushrenada in order to prevent a war. In Story mode, players can choose from nine different mechs to fight against opponents. The game’s mechanics were reworked from those of Gundam: The Battle Master to feel more like a standard fighting game. The temperature and special gauges from the earlier title were swapped out for a standard health bar, a boost gauge, and an ammo counter. Each mobile suit now has three health bars. The shoot and weapon functions became special moves, replaced by a second set of punch and kick buttons. The health bars operate similarly to the old temperature bar: when a health bar is empty, the mech overheats and falls down, and overheating results in a loss. The boost gauge limits how long a mobile suit can fly, unlike The Battle Master where flight was unlimited. Each press of the thrust button uses one boost bar, and once the gauge is empty, players must wait for it to recharge before boosting again. Except for the Neue Ziel, every mobile suit can enter a flight mode that lets it move in any direction and ignore attacks as long as it does not overheat or run out of boost. Main projectile attacks consume ammo, with the amount depending on the projectile’s power. If a mobile suit runs out of ammo for a move, it cannot use that move for the rest of the match, though alternate projectile special attacks do not require ammo. Projectile attacks are no longer unblockable, but melee weapons now are. Beam barriers can block these melee attacks, but dodging or using beam barriers costs health. Super moves return in this game, and almost every mobile suit has one that can be used up to three times.
Development and release
Gundam: Battle Assault was created by many of the same developers at Natsume Co., Ltd. who had made Shin Kidō Senki Gundam Wing: Endless Duel for the Super Famicom and The Battle Master for the PlayStation. Mitsuo Matsumoto served as the chief director, with Kosak Kawamoto and Norihiko Ushimura as co-producers. The programming team included Hiromichi Komuro, Hiroyuki Iwatsuki, and Toshiyasu Miyabe, while Shunichi Taniguchi and Kunio Suzuki handled design. Atsushi Shigeta created the character designs, and Kunio Ōkawara designed the Psycho Gundam MK-III. Nobuo Ito composed the soundtrack. The game uses multi-limbed sprites that are animated individually rather than through hand-drawn animation, which gives the mobile suits a marionette-like appearance. It first came out in Japan as Gundam: The Battle Master 2 on March 12, 1998, with an original cast and a story about a mobile suit bounty hunter named Gloria who finds an amnesiac child called Pixie. After Mobile Suit Gundam Wing started airing on Cartoon Network’s Toonami in the United States, Bandai localized The Battle Master 2 as Battle Assault for English-speaking audiences on November 6, 2000. This version swapped the original characters for ones from other Gundam series and changed the story mode’s dialogue to connect it to Gundam Wing. The Hamma Hamma mobile suit was removed from the roster and replaced with the Wing Gundam, though this new mech is actually a Zeta Gundam with a different look. The localized version later came out in Japan on April 26, 2001, and in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2001.
Reception
Gundam: Battle Assault garnered a mixed critical reception, as reflected by its aggregate score on Metacritic. In Japan, Famitsu rated it 24 out of 40. The magazine also reported first-week sales of over 24,735 units in Japan, with lifetime sales reaching approximately 33,092 copies there. IGN's David Smith praised the character roster, gameplay, lack of slowdown, two-dimensional visuals, and sound effects, but found the pacing slow and criticized the inability to select characters in story mode and the uninspiring music, concluding it was a game for Gundam fans rather than serious fighting game enthusiasts. GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann liked the large mech sizes, fluid movement, and certain audio elements, but disliked the uninteresting story mode. The Electric Playground's James Tapia criticized the slow pace for lacking advanced fighting mechanics and having disjointed controls, though he complimented the visuals, adding that North American audiences would have preferred a retooling of the Super Famicom title Gundam Wing - Endless Duel. AllGame's Jon Thompson praised the varied roster and animations, but faulted the minimalist gameplay, audio design, and lackluster presentation. PSM commended the colorful graphics and sprite animations, but noted poor execution, stating that the game did not live up to the quality of the Gundam anime. Jeuxvideo.com's Valérie Précigout criticized the audiovisual presentation, slow gameplay, lack of replay value, and story mode. MAN!AC's David Mohr panned the pacing, limited and pixelated character animations, collision detection issues, story mode, and two-player mode. Conversely, GamesTech's José Ángel Ciudad praised the large character sprites and near-absence of loading times. MeriStation's Daniel Delgado García had mixed feelings about the audio, and criticized the presentation, slow pacing, lack of replay value, and the need to reset the PlayStation to change game modes, but appreciated the large mechs and character roster. In a retrospective review, Push Square's Robert Ramsey criticized the combat system, small arena sizes, and lack of content, while commending the game's style and finding its soundtrack enjoyable.
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