Gundam0079 (War For Earth)

I got into Gundam in College. 'Char's CounterAttack' (Is that the Title I don't remember) was my first encounter with Gundam and that was kinda cool, but I was also kinda turned off. Then I was exposed to the F91 and 0083 movies/series and I was hooked. When I found out that Gundam 0079: The War for Earth was coming out I was pretty psyched - especially after seeing Presto Studios's website on it.

I went to my local game rental shop and there it was - GUNDAM 0079. Cool I thought. Gotta rent this and try it out. I played it for about 5 hours that night. I wasn't sure what type of game this would be. Adventure didn't really say much to me. After playing it I figured out what adventure to Presto meant. I never played their other games before. This game is a "Dragon's Lair" type game. Remember those way back when?!?! If you don't, it's a cinematic game that has a fixed story line and in the story there will be various 'puzzles' that you have to figure out. These puzzles involve you making the right decision. Do I fight, defend, interact or move when prompted. The prompts come really darn quick in the normal mode. I suggest switching to the walk through mode. Their meaning of walk through is you have 2 extra seconds to make your decision.

Although I must say watching yourself die various ways and numerous times is pretty neat, but in certain sections especially where there is a lot of dialog it just sucks. When you die, you start over from the last 'password point' in the game. Those are the different sections in the walk through. The FMV is awesome. It's not true cell art at certain times, but it is almost completely computer rendered!

Basically it comes to this. If you love Gundam BUY IT! If Dragon's Lair type games frustrate the heck outta ya, DON'T buy it! Being an anime freak and somewhat a Gundam fan, I'm gonna go buy it. But I may wait a bit for the US release so I can really understand what the heck they're saying. To an anime fan that likes Mechs it's a must have!

I must say they did an awesome job of producing this game. They are very true to the style of Gundam and I applaude them. Great Job you guys! If you ever saw Gundam before you'll notice that all the characters are from different races. Well that's true in this game. And if you know the style of Gundam then at certain times of the game you will intuitively (sorry I got influenced in college with that word) know what to do. Heck even the music has the right style and fits with Gundam.

Right now it's only out in Japan so that's the one I'm writing about. (They are making a US version, atleast I think they are since the Japanese voice doesn't match the character's lip movements - they're speaking in English!) I don't understand Japanese so I can't comment about the story, but from what I can kinda understand from the plot, it's pretty cool.

Apparently you're in a space colony orbitting Earth. The Federation has developed a Mobile Suit Gundam Unit in that colony and are being attacked by a bunch of Zaku's. Apparently the leaders of the Zion movement doesn't want the Federation to have this tech. So that's where you come in. I think you are this random civilian who just happens to know how to pilot this MS (atleast you will after you read the walk through =) ). You basically save the MS from getting blown to bits and well the rest of the story is for you to see. I'm not gonna give it away in this review.