Game:

Gundam Side Story 0079: Rise from the Ashes (1999)

Duration: 9:37

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Original Air Date: February 1st, 2010

A beautiful-looking game that sports a surprising degree of action and strategy with good acting too, for Gundam fans and casual gamers alike. I was really surprised when I learned that this game was actually released outside of Japan and even more surprised when I discovered that (while far from perfect) that the game would be enjoyable to someone other than a fan of the franchise.

I won't go over the history of Gundam or the game's accuracy to anything within the franchise-- that's not my job. What I will tell you is that the game feels a little like a simplified RTS game and the outcome of battles are determined more by your ability to pilot than your teammates, which isn't to say they're useless (they're annoying when they shoot you though), but that you'll need to take charge. You can issue them basic commands like searching or attacking, but you'll do most of the work, which is fine because I like clashing weapons with Zakus and knocking enemies over.

The game has fairly cumbersome controls due to the relatively large amount of actions you can make, but you can't really fault a Dreamcast controller for that. Once you get comfortable, you can move around with relative ease and take down your share of enemies. It's a shame you have to play in the cockpit view, but you get used to that too.

The opening and story scenes are great, and the actual combat looks pretty good too (pretty "foggy" throughout though), but the game is noted by many for being short-lived. There are less than a dozen missions and not much to look foward to upon completing the game. There isn't much variety in the single player and the game lacks other features like multi-player. Still, it's not too shabby and it's a decent action game if you can find it for a good price.