3RRDC Gundam 0079

Now here was an interesting one. A gundam game had made it across
the pond to the U.S, to be exclusive to the sega dreamcast! Not only
was it gundam, an incredibly popular franchise that has spawned
animes, mangas, model kits, action figures, video games and anything
else you can think of, to sweeten the deal it was set in the original one
year war of the original anime (even though gundam wing, was quite
popular in America at the time). But you will come to learn through
time and experience, that games based of animes, usually aren't very
good. They may be somewhat enjoyable if you really dig the series, but
for the most part it's all just a quick way to earn some yen. But not this
game. I bought it when it first came out, and back then my gundam
knowledge was kinda limited. But even so I really enjoyed the game for
the most part. So my more gundam influenced brother played, and
liked it. Then I let my gundam obsessed (and dreamcast less) friend
borrow it and play it. And you know what, he liked it too.

Set in the year UC 0079, and taking place at the very end of the year,
the war is almost over. The war is between the Duchy of Zeon (bad
guys) and the Earth Federation (good guys). For those that don't know,
the zeons dropped a space colony over Australia and then took over
2/3 of the Earth. Battles are waged with mobile suits, giant robots.
That's the simplest way of putting it The Earth is starting a much more
massive counterattack now and an end to the war seems to draw
closer. Now then, let me say that you never get to play as a gundam in
this game. And no Amuro and Char do not make cameo shots. Instead
you are Lt Rayer, a mobile suit pilot who is the head of the small white
dingo squadron. His mobile suit is the Fang 1. His team includes three
other pilots, Leung, Mike, and Anita, they work to secure Australia and
proceed with the counterstrike there. Given orders by Stanley
Hawkins, and assisted by Bob Rock, the team will go toe to robotic toe
with hot shot zeon pilot Visch Donahue. Will the feds flush out the
zeons on Earth? And what do the zeons have in store for our heroes?
Play the game and see. Story wise, it's classic gundam, and for a lot of
fans that's all you need. The setting and characters are all good (with
the help of great graphics and sound). Visch is a great villain, who has
an excellent English voice.

First thing's first. Your view is from within the mobile suit cockpit. You
move with the d-pad and adjust your view with the control stick. There
are 9 levels (all good and fun) in which you are given set goals to
accomplish, such as destroy this, protect that, and wait for that over
there. As your giant mech walks across the battle field (if you leave the
combat zone you fail) you will eventually find enemy mobile suits to
fight. Depending on which suit you pick, you will either blast them with
machine guns, or attack them with your beam saber (which is always
much cooler). Of course there are other more powerful attacks that
newer suits will have later in the game. As for the team of yours,
anytime in the mission, you can go into start and give them commands.
Tell them to search certain places, fight certain mechs and such. A
level of strategy must be used to ensure your team mates make it out
of the mission with their lives. You can run and jump, lock on, snipe
enemies, (and even blow their metallic heads off! cool!), destroy
buildings, and look cool in the process. The game really captures the
scale of the suits and the battles. You are in a huge robot you know.

Before each mission begins, the commander of the forces will brief you
on your current mission, and show you diagrams of where you are
going next. After his low down you can do a couple of things. Go to the
garage, where you can choose which suits you and your team will pilot,
and which weapons they will be equipped with. You can check the mail
box for audio and visual gossip from your team. Some of it relates to
the story, some is just extra stuff thrown in to give life to the
characters. Then there's the options where you can save your game,
change the difficulty, and adjust various things. When you're all set to
go, just click on exit and then the level will begin. I enjoyed all the little
things that go on before each mission, like white dingo member Mike's
fascination with radio host Jacqueline. Not necessary, but fun stuff
none the less.

The graphics are amazing. The in game graphics rival the fmv scenes
(which are great!) The suits all look like they should, and the
environments in which you fight are varied and vast. One of the
highlights is the Zaku's glowing red eye. It looks fantastic here. (I've
played some of the ps2 gundam games and this game's graphics are
definitely on par with them). So much detail to the suits and so much
love. The humans don't fare as well. While not bad like plasma sword or
dynamite cop!, they don't have the same shine as the suits. Oh well
most of the gundam games on ps2 just used still anime pictures to
talk, so the 3d graphics are at the very least different. My favorite part
is fighting an enemy zaku with my beam saber pulled out. Good in your
face graphics.

If you are a fan of the gundam anime dubs, or you are in the know
about English released anime, you should recognize a bunch of popular
voice actors. The main character doesn't speak, (he is supposed to be
you), but the rest of the characters should ring a bell in your ear. White
dingo member max burger, is voiced by David Lucas, the man who also
voiced Roger Smith from The big-o, Spike from Cowboy Bebop, and
wasn't he Char in Char's counterattack? White dingo member Anita
Julianne is voices by Wendee Lee, who has played so many characters
it's insane. You might recognize her as Faye from Cowboy Bebop,
Angel from the Big-o, Kiyone from Tenchi, and lots more. Lia Sargent
plays radio host Jacqueline. She has also done Dorothy from the big-o
and loads more too. So the voice acting is of course excellent
(especially if your a fan of the dubbed anime they voice in). All the
weapons sound good, from the machine guns chugging, to the beam
sabers clashing. Music has a military theme that fits well with the
game. Sometimes it's kinda drowned out by the mech's rather loud
behavior, but it's there. The sound then is of course very satisfactory.

As I said though, 9 levels. It won't take you long to beat the game. In
some missions, play your suits right, and you can unlock new mobile
suits for future missions. Also once you beat the game you unlock
extra options. Here you can see your statistics on how many zakus you
killed and such. You can also put certain weapons in the game and put
a few pictures in your cockpit. But gundam fans won't mind the
shortness too much. It's still a fun game to play.

And that's really the only major flaw in the game. The controls take a
little adjusting to at first, but it's the 9 levels thing that hurts the game.
You want more. So the Japanese came out with a premium disk with
more suits, (including a gundam I think) and more goodies. Too bad it
never saw release here. But if you're gundam fan looking for a good
dreamcast game here it is. If you have no idea what a gundam is but
you still enjoy your action to have some thinking to it, you'll like this
one too.

(p.s. Wendee Lee also did a voice in one of my favorite anime's "Dual
Parallel Trouble Adventure". The ending credits don't say which dub
actor played who so I'm not positive who she played. David Lucas is in
that one too. Gosh I really don't know which one he played. Go watch
dual after you play this game. It's a good anime. Whoops getting off
track and losing time, don't forget to have your mobile suit spayed or
neutered!)

Review by: Orochi Sonic