Gundam Side Story 0079: Rise from the Ashes

"The first attempt of Bandai in Gundam Merchandise turns out to be a well balanced game"

Description:
The first Bandai attempt for Sega Dreamcast to recreate the Gundam (robot) simulator. This is only the first impression (not the complete review of the game) of the game.

Graphics: 10/10
For Gundam fans out there, go and get this game. You won't believe what you can see in this game. The Mecha is very detail in every aspect (movement and animation). Several graphical effects add the realism (the fog and smoke effects). The cockpit of Mecha is realistic in many ways (like the moving cockpit effect....to enhance the cockpit feel while the mecha is walking).

Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay is typical to Mechwarrior (for PSX and PC). For the first few mission you can only use several weapons (and will be added later on) like machine gun, rocket launcher, grenade and beam saber (automatically set if you get your enemy locked in short distance). You can command 2 wingmen to guard, move, attack or search in first few level. The AI is not very good, i.e:
1. the enemy tried to jump the hill using his booster several times, without trying to cover his back.
2. if the terrain is not possible to pass using booster, our wingman will not try other alternative way to get to the designated point. They will keep trying to pass the hill using their boosters (one depressing move when you really need an immediate backup).
The control is very nice, although several more moves expected to add the realism (like thrusting the beam sabre instead of just slashing it). We can use the scope like the one in Gundam movies for long range attack (sniping). Several moves that can be performed are ducking, dashing, jumping (using booster), throwing grenades, using shield, and using head camera (to look up, down, left and right...using analog stick). Walking and dashing are using the digital pad (includes ducking). The mecha that we are using are RGM 79, and RGM 80 (same as RGM 79 with 1 right shoulder cannon).

Overall Score: 8(normal gamer) and 9(Anime/Mecha fans) out of 10
For normal gamer, you can get a nice eye candy for trying this games. For Gundam fans or Mechwarrior fans, try this one and you'll be amazed with its amount of detail.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99