Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon

"How can the lone white Gundam defeat an army of Zeons? Become a Newtype!!!!"

This is a wonderful and exciting game that I am very happy to be able to play! In this game you control the mobile suit of you choice and fight through the battles of the ''One Year War'' from the 1979 anime legend, ''Mobile Suit Gundam''.

Game Play 9
There are 3 game play modes to choose from, arcade, Campaign and Versus.

In arcade you choose to fight as Federation or Zeon, choose your mobile suit and get right into it as you fight through a series of the most heated one year war battles.
A friend can join in too and choose to either play on you side or the enemy's.
If you're good enough you can even unlock stuff for versus mode! But you'll have to find out how on your own.
Stronger suits have a higher star level and will drop down you battle meter more when your's is destroyed. Because of this it is possible for weaker suites to win against stronger ones. So what suit is right for you?
Will you pilot a humble but reliable Zaku II?
Or will you go all out and pilot Char's Gelgoog?
Personally my favorite suit is the deadly RX-78-2 Gundam or ''White Ghost'' as it was known to the zeon soldiers it haunted. With the awesome power of the Gundam I can win even against many enemies at once! Even a whole army (well okay only 3) of Zeons in Gelgoogs can be defeated by just me because of the awesome controls and engine of this game!
But it's not just that the Gundam is more powerful, because it's high star cost compensates for that. It's that it is the suit that's meant for me. For me I feel that my battle sprit is the highest when I use the Gundam and so even against overwhelming odds I feel that I can win! And I do. A big part of the fun of this game is finding out what type of mobile suit...... suit's you.
Even if you have a favorite suit already, you may find there's many more that you'll love to use!

In campaign mode you must fight through many many battles over the course of the One Year War as either a pilot of the Zeon or Federation forces.. There are almost always multiple missions available at once so it's your choice to do them in the order you choose. As you progress and clear
missions you are rewarded with new mobile suites to use!
The mobile suits take time to repair after battle so you wont always be able to use you favorite ones. The more powerful suits also take longer (more missions) to be repaired so you have to use some strategy and save your best suits for the hardest missions or for the missions they're best suited for! Because of this Campaign mode can really help you see the value of each mobile suit.

Im versus mode you and you friend can select you mobile suit and what area to fight in and also set a time limit.
Or you can also choose to play alone and select what enemy(s) you want to fight and where. This can be a lot of fun when you don't wana play through arcade mode. Unlike the AI enemies your friends will catch on and pick up the tricks you use on them. So to stay the top pilot you have to constantly come up with new strategies to beat your friends.

The controls are almost prefect and after time you really start to feel that you're mastering each mobile suit!

Story 7
The game gives a thin over view of the ''One Year War'' without too much detail. For Gundam fans who have seen this series it won't matter, but for people who haven't seen the show they might feel a bit lost.

Graphics 10
The graphics are amazing the mobile suites are beautiful down to every detail! The character portraits are also beautiful and authentic. The battle areas are very detailed
and truly feel like the environments from the anime series.

Sound 10
The music is wonderful and even includes some tunes not in the NA series release. Both the music and songs from the series and the movies are perfectly adapted to this game!
The sound effects and voices are also perfect. They even went as far as to have the same voice actors from the NA series do the voices for the game!

Play Time/Replayability 10
I've been playing this game for almost a year now and it still hasn't gotten old! The Campaign modes alone take a long tie to complete. It's almost like this game is several games worth of play time all in one! This game has the highest re-play value of it's type and you'll never want to get rid of it.

Final Recommendation
If you're a Gundam fan you must buy this game! If you're not a Gundam fan you should rent this and you'll probably discover that you like it and become one.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/03