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The Fascinating History of Gundam Battle Assault

by the NWR Staff - April 1, 2020, 8:33 am EDT
Total comments: 1

Wealth and glory to the winner.

Mobile Suit Gundam is as prolific a video game series as an anime franchise. With numerous titles released on dozens of platforms over the past 40 years and endless crossover appearances, Gundam has seemingly always been a constant in video games. It may be easy to forget that the West has only known Gundam officially for about half that time. One particular series of fighting games, titled Gundam Battle Assault, were among the first pieces of Gundam media released here—although it might surprise some people to learn that these games were largely created for the West.

The year was 2000. Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had premiered on Toonami and was quickly gaining popularity as the West’s first televised Gundam media. Bandai, holders of the Gundam license, were set to capitalize with model kits and video games based on the Gundam series. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a problem with this plan: most of the games released in Japan around this time were based on the Universal Century. For those not in the know, Universal Century (UC) is the primary Gundam universe, established by the original Mobile Suit Gundam series and expanded on through its various sequels and spin-offs. The problem here is that many Gundam series from the ‘90s onward, including Gundam Wing, operate in their own contained universes that do not interact with the UC. Gundam Wing itself had received one tie-in video game during its mid-’90s run, but it was released on the Super Famicom, a full console generation behind the contemporary Nintendo 64 and Playstation. With no current-generation games containing Gundam Wing, Gundam Wing would just instead be added to an existing game.

Gundam: The Battle Master 2 was a 2D fighting game developed by Natsume (as were the other games in this article) and was released for the PlayStation in 1998. It featured a variety of UC mobile suits piloted by new, original characters and was a fairly accessible and unique fighting game. With the game already positioned as a “dream match” of different mobile suits and with the West’s lack of familiarity with other Gundam universes, simply adding the eponymous Wing Gundam would not appear out of place. However, it seems they did not have the resources to add a completely new character into the game, so some improvisation would need to occur. First, they took an existing unit that was close enough to the Wing Gundam’s aesthetic and ability-set: the Zeta Gundam. The Zeta’s data was completely copied over an existing slot, overwriting another character. This copy’s sprites were then edited to better resemble the Wing, although certain poses make it obvious that it is simply a retooled Zeta. The original Battle Master pilots for all mobile suits were replaced with each suit’s canonical pilots, including Gundam Wing’s Heero Yuy. Heero and the Wing Gundam were also prominently featured as the main character of the rewritten story mode, and they appeared on the box art and menus. This altered game was released in North America as Gundam Battle Assault in late 2000, and would surprisingly also be re-released in Japan with these new changes.

Two years later, Toonami had completed its run of Gundam Wing, started its run of Mobile Fighter G Gundam, and had also aired several Universal Century series. Bandai was ready with a sequel to Battle Assault, catering specifically to a Western audience with this fragmented viewpoint of the franchise. Gundam Battle Assault 2 was again built off of The Battle Master, but this time it was made into a wholly new game. 14 brand new characters from Gundam Wing and G Gundam were added to the roster—bumping the roster up to 30 characters—and the edited Wing Gundam was replaced by a more genuine version. The first game’s story campaign was replaced by a new mode called “Street Mode,” small story campaigns focused on a selection of characters, adapting the stories from their respective series. These characters also received english voice lines from the anime dub casts.

Perhaps the oddest thing about Battle Assault 2 was the way it was later released in Japan. Unlike the first game, it was not simply translated and released; instead it was split up into two versions in D3 Publisher’s budget Simple Character 2000 series. These versions were Kidou Butouden G Gundam: The Battle and Shin Kidou Senki Gundam W: The Battle. One would think this means they split up the G Gundam and Gundam Wing cast between the two, but in fact the Wing characters are unlockable in G Gundam and vice-versa. Instead, the UC characters had been split up, with each game’s final roster totalling 24 characters.

The final chapters of our story take place in 2004, when Mobile Suit Gundam SEED had begun airing on Toonami. Although SEED had originally aired two years prior, and tie-in games had been released on current platforms, the decision was made to keep developing original Battle Assault games primarily for the West, with multiple in development at once.

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Battle Assault was released in August 2004 for the Game Boy Advance. The platform change meant the game was no longer built off The Battle Master 2, but it did approximate many of the gameplay systems of the previous titles as well as it could on the portable system. The roster was massively cut down compared to Battle Assault 2, as it retained no previous characters and focused exclusively on a selection of 12 SEED characters. The game also had a fairly standard selection of modes, with a more standard arcade mode for all characters.

This game would also be modified for Japan, as the sequel series Gundam SEED Destiny was currently airing at the time. Simply titled Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED Destiny and released in Japan three months later, the game added the new mobile suits from SEED Destiny, doubling the roster. It also added a surprisingly modern combo trial mode, as well as a shop where one could unlock extra colors, characters, and the entire US version of Gundam SEED: Battle Assault. That’s right; the full English-language game just exists in the Japanese version and can be switched to when the game is launched.

Finally we have reached the biggest and unfortunately final game in this series: Battle Assault 3 featuring Gundam SEED. It was released in December 2004, actually making it the fourth (or perhaps fifth) game in the series. Battle Assault 3 moved the series to the PlayStation 2 in a big way, dropping the sprite-based 2D gameplay in favor of fully polygonal mobile suits and three-dimensional movement. The main focus was again on Gundam SEED, with 29 SEED mobile suits on the roster; although select characters from G Gundam and Gundam Wing were also included as unlockables. In place of an arcade mode was a lengthy mission mode, where branching paths and varying match conditions adapted most of Gundam SEED’s story. Perhaps it was because the sequel series was airing in Japan, but for whatever reason, Battle Assault 3 holds the distinction of the only Gundam video game to not be released in Japan in some form.

While fairly alright as games themselves, the Gundam Battle Assault series is fascinating to look at. A juggernaut of a franchise largely exclusive to Japan for 20 years was suddenly targeting and catering to a brand new Western audience. This series evolved from a stitched-together edit job to a full-scale 3D game only destined for this side of the Pacific. Largely swallowed up by the flood of Gundam properties nowadays, it is still interesting to see what built up that wave.

This article was written by Kirbi.

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KhushrenadaApril 01, 2020

Is Gundam Wing still worth watching? Asking for a friend...

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