GUNDAM: THE BATTLE MASTER

GUNDAM: THE BATTLE MASTER

SLPS-00883
© 1997 Sotsu Agency, Sunrise
© 1997 Bandai
Sony Playstation
Fighter / 1-2 Player
¥6,800

— by Charles McCarter

Take some of the most popular mecha from the GUNDAM Universe, toss them into a fighting game, and - voil - instant hit, right? One would certainly think so, but GUNDAM: THE BATTLE MASTER, the latest GUNDAM game for the Playstation, falls short of what it should have been.
In the fighting stable are a host of Mobile Suits, especially Gundams, including the original Gundam, Gundam ZZ, Nu Gundam, and the GP01. The bad guys are also well represented, including a Zaku, a Hygog, the infamous Sazabi, and a couple of others. So far, so good. Each is nicely rendered into 2D and moves relatively smoothly, or as smooth as one can expect from 100 tons of metal.
Actually fighting with these mechs, though, requires a lot of button mashing. There are four attacks: punch, kick, hand weapons, and beam attack. There is also a turbo that takes the place of jump and, if pressed repeatedly, allows the mech to fly. Special moves are executed by a combination of STREET FIGHTER-esque D-pad motions and the appropriate button. The comparison to the popular fighting game engine ends there, however. There are no combos in this game, nor are there any throws. And the mobile suits are sometimes excruciatingly slow in executing special moves and regular moves as well, so game play is something like "hit button, wait, hit button, wait, hit button." Not much challenge there. Also, due to the delayed reaction time, it is a little too easy to be pinned down by enemy fire from beam weapons (especially the Sazabi's).
Damage is registered on armor levels. Each combatant begins with four levels of armor, but enough consecutive hits causes the mech to overheat and lose an armor level. When all armor levels are gone, the match is over. Matches take only one round, so players had best be on their toes.
The most bizarre aspect of this game is the selection of pilots. Naturally, one would suspect Char to pilot his Sazabi and Amuro to fly the Nu Gundam. But GUNDAM: THE BATTLE MASTER is set in an "alternate universe" where mobile suits are used in tournament fighting ( la G GUNDAM). The pilots are, for the most part, bland and uninteresting, especially since we know nothing about them. One of the highlights of GUNDAM has been its richly detailed and complex characters, and replacing them with two-dimensional pilots to fly these well-known mobile suits seems very wrong. And if they went to all the trouble of making a GUNDAM game and rendering the mechs so nicely, why didn't they use the appropriate characters? Bosses, such as the Psycho Gundam, although immense, are not very difficult to beat once their attack pattern is learned. And even when you beat the game, the ending is not very rewarding.
Die-hard GUNDAM fans, who in the past have championed even the most mediocre of GUNDAM games, will probably like this game even less than those who have only a passing interest in GUNDAM. In fact, except for the fact that there are mobile suits in this game, it could be a cheap clone of CYBERBOTS or any number of other fighting games. But as it stands, lacking in smooth gameplay, originality, and good use of the GUNDAM franchise, GUNDAM: THE BATTLE MASTER is solidly mediocre.

Rating: * (out of 4)