Another Century Episode 3

 Rewriting the article since i think the article was a pile of mess when i wrote this back in 2010 and feels that the game needs better treatment that it deserved. In any case i always held Another Century Episode 3 with high regard as it was the game that opened my eyes to mecha series other than Gundam before i get serious with SRW. As of now i have played my 3rd Playthrough on the game and unlocked most of the units already. I will be highlighting the best things that come out from this game in this article.

Gear Fighter Dendoh PSX Game

 Dendoh is one of the series that i always really want to watch since it got some cool gimmicks and on top of that this was a mecha show directed by Fukuda before SEED debacle. Before there was SRW MX, there was this PSX Game for Gear Fighter Dendoh. It was really fun beat'em up game and i used to play this a lot when i was a 6th Grader. I think for Game that was intended for Cross-Promotion, it was rather well made if short and give really nice coverage on Dendoh before SRW R and MX included the series in their roster.

KidsLogic Shurato Action Figure Get!

 I think i have been seeing some new Shurato toys few years ago but not too observant about it. After some random lurking on Taobao, from some impulse buy decision i got myself Shura-Oh Shurato and Yasha-Oh Gai for 600 RMB or roughly 50 USD each. These Shurato Action Figures apparently made by KidsLogic, a Hongkong based Toy Company which surprised me for many reasons. On the first glance these Shurato Action Figure are on par with Bandai's Armor Plus with some metal parts for the armor though it could have more face sculpts in the package. These Shurato Action Figures can be bought from Kids Logic Website for 84 USD but  Taobao usually sold them slightly cheaper around 340 RMB. To me the Shurato anime was a disappointment with so much potential wasted but that doesn't prevent me to like the aesthetics of the series. I really wonder if Kidslogic are going to make more of Action Figures for Shurato since i would welcome other Hachibushu to my collection especially Ten-Oh Hyuga.

Muvluv Schwarzesmarken

Perhaps my opinion toward Muvluv was rather low after Alt Chronicle 3, but after watching Schwarzesmarken i guess i slightly regain my faith toward the series. By no means the anime version of Schwarzesmarken is the definitive version of the series but at least it fulfills its purpose successfully. Though at very least i think you should read Muvluv Alternative beforehand in order to appreciate what Schwarzesmarken Anime could offer.

MIG-21 Balalaika is quite awesome

 Schwarzesmarken is a spin-off story of Muvluv series revolving around the Elite East German 666 TSF Squadron who specialize in suicidal missions. The series Roughly taking place 10 Years after the first BETA landing where the world are fighting losing battles against BETA while still manage to bicker with each other due to cold war mentality. If Alternative is a story of man fight to save humanity, then Schwarzesmarken is the story of a man fight to preserve his sliver of hope toward humanity.

Initially i was rather skeptical toward Schwarzesmarken due to fanservices but overall i think the series plots are decent enough to breathe a fresh air into Muvluv series. After multiple Blunders from other spin-offs, at least Schwarzesmarken managed to get the setting Grimdark enough which was one of the major selling point of the series. Compared to Alternative most of the "grimdark"ness of Schwarzesmarken come from the political intrigues while it still got decent amount of deaths.

Fluff-wise Schwarzesmarken Anime does contribute alot to Muvluv-verse. The anime shows more detailed view on how TSF Squadrons deal with BETA in the transitional period between 1st and 2nd Generation TSF as well as the sheer horror of these Alien creatures bring to the frontline. It certainly sucks if you fight as footsoldier in the frontline against hordes of those Tank Classes trying to have piece of you. At the same time the series also provide good insight how the cold war tensions between the Nations cost them dearly by the time of Alternative.

F-14 Jolly Roger Squad with the Phoenix missiles

On the end note, Schwarzesmarken succeed to show a different sides for Muvluv series while maintaining the appeal of the series. Despite the Anime appeared to be minimalistic, it managed to get me interested to look into the original Light Novel or VN which to me the anime succeeds at its goal. I will definitely look forward for the localization of Schwarzesmarken VN which hopefully is not just pure re-telling of the story especially more insight on how the protagonist of this series end up in the circumstances of his in TE. Also i still hope one day we get some Muvluv action game since it is a sin for such delicious mecha designs do not have such treatment. Perhaps for now i will just re-read Muvluv Alternative.

Mechatalk: Super Robot Wars and Char Aznable

  Char Aznable is no doubt one of the most influential character in Gundam universe as many of his  clones kept spawning throughout the history of Gundam series. Starting as rival Ace Pilot with hidden agenda in Universal Century 0079 then a mentor for protagonist in Zeta and finally in CCA as the main antagonist leading his people to fight for not necessarily bad if ambiguous purposes. Showing up in 3 different series with different Persona do make Char to be the most fleshed out character of all Gundam series and thats why he shows up alot in medias involving Gundam especially Video Games. Char's Counterattack was used alot in Video Games like Gundam Vs or Another Century Episode. However so far the only Video Game that tries to explore Char Aznable's character further and successfully did was SRW series in particular the Alpha timeline. In this article i will try my best to point out how this crossover series pull this feat out as a homage to one of the most legendary character from Universal Century and Gundam series as a whole.

The Great Battle VI

 In the early days of Banpresto before they are really famous for their SRW series, they made crossover series which involve Gundam, Kamen Rider and Ultraman in Super-Deformed game series called "The Great Battle" which most of them seen released on Super Nintendo platform. When i was a kid i used to play the 6th installment of the game on Playstation alot and it was my gateway game to Gundam series. I am quite surprised how childhood can make something biased so much since i used to think this game was the best one ever. Nevertheless Great Battle VI is still kinda decent Sidescroller.

Yoroiden Samurai Trooper

 Around late 80s to early 90s Saint Seiya was really popular and obviously there were clones popping out to capitalize the trend. From what i know there are two of these clones that got international exposure and worth mentioning at least, one of them is Tenku Senki Shurato and the other is Yoroiden Samurai Trooper. Since i watched Shurato a while ago already i thought i may give Yoroiden a run as well considering i used to watch some of the episodes when i was a kid just like Shurato.