Gundam Battle Assault 2

-Wealth and Glory to the Winner!

 When i was a kid, i played this game alot with my friend and certainly it was one of my early gateway to the series. Gundam Battle Assault 2 is probably the best Gundam game that was ever released in the west for PSX and still one of the top Gundam Games that got western release. At its release time Gundam Battle Assault 2 surprises lots of people with its solid gameplay, making it a well-remembered classic. While i am not good with fighting game, i really had fun with GBA2 and every now and then still play this awesome gem.

 Gundam Battle Assault 2 was the second installment of the series which is 2D fighting Game made by Bandai which was known as Gundam Battle Masters in Japan. The features 30 different playable Mobile Suits from different series though about half of the units needed to be unlocked mainly through the Street Mode. Coinciding with the Gundam Tv series airing on US, the unit roster of the game tend to favor heavily on Gundam Wing and G Gundam, there were some plans to include Zeta Gundam units in the games but due to several reasons they were not included in the Final version. While 2D Gundam Fighting game starts as early as in the gaming Arcade age, Gundam Battle Assault 2 is the pinnacle of this genre boasting rather amazing graphic for its time with its surprising amount of detail as well. Unlike most of the Gundam Games, Gundam Battle Assault 2 is actually the superior version of the game compared to the western Counterpart.

 In the GBA2 Streetmode is essentially the story mode of the game where you unlock most of the contents in the game through this mode. Initially there are Five playable character in this mode but raised to Eight as you clear each character's. The story in the game is pretty much in-existent due to the nature of the game though it highlights some of the moments from the Gundam Series. When i was a kid Big Zam was always my hurdle until i learned to play fighting game properly and in my opinion Deathscythe's streetmode was the easiest due to constant trapping with scythe throw+slash combo and Maxter is the hardest one being the most mediocre one. I would recommend doing the Streetmode in the Hard Difficulty for the first time since it saves you from the pain of doing the mode with same character twice in order to unlock stuffs.

 In terms of units variety, Gundam Battle Assault 2 offers diverse Rosters to suit player's playing style complete with Joke units like Ball(Poor Shiro he should have his EZ-8 instead) to OP Units like Devil Gundam or Psyco Gundam(the Shoryuken hurts alot!). The units from Gundam Wing series tend to be solid performers like Wing Zero and Deathscythe to cheap units like Epyon or Hydra. Whereas Universal Century Mobile Suits tend to be mixed bag with some of the weakest MS belong in this group. Out of 30 Mobile Suits my favorite would be Tallgeese with its stylish look and i lost count how many times i use this guy while my friend use Epyon when we played together.

 Gundam Battle Assault 2 is simply the best Gundam Game for 2D Fighting game and you don't need to look back or further especially the sequel which is just a Gundam Seed game borrowing the title for some cash grab. It has been almost 15 years since the release of the game, but don't be mistaken for its age since you can still have fun with the game. A perfect game to play when your friend visit your house and you will miss a lot of fun for skipping this easily accessible game.