It takes a certain type of western gamer to be a Mobile Suit Gundam fan. You probably got hooked into mecha anime and spent your youth glaring at import gaming magazines, making lists of Gundam games you would either never play, or end up doing so decades after their original release after some brave fans translated them. You knew they had zero chance of official localization due to the costs involved and lack of audience in the west, but you somehow stuck with it and continue to be a fan of the series, even today.
You'll also be aware that hope was not lost and eventually, several Gundam shows ended up being aired in the West, beginning with Cartoon Network’s Toonami premiere of the 'After Colony' timeline series Gundam Wing, which served as an introduction to the whole Gundam universe for many non-Japanese fans. Overnight, Gundam became a part of mainstream western anime culture, achieving a tiny, tiny fraction of the fame it has enjoyed in its homeland since the late '70s (it's no understatement to say that Gundam is Japan's Star Wars).
There have been Gundam games since the days of the Famicom, but the SD Gundam series has always stood apart as being particularly niche. It's one of the oldest and most enduring franchises among the entire Gundam series, itself based on an extremely popular line of Capsule Toys that offer hundreds of your favourite Gundam series Mobile Suits presented in 'Super-Deformed' proportions – that means huge heads, tiny bodies, and fully adorable. The SD series kept reinventing the franchise by adopting several established genres from platforming, shmup, JRPG and Strategy RPG. This new entry into the series is one of the later genres, but not the first of the series to be released on Nintendo’s world-conquering hybrid system.
That honour belongs to SD Gundam G Generation Genesis, an older entry that saw a re-release on the Switch back in April 2018. Due to lack of region locking, Switch Gundam fans could import the game and play it at their heart's content, with one major caveat – there was no English language text support for the Switch version, a massive sin considering that, despite never officially releasing in the west, previous Sony versions of that game came out-of-the-box with complete English text localization.
Despite this mishap, western gamers continued to take full advantage the lack of region locking and dipped into Japanese exclusives that, more often than not, began to offer the much-desired English text support in their Asian versions. Even better news, the Switch began to receive ports of the Super Robot Wars entries, with full English support – which brings us bang up to date.
Hardly a single year goes by in Japan without a new Gundam game and 2019 was no exception; the exceedingly long-winded title SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays arrived on all major platforms, with English text support out-of-the-box. At long last, we were able to fully comprehend an SD Gundam game on release day without any knowledge of written Japanese – an unthinkable event not so long ago. The make this an even more appealing proposition, the game itself is brilliant.
Immediately after the CGI intro movie is done, SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays lets you freely pick story-driven campaigns from four major series: Wing, SEED, 00 and the most recent Iron-Blooded Orphans. Future DLC aside, there are thirteen of these on offer, with each branching into several different missions that follow their source material in quite extensive detail. We assure that if you are familiar with the original series on which these campaigns are based, you will often find yourself among familiar protagonists – piloting their iconic Mobile Suits, of course – thrown into conflicts from their respective shows.
Once you start your campaign, Advance Wars and Fire Emblem veterans will feel right at home – there's your familiar overhead map with two-dimensional sprites representing units from both sides. The player must deploy, move and attack enemy units before passing the phase and letting the AI opponent do (very competently so) the same. When you open a menu item for the first time, a brief text tutorial tells you what you are dealing with, helping newcomers get accustomed to the complex mechanics these series is famed for.
Whenever the inevitable clash of units begins, the two-dimensional map and sprites take a step back to full polygonal, glorious Itano Circus renditions of the fight you have chosen to unleash (or have been forced into). These are stunning, where even the most basic Leo model beam sabre strike becomes a light show spectacle that could easily pass as a real anime episode. You can multiply this several times over whenever you engage enemies with your most outlandish attacks from battleships, unique Mobile Suits or even coordinate assaults from mixed groups of both.
Basic tactical RPG tropes will work here, but you can really get an edge in battle by learning and taking advantage of group movement, group attacking, defensive support and up to three extra movement and attack opportunities (a Char homage, surely?) for the units dealing the killing blow to an enemy. Every attack will consume some energy (which recharges accordingly to several factors like allied proximity, unit and pilot skills), but using and abusing your military combined might will often reward you with “Overkill” bonuses that stop energy conservation being a real issue, in 'Normal' difficulty, at least.
Upon starting a mission, the odds as vastly stacked against you. Superior enemy numbers often hide unseen reinforcement units that are deployed when certain conditions are met. How can the player counter these seemingly impossible scenarios? Enter the SD Force, your fully-customizable squad of pilots, Mobile Suits, battleships and other support units. You start the game with a fairly balanced Battleship Group and Raid Group – curiously the same characters, Mobile Suits and battleship featured in the previous game, Genesis. Each mission has several deployment points where you can assign these groups to, along with the 'guest units' that make up the default player-controlled forces. In general, the more units you can deploy to your side, the easier time you will have, and while your default setup is quite capable, this feature of the game hides some hidden depth.
Spending time learning and tinkering away at the organization menus is the key to earning smooth victories. Funds are provided by your results in battle, while new Mobile Suit blueprints can be obtained by completing in-mission quests. You can also recruit new characters, capture enemy units under certain conditions or even create your own pilots from scratch. The combinations are nearly limitless, adding several dozen hours of game content to the total already required during a campaign made up of missions that can last anything from twenty minutes to two hours per stage, depending on how many battle animations and cutscenes you decide to either watch or skip.
Regardless of how you chose to enjoy the game, we can’t but be stress how impressive the amount of content on offer here is – quality content, we must stress. It is quite clear that this entry is built upon two decades of progression and evolution. It is true that we did spot, on occasion, some noticeable slowdown when unleashing some of the more spectacular attacks, but for most of our time, we had zero issues with performance in both docked and portable mode.
Speaking of the later, portable play is indeed one of the best features of this version. None of the other game systems let you take you Super-Deformed army on the go, to grind for better equipment and experience or simply use your commute time to tinker away at getting your squad's formation just right. The ability to suspend play – plus the ten individual quick-save slots – make this a very user-friendly and accessible title. We are particularly grateful for those quick-save slots because permadeath is not optional here; while your pilots are safe from actually being killed, a destroyed Mobile Suit or battleship is lost forever. Since both pilots and units level up individually, you don't want to lose a high-level mobile suit or battleship in the later missions – a lesson we ourselves learned the hard way. Even when you turn the game off, you can still train and get rewards by sending your squads into timed away missions, a mechanic successfully lifted from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Buyers beware: If you are looking into expanding this already huge package with ongoing DLC packs, know that the game is locked to its respective regional eShop. If you pick up the Japanese version, you will need to have a Japanese eShop account and a way to add funds to it in order to use the DLC, free or otherwise (and that includes the coupon that comes inside the retail game box). Same goes for the Asian version. A bit of mischievous “under the radar” region locking right there, but we'll let it slide this once.
Conclusion
There is very little to complain about with SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays because what it does, it does very well indeed, with no other game on the system to compare it against, other than its previous non-English entry. What we have here is months of content spread across an accessible, user-friendly package that will reward players who like to tinker with squad micro-management but will also let newcomers to the series enjoy the pyrotechnics display from each engagement. We doubt that we need to tell fans of the franchise why this is such a worthy investment; the amount of fan-service (we're talking the good, wholesome variety here) is staggering and more than worth the admission price. To those who love strategy RPGs and have already exhausted all possibilities provided by Fire Emblem: Three Houses and rabid Pokémon trainers who have filled their Pokédex, we offer this advice: Cross Rays might just be the best game of this type on Switch that you've never heard of, and would probably pass you right by if you’re not a Gundam fan. Take a chance on this and you might just become one. It's a fitting 40th-anniversary celebration of the entire saga.
Comments 39
Fantastic, I adore the GBA ones and Endless Frontier on DS so it’s nice to get a proper game in English. It doesn’t have the Super Robot Wars name but I assume it’s the same devs.
Hello there! It is I with yet another lovely edition of "Nintendo Life Post-Review Services"! Any one with any questions regarding this fine import, feel free to @ me, bros/sisters. A few things that didn't quite make it to the review:
Some gameplay example, is that what I imagined you asked? Sure thing, hope you like Gundam Wing (and yes, this includes the Heavy Arms chest attack slowdown).
Well, then... back to building SD Gundams for me.
@nessisonett Same devs, same game engine except that Super Robot Wars combats use 2D sprites and this one uses full polygonal models.
@Shiryu Woah, that could be rad. Fingers crossed for 5 minute long special move cutscenes and planets exploding 😂
They did not release the console versions to the west? (cant find it)
I did get it on Steam (it is available in EU) but wanted it on Switch too without that expensive import or other eshop accounts.
@Rayquaza2510 No official Western release. There never is one... a small miracle they deemed it STEAM worthy, only possible because the licensing fees for SD models are so much chapter than having the regular, non-SD original variants of the series.
Interesting review. I am not having a fun time with this game: it crashes too much! Maybe it was the series I chose (Stargazer). I also find the combat a little slow and not as attractive as in the Super Robot Wars series.
Looks interesting, i just wonder why it isn't available outside the JPN store
I have a hard time seeing myself getting into this, but I do love giant robots.
@silverthornne I have had in all my time with the game a single crash-to-dashboard. Namco Bandai recommends that you power cycle the Switch every time you start the game instead of resuming or putting the unit in sleep mode (the crashes seem to be RAM related). They are still investigating what causes that and hope to have a definitive fix in a future patch. Luckily thanks to the quick save slots I lost no progress at all, even caught the crash on video and left it in the final upload.
@MuhBael Licensing costs and issues plus general lack of hardcore Gundam audience on Nintendo system probably scared away Namco Bandai from getting this officially released in the West.
@Shiryu That, and the the one time NBGI DID bring a Gundam game over after the fans begged for it, it was the execrable "New Gundam Breaker", which people avoided like the plague because it was awful.
@Shiryu Ah, that would explain my problems then. I am constantly doing the sleep-resume thing. That's actually why I love the Switch so much: I can play quality games in handheld mode and sleep-resume as needed (old dad here). Guess I'll just have to wait on a patch that solves it as I have never been a fan of quick saving in this kind of game.
Back to SRW V while I wait for that then!
It is available for Steam at $40... and the DLC. Also, these type of games work perfectly over SteamLink - no problem playing it on the GO if you need that.
So if you do not want to deal with the importing scene, give it a try there.
Side note: here is Hoping Super Robot Wars X does well on Switch this week.
On a whim I just ordered Super Robot Wars V from Play Asia 3 days ago because SRW was one of the few Japanese Super Nintendo games I bought that I could play without understanding Japanese and I had a blast with it. I got it cause I saw it was in English. This article is a giant coincidence for me. I cant wait for it to arrive in the mail Im completely stoked now.
Absolutely love Super Robot Wars T, and just purchased this as well. Might have to get me an Asian account for the DLC (eventually).
Fun tip! If your looking for a more action orientated gundam game. The Asian version of Gundam breaker 3 is in English on the Vita physically if you have one collecting dust. Compatible with PlayStation tv too! If you can find it for a a decent price on ebay
@silverthornne And I must go order X.
@SpookyPotato Put that on Switch, you cowards!
@silverthornne
You played SRW V? Am I in for a fun game? I always wanted a modern English version of the old retro games and just found out they exist. Now I need this one.
No English text and it cost like $90bucks. Lol, gtfo. Dang game looks like a $20 chibi robot eshop game.
Didn't get Cross Rays yet, but if it's like Super Robot Wars V, where the Japan and Asian carts are identical, you should be able to buy DLC from either shop for it. In practice though, the Asian shop is the only one of the two that accepts foreign cards, so probably the most useful.
The download codes that come in the box are still locked to Japan /or/ Asia though, and not cross-compatible.
@Agramonte that is nice cheap, it is 50 euros in EU (yup gotta love EU)
@Shiryu I know they never release them over here most of the time, but back in the Vita games I got my Gundam games and Super Robot Wars ones for 55 euro including shipping and fees, sadly the Switch ones are full console prices so you easily pay 90 to 100 euro with fees for the import.
I got the game on Steam with season pass for 75 so that is already cheaper (base game is 50 euro) and I did assume they would release it on Switch in the west too, sadly it seems not (again the only reason I expected this was because of the Steam release)
@mesome713 ... "No English Text"? Are you ... even commenting on the correct review, sir?
Nice to see another import review so shortly after Esp Ra.De.!
2020 is starting really well on NintendoLife, this is the stuff i want to see.
I do love the Gundam franchise and I had been playing stuff like Gundam Versus and Battle Operation 2 along watching some stuff like The Origin, Narrative, Build Divers Re:Rise and G Gundam all from those things from last year to celebrate the franchise's 40th anniversary. So it's no surprise that I will be getting this import.
@EmirParkreiner Really? Games that are released only in Japan?
@SpookyPotato Thanks.
@Shiryu Obviously.
@mesome713 lol that entire comment is incorrect
I am about as die hard of a Gundam fan as can be. As an American living in Japan, I have actually had Japanese people be shocked at how much I know about the franchise and how much I love it! I've been to BOTH life size Gundams more than once! I have shelves of Gunpla all over my apartment, and all sorts of other goods!
But the SD Gundam series is one aspect I have always had trouble with. Taking the gorgeous highly detailed mecha and boiling them down to little more than toys, and then taking the deep, heart breaking, depth that the stories this franchise is known for, and then slapping it onto these designs has always felt more like a parody than actually part of the franchise...
BUT... Despite all of that... I am very tempted now, after reading this review, I might finally set aside my dislike of the artstyle and give an SD Gundam game a chance.
@mesome713 Uh, you can set it to English. In fact, at least the Asian version I have defaults to English and the gameplay is really good. If you just dismiss games because of graphics you are really missing out. It's just the crashes because of that sleep bug making it unplayable for me.
@Priceless_Spork It's an awesome game! I do prefer SRW T, but V is still really good with what I've played so far. My only disappointment in the SRW series is that the first I played were the OG releases on GBA and I prefer the top-down view of those over the modern SRW isometric presentation for the map. I was also expecting to see more of the OG Mecha and characters as part of the cast, but I guess it makes sense that each title has its own cast and they don't want the old ones taking attention away from them.
I believe I have found the game that will get me to import a game for the very first time in my life.
I've been hearing about PlayAsia for years... should I feel comfortable trusting it with my credit card info?
@Custom1991
I mean that from a journalistic perspective it's good thing that NL is reporting on JP-only releases instead of focusing on mainstream stuff they get spoon fed by publishers or stupid filler articles.
Of course it's always sad that some good games don't get international releases, but that only makes it more important that websites like NL report on these games that might get overlooked otherwise.
Bought the standard JP version last month whilst in Japan, but ended up importing the Premium edition to hear classic Gundam tunes. Want to play it but I’m more a UC Gundam fan so may play G Generations on Vita/PS4 first. The lack of English text on the Switch version absolutely baffled me as I did see it in a New York store and so wanted to play it on Switch.
@Gwynbleidd You can skip them easily here, but I actually enjoy understanding (for once!) why I am blowing up poor fools who stand up to me.
@burninmylight I have been a client for well over a decade, zero issues.
@Shiryu Do you think the game will eventually drop in price on PlayAsia, or will it more likely go up?
No one has a bigger backlog than I do, so I've started only buying games on sale or marked down. But if the price starts going up due to scarcity, then I'll go ahead and bite soon.
@burninmylight Sadly I never see these games going down in price at all. Also, I do believe my Backlog of Shame is already the stuff of legends (from a total of 302 retails games + 668 digital ones) and for what is worth there has not been a single day where I didn't play Ring Fit Adventure and SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays since both games arrived at my home. Heck, even today I look foward to test a few new Mobile Suits I developed last night. It is expensive, but considering the amount of game time I'm getting out of it and despite just making my backlog stagnate, it is time well spent.
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