The Gundam FAQ
- February 21, 2007 11:05 AM PST
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For the culturally curious, GamePro explains everything you need to know about Gundam and their (sometimes horrid) video games.
By Eugene Huang
While the majority of American gamers have remained apathetic, Japanese gamers are counting down the minutes to the release of Gundam Musou, considered by many industry analysts to be just the system seller the PS3 needs to finally break ground in the Japanese market. "But why?" you might ask yourselves. Why are Japanese gamers so excited when Gundam: Crossfire was such a miserable pile of steaming mucus? Well, we've noticed the looks of confusion on your faces whenever Japan announces yet another Gundam-related video game project, so we've decided to answer the more common questions about this curious cultural phenomenon:
Q: What is Gundam?
Mobile Suit Gundam, ca. 1979
Mobile Suit Gundam (mostly Gundam for short) was an animated giant robot television series that debuted in Japan in 1979, and was originally conceived by the Bandai Corporation merely as a method to make oodles of money via plastic model sales. The television series succeeded in its original task, of course, but nobody at Bandai could truly foresee the multi-billion yen empire it would eventually spawn.
Q: Why was Gundam so successful?
Mostly because it was different. While Gundam may have seemed to be "just another" giant robot show to the casual observer, the original television series exhibited subtle, yet ground-breaking differences that forged a brand new path for the genre. First, while most Japanese giant robot shows involve a titular mecha defending the earth from extraterrestrial invaders, Mobile Suit Gundam was the first series to feature a robot that was used strictly as a war machine. Furthermore, the enemies in this war weren't aliens or monsters, but fellow human beings.
Secondly, Gundam broke the shallow and tired giant robot formula, which usually goes like this: monster invades earth, robot fights monster, robot transforms, robot effortlessly destroys monster. Americans have seen it before with series like Voltron and Power Rangers, and it's the exact reason why we stopped watching them as soon as we grew up. Instead, Gundam's story revolved around a collection of space colonies that proclaims independence from the Earth government, and the subsequent war that breaks out as a result.
And lastly, in comparison to most other mecha shows, Gundam wasn't episodic, but instead featured an intricately detailed saga. The continuing story arcs allowed the series much more room for plot and character development, with certain characters exhibiting gradual personality changes throughout the series.
Japanese fans weren't so hot about these drastic changes to the genre either, at first. The show was initially cancelled midway through its first airing, but was brought back after the reruns fueled popular demand.
Q: Why are there so many Gundam series?
Zeta Gundam, ca. 1985
Because they still continue to make a ton of money, whether it's through DVD sales, video games licenses, or model kits. Bandai will make up pretty much any excuse to allow them to unleash a new line of plastic kits to the unsuspecting public.
A lot of Gundam newcomers can be very intimidated by the massive amount of Gundam series to have appeared since its inception. Canonically speaking, there have been only four Gundam television series that deal with the main timeline, known as the Universal Century (U.C.) timeline. They are, in chronological order:
Gundam -> Z (Zeta) Gundam -> ZZ (Double Zeta) Gundam -> V (Victory) Gundam
Of the four series, only Gundam and Zeta Gundam have been released in America so far.
Q: But what about all the others, like Gundam W, Gundam X, and Gundam A-B-C-D-E-F-G?
Gundam... *ick*... Wing
We're getting to that. Some series and movies also deal with the U.C. timeline, but most of them are side stories that are supplemental to the main plot. Some examples of these are Gundam: 0080 (War in the Pocket) and Gundam: 0083 (Stardust Memory), and Gundam: 08th MS Team, all of which have aired on American television at some point or another.
Other popular series that have been aired in America, like Gundam Wing and Mobile Fighter G Gundam, are considered to be alternate realities, as these stories exist on a time line separate from the Universal Century.
Q: Wonderful. But isn't this site supposed to be about video games?
Yes.
Q: Ok, so maybe you can explain to me why Gundam games are so awful?
Mobile Ops for the 360 - preliminary reports state that this one is going to be particularly bad.
Nobody can ever excuse bad video games. Sure, a company can blame it on low budgets or rushed deadlines, but as far as consumers are concerned, a company should make a good game or not make one at all.
That being the case, some of Bandai's Gundam-based video games are simply inexcusable, but understandable. With so many intellectual properties under its belt, yet so little game development talent to go around, the quality of each Bandai game suffers. More often than not, Gundam games are usually released at a level that is just one or two notches above tolerable in terms of gameplay and design. Still, it doesn't matter how bad a Gundam game is because it will still sell thousands of copies in Japan based on brand recognition alone, unless it's an absolute festering turd like Gundam: Crossfire.
Q: But aren't there any good Gundam games?
CAPCOM's MSG: Federation vs. Zeon DX
A lot of them are "decent", and a few of them are unique, but most of Bandai's in-house projects just aren't quality products. And of course, none of them appeal to gamers who have no idea what Gundam is about.
But Gundam projects that are taken care of by development teams from other publishers, on the other hand, have produced very good results in the past. For instance, Capcom was given the job of developing an arcade game based on the Gundam license, which resulted in the creation of Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon. This particular game influenced a whole line of Gundam arcade games that still manages to provide the bread and butter of most Japanese arcade owners.
And now, once again, Bandai has decided to outsource development, only this time with Koei in the creation of Gundam Musou. The game will combine Koei's Dynasty Warriors-style action with the characters from the Gundam universe, and looks to be a perfect synthesis of the two. The best news, of course, is the fact that Bandai will have little to no involvement in the creation of the game apart from licensing their characters for Koei to use.
However, your excitement for the game should be directly proportional to your interest in a) Dynasty Warriors games and b) the Gundam franchise. But even if you don't care, we assure you that Japan does - and quite fervently, at that. Fervently enough to resurrect the PS3 from the cellar of Japan's sales charts, in fact.
