BADCP - GPOW Tribute

Mechanical Error

DATE:
25 YEARS AGO

GPOW 25TH
A N N I V E R S A R Y



HARDWARE	BAD	TITLE


			The Trial Mode (arcade mode) branches into different paths, has different bosses, and even secret EX stages that unlock depending on your performance. I still uncover new ones almost every time I play the game, and it keeps things interesting. This is hardly the makings of a linear game with no substance. Gundam already has a huge storyline, so if it really means that much, anyone can go and watch any of its cartoon legacy on DVD or Blu-Ray. If there was anything that deserves criticism, it's the infuriatingly-cheap CPU opponents later in the game. It's not nearly as bad as Bandai Namco's Zegapain on XBox 360, and it's hard to say whether or not it's controller-reading, but damn does it get close! It wouldn't be so bad, but the game sticks you with an incompetent CPU teammate and uneven teams. You're facing not only multiple enemies at once, but in waves, one after another with no health replenishment.

Your team starts with 1000 points, and theirs with over 2100 in some instances. You're already outnumbered by the team you're going up against, and then your CPU teammate makes it even worse by dying so much. This makes you behind the whole game, barely squeezing by to catch-up against ruthlessly-cheap opponents with impeccable AI. Most of the cheap battle outcomes had me shaking my head in disgust, and will probably have you doing the same. It sucks, and it shouldn't be this way. If you're going to be outnumbered against AI that requires absolute perfection to beat, then your CPU teammate should have equal (or better) AI so that you're not constantly paying for the sins of that CPU teammate. With as cheap as some of the later stages get, I can't even see how getting an SSS rank on them is even possible (without using stacked characters with no weaknesses). There is so much to like about this game, but this is definitely something that most players will not like. It sucks when I'm kicking major ass and fighting a lot and somehow, some way, I'm already down to the point where if I die once, the game is over. That's bullshit, and the developers shouldn't have made it that way. Too much of the later paths feel like victory is luck-based, and that's not good.

	21
	CHAOS BREWS
	Above the city.

	22
	BLACK & WHITE
	Thank God this game doesn't use those two colors as a political crutch.

	23
	DEADLY
	Kaleidoscopic attacks.

	24
	WEATHERING
	The (laser) storm.

	25
	EXPLOSIVE
	Boss battles.

The sound in Gundam Versus is every bit as iconic as its predecessors, even if it is marred by a few annoying tracks. The soundtrack in this game is definitely something that needs to be addressed, though. The very first Gundam theme song is so obnoxious and repetitive that it's enough to drive anyone up the damn wall. Seriously. Even though almost every other song in the game is better, that old Gundam song is used for so many parts in the game that it gets old real fast. The game could have easily used other tracks instead because it contains a lot (if not all) of the iconic soundtracks of the entries before it. Was it really that hard to make other (better) theme songs more common in the game? The T.M. Revolution song for the Gundam Seed Destiny Union VS Z.A.F.T. II opening is perhaps the most memorable track in the history of the series. Hearing it in Gundam Versus brought back many, many fond memories of the time I spent in Japanese arcades with Gundam Seed Destiny Union VS Z.A.F.T. II.

	26
	BATTLE
	Sounds are crystal clear and bring the mechanical chaos to life.

The short intro to that game is a masterpiece which owes much of its timelessness to the T.M. Revolution song in the background. Gundam Versus features a memorable song for its rather lengthy introduction sequence, but the Gundam Seed Destiny Union VS Z.A.F.T. II intro song during the game really steals the show. The development team deserves major recognition for that introductory "attract" sequence that loops until you start playing the game (since Capcom and other developers have failed at putting them in their recent games). It's a powerful intro that shows Gundams from every series finally clash in an epic battle that makes the world crumble, but the perfect approach to this would have been if the "attract sequence" from past games were all re-done with current-gen PS4 visuals. Could you even imagine the Gundam Seed Destiny Union VS Z.A.F.T. II intro, but redone in the sleek, streamlined style of Gundam Versus?!

	27
	PSYCHO
	Gundam boss assaulted by a psycho laser Special Move.

	28
	QUITE
	Possibly the best effects of its generation.

	29
	BEHEMOTH
	Bosses.

	30
	PURPLE-HAIRED
	Psycho bitch?

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