“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Gundam Battle Assault 2 is a one-on-one 2-D fighting game where giant mechs punch and shoot each other in the face. The game lets you experience several Gundam universes. The story loosely follows the events of the One Year War, the 13th Gundam Fight, and the Endless Waltz OVA.

Which I take to mean, “giant mechs punching and shooting each other in the face”.

The sprites are large, bright, and colorful and would have blown my mind back in 1994.

But Gundam Battle Assault 2 was released in 2002, which puts it squarely in the post Dreamcast, PS2 world. Sadly, the graphics were already starting to look dated on the day of its release. They are not bad by any means, but are a little underwhelming.

I could get past the dated sprites if the gameplay was good enough, but unfortunately the game is just too slow. I understand that these are supposed to be giant walking tanks. The slower pace could have worked if the game required more strategy or the mechs packed a bigger punch. But as it is, we are left with a shallow and slow fighting game with an amazing cover.

Why did I pick this game?

The cover of the game excited me.

Stan Bush would be proud.

Seriously, that was all it took. When I look at that cover, I hear an awesome 80′s hair metal power ballad in my head.

Having never watched the anime the game is based on, I could only assume that it has something to do with giant mechs punching each other in the head. As a fan of giant mechs and punching I knew I had to take her for a whirl.

At the very least I figured I would have an excuse to throw some Stan Bush on the stereo.

How does it hold up with time?

The game lacks the finesse and strategy of the top tier fighters. Mashing on the triangle button and blocking occasionally will lead you to victory a good 90% of the time. It is not the worst fighting game on the PS1, but is not nearly as good as its contemporaries.

Unless your room is covered with Gundam posters and your bookshelves are full of Gundam manga and your DVD collection consists entirely of Gundam DVD’s, you can probably skip this one.

I do have to say that I would love to see this game updated for the new consoles. The weapons, the mechs and the specials would look amazing with today’s technology. So see what you can do about that for me, internet.

Tags: fighting games, FOG, Friday Old Games, Gundam Battle Assault 2, Playstation, PS1, sony

This entry was posted on Friday, November 26th, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.