Mobile Suit Gundam has an epic legacy spanning forty-three years, it was the first true mecha anime and paved the way for many since.
During this time the franchise has appeared in several different mediums from anime, films, manga and games to name a few.
Running alongside the main Gundam franchise is SD Gundam, which transforms the popular mechs into smaller or ‘Super Deform’ counterparts.
SD Gundam has its own franchise that features games, anime series and manga books.
It’s been a few years since the last SD Gundam game was released, but Bandai Namco and Artdink are ready to gift fans with another title, SD Gundam Battle Alliance.
SD Gundam Battle Alliance’s plot revolves around a mysterious pilot from the One Year War, who unknowingly gets warped with their ally Juno Astarte into the G:Universe.
After a quick skirmish with some enemy Mobile Suits, they meet an AI being called Sakura Slash who explains to the pair about the time Breaks, which cause units of Mobile Suits to appear from different universes into this one.
This thrusts the trio into an adventure to investigate the cause of the Breaks while preventing time-altering situations.
SD Gundam Battle Alliance’s plot isn’t the most original but serves as a good reason to bring the franchise’s most popular Gundams together.
Fans will be delighted to see their favourite characters interact with ones they would have never met before.
That being said there are a lot of characters and background information that only hardcore fans of the series will know, which means that a lot of the dialogue and info might make this a little hard for newcomers to jump in.
But fans will relish the opportunity to witness these iterations of their favourite scenes that have given them a new lease in life.
SD Gundam Battle Alliance has a very linear gaming loop where players engage in missions that will usually require them to defend their base or defeat a particular enemy.
There are a lot of missions but very little variety to them, with the game adding some optional objectives to gain more bonus items.
Between missions there are conversations that will make players respond, having to pick from different answers, although these are merely superficial as they rarely impact the story.
Missions can be fairly long but there aren’t any checkpoints, meaning players will have to start from scratch if all units are defeated.
This can be really frustrating as the missions do vary in difficulty, which can result in several failed attempts.
SD Gundam Battle Alliance will require players to collect Fragment keys that will allow them to play the mission as it originally happened in the series.
This is great fan service, but getting to this point for some missions can be a grind, especially as players will have to replay levels more than once to collect those Fragment Keys.
Players can change the difficulty with each having different caveats such as the amount of damage taken and rewards gained.
This presents a huge risk and reward scenario that will play into how quickly players are able to gain the in-game currency and experience points.
I didn’t find there to be much of a difference between each setting, however, there were more random difficulty spikes in the harder modes.
Enemies are hit and miss with the grunts presenting next to no threat even in the latter stages of the game.
But the bosses are simply majestic and even surprised me with how authentic their attack patterns were.
Combat takes centre stage in SD Gundam Battle Alliance with the Mobile Suits having access to a slew of melee attacks that can be chained into combos.
These attacks will be controlled by a stamina bar and if drained will leave the Mobile Suit unable to attack for a short amount of time.
Each Mobile Suit will also have access to secondary skills that widely open up their strategic options by including ranged attacks, projectiles, bombs and more.
These all work on a cool-down system to stop the players from spamming these moves.
Finally, each Mobile Suit will have an ultimate attack that not only looks amazing but does a lot of damage.
Each Mobile Suit is split into a different category such as an Infighter, Sharpershooter or All Rounder. Each type comes with their strengths and weaknesses that will dictate the gamer's playstyle.
Combat is very accessible but has a high skill ceiling when players begin to incorporate aerial attacks, changing breakers, quick cancels and more.
The game might look like a button-mash affair but it's easy to learn and difficult to master.
During each battle, players will be able to partner up with two other Mobile Suits. They act independently and the AI does a great job at helping out during battles, however, players will be able to issue commands to them during battle.
As players unlock more characters they have options to build a strategic team which is major fan service, as players will relish the chance to build their dream team.
There is a huge amount of RPG-style customisation that can be achieved by collecting Capital which is the in-game currency.
Players can upgrade every usable Mobile Suit in the game by tweaking their HP, Boost, Melee or Ranged attacks.
The number of upgrade sections may seem small but when you have over sixty characters to think about, it makes the whole process much more palatable.
This section of the game is one of the strongest parts as it allows fans to dictate the efficiency of their favourite character.
SD Gundam Battle Alliance is filled with cutscenes and dialogue during battles but the game only features Japanese voice options.
I didn’t mind this as I feel games based on an anime series should be played in its native language for authenticity.
However, there should have been an English dub option, as the cutscenes can be very long and having to read everything can become taxing.
Also during battles, there are several skits between characters that might be missed while the player chooses to focus on combat rather than reading.
Verdict 3/5
SD Gundam Battle Alliance is a long game with a huge roster of unlockable characters and a magnitude of missions.
Fans will appreciate the level of customisation and depth of the combat. However, the game is lacking variety within the mission structure and missing some fan favourite Gundam.
That being said SD Gundam Battle Alliance is certainly one for the fans and a good excuse to witness those iconic moments the franchise is famous for.
SD Gundam Battle Alliance is out now for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC
