This week I had the chance to play some of Bandai Namco’s upcoming titles at a press event in San Francisco. One of those titles was the recently unveiled New Gundam Breaker, a different type of Gundam game than the last couple we got, and one that was of far more interest to me. While my Gundam knowledge is less satisfactory than I would like it to be, I still found New Gundam Breaker to be an interesting title that I could see myself getting into.
Unlike the recent Gundam Versus, the New Gundam Breaker demo had me play as a real-life model Gundam, rather than as a giant robot in a fictional word. By this I mean I was literally playing as a toy; the type of Gundam you can buy online or at conventions. The arena for my multi-bot battle was a large room seemingly based on a room that the devs for the game likely worked in. Alongside large computers and desks, there was a raised area, sticky notes and knick-knacks on desks, and other homely things. For someone who didn’t get too into Versus, I thought the atmosphere of the New Gundam Breaker stage I played was way more interesting.
The controls were another story. I only had a limited time to try the game out, so the somewhat complicated controls were difficult to quickly pick up. Gundam Versus was similar, so I won’t be judging the controls too harshly until I can try the game for an extended period of time. It’s definitely tough to just pick up and play though, which is worth keeping in mind. Once I started to get a basic handle on things, Breaker got crazy, fast. Enemy mechs would zoom in and start wailing on me, leading to quite a few instances of me exploding entirely. On the other hand, destroying enemy mechs is quite satisfying. Slashing up an enemy with your laser sword and making them explode is as fun as it should be, even if you’re a little toy.
Overall, New Gundam Breaker interests me. While my time with it was short, and my lack of Gundam expertise held me back a bit, I think New Gundam Breaker could be pretty fun thanks to its more original ideas. While I’ll need a longer session with different modes to really know how I feel about it, I’d say there’s definitely some potential in this one.
