Endless Duel is pretty much your basic mid 90s fighting game which makes use of a preexisting intellectual property. You take your pick of several pilots and defeat the rest in a series of one on one battles. Each mobile suit has its selection of special moves. They can also hover for a short time. There is a super meter which allows players to preform more powerful versions of their special moves as well as machine gun attacks. Players can play through arcade, versus, and trial modes. Some of the music has been lifted from the show. By completing the game on hard mode, players can unlock a secret code to play as the boss. Although there isn’t much in the way of replay value, the control is responsive, the backgrounds are detailed, and the game does a good job of representing the source material.

Although Endless duel makes no huge attempt to set itself apart from the numerous other fighting games out there, it does a good job of providing fun gameplay and representing the series in interactive form. It’s doubtful that we will see this game come to Virtual Console any time soon (as Wing’s popularity has waned in favor of more recent Gundam series), but since Namco-Bandai still holds the rights to the license, there is always hope.

The gameplay will be familiar to those who have played Konami’s Zone of the Enders, and for the most part, it serves its purpose, even if the missions tend to lack variety at times. From time to time you’ll have assignments to clear up space debris or protect a battleship, but most of the time you’re destroying a series of specific targets. The main draw of this game is how well it captures the feel of the original TV series. Much of the background music has been lifted from the show, and the new music recorded for the game fits in perfect. The cinemas even borrow clips from the TV shows, and the English voice cast handles the voice work. Best of all, you can view the cinematics, listen to the music, and read about each mobile suit in the game’s gallery. Fans of Wing or G-Gundam will be disappointed as this game only focuses on the Universal Century era, but there is even something for them as well, since a few mobile suits from alternate universes appear in this game as unlockables (sadly, the pilots of said mobile suits weren’t included with them). Ever wanted to see Amuro Ray in the cockpit of this Wing Zero? Here is your chance.

Anyone who is not a fan of Gundam will find a decent, but run-of-the-mill mech shooter. Gundam fans however, will find an excellent compilation of what made the series so compelling. Indeed, Encounters in Space serves as a ‘greatest hits’ of Mobile Suit Gundam, and stands as one of the few good games based on the mecha franchise.

Well step down off your mobile horse and take a look at this.

I can’t read a lick of Japanese so someone will have to tell me if the Kanji for “minigames” appears on this page. Otherwise, looks like motion controlled shooting in the Universal Century as the RX-78-2. Now I gotta get me one of these. Char’s Wiimote!

wait… another Gundam game? Oh yeah, theres a completely different one for Xbox 360. Mobile Ops: The One Year War thats also being shown at Tokyo Game Show this week.

Both games are about Gundams and shooting. I can’t imagine anything really revolutionary. I think we’d all be happy if it controlled well, had decent AI, and a story/voice acting that didn’t make me want to take my own life.