I was planning on writing a really long, drawn out review for this title but I'll keep it short due to time constraints. To be curt, this game is simply awesome and loads of fun. Believe you me when I say that sims like this come only once in a long while. If Soul Edge is the finest of the recent fighting games, Shin Super Robot Wars is the finest of the strategy games this year. First, some history is in order. The Super Robot Wars series has seen six releases thus far on almost every popular console platform. There are Robot Wars to be found on the Gameboy, the Famicom, the Super Famicom and the Playstation. The Mega-Drive doesn't count because it was never (too) popular. The first Playstation Robot Wars was released earlier this year and it was essentially a port of the Super Famicom game with a re-mastered soundtrack. This new Playstation release is the first entirely new Playstation adventure featuring the fabled robots and it is an absolute winner. Shin Super Robot Wars departs from the earlier releases by introducing entirely new characters from the robot animes as well as a host of characters that were designed especially for this title. The game plays very much like the SFC Fire Emblem which in itself is already a treat. Battles are fought and viewed from a side view perspective and cut scenes are used to illustrate the fire fights that erupt between adversaries. From the earlier Robot Wars games, Gundam, Getter Robo and Mazinger Z return to reprise their prominent positions on your Robot team. New mechs such as Voltes V, Gyking, Rayzoner and Gundam W can also be used on your strategic strike force. When your robots engage in fights, you can watch them battle it out in animated sequences that are beautifully drawn and rendered for maximum visual effect. Every robot has a signature move and Mazinger Z can be seen below emitting his breast fire at his enemies. One thing that I liked about this new title over earlier Robot Wars was that the super deformed look is gone. The deformed look is okay but I prefer it in puzzle games and side scrolling platform games than in serious strategy games such as this. The full sized robots simply look a lot more imposing and realistic than the baby characters. Bandai has assembled count 'em, 90 voice actors for this production, including many of the actors who did the voices for the original anime series. For fans of the 'Robots' this game is an excellent and essential adventure.
