Gundam Side Story 0079: Rise From The Ashes

Written by Eric Terrell  on June 28, 2000

Review: Is that a Gundam or are you just happy to see me?

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The Gundam series is over twenty years old and has spawned countless movies and television series. To this day it has a huge following with models, comics, and other goodies just waiting to be bought. Most people are familiar with Gundam Wing which airs on cartoon network at 5:30 p.m. eastern an 12:00 midnight eastern time *insert cheap plug here* This is NOT Gundam Wing, that is what most people get confused on right away, so if you want to pilot Wing Zero this isn't your chance... yet.

The visuals are in the first person perspective, indeed, the mech view. Some people don't like it but for the purpose of the game I thought it worked rather well. The Graphics on this game don't scream Dreamcast, in fact they are far from it. If I had to describe the graphics in two words it would be POP UP. Pop up is present throughout the game MANY times. This game could of easily been done on N64 and not have been very noticeably different. The textures for the buildings and structures were very generic and run of the mill. Think of the textures of Godzilla Generations, got it? Yep, its that bad...

Surprisingly, the audio is actually good. The sounds are great as the weapon fire is distant. Each weapon makes its own noise and explosions sound great also. The only thing with the audio is the radio chatter between you and your teammates. They get redundant, and you will get sick of hearing the same thing over and over again. If they had improved that part of the game, it would of been noticeably better.

The gameplay happens to be the games strong point. With 9 missions it might seem short but it is full of challenge! The computer AI is great and actually has a strategy against you, so if you think you can go around blasting away enemy mech's you got another thing coming. These mechs will gang up on you, and lure you into traps where their comrades will be more than happy to blast you to pieces. There are different objectives every mission. Some are search and destroy, while others say to make sure not to blow up a water tower in town while destroying enemy units. It's very good, the only thing I could of wanted more of was more customization of the mech suits and more missions. There has been an expansion pack released in Japan that is rumored for release here in the U.S. and here hoping it reaches our shores...

Well, features are few and far between. This is another area that could of been improved. I would of liked to have seen more modes. All it feature is the main mission mode, and that's it. Tisk, tisk, you guys should know better....

The replay is non-existent, besides playing the missions again for the fun. When you beat the game you get powerups the next time you play, wow. I was almost on the verge of wetting my pants at the sight of ALL those extras...not. The replay is pitiful, as they should have included SOMETHING to keep you playing.