SD Gundam Battle Alliance

SD Gundam Battle Alliance is one of the best Gundam games in what feels like an age. A highly addictive gameplay loop carries the experience, consisting of bite-sized missions, snappy combat, and the thrill of discovering and unlocking new mobile suits. The grind can feel a bit aggressive at times, and the story's vapid, but there's a clear love for all things Gundam here.

Artdink's first Gundam game in a decade is surprisingly a challenge as a purely solo experience, and playing with others may make this action RPG shine despite its handful of flaws.

SD Gundam Battle Alliance is a wonderful gift to fans, but solo players will have to look past the grind to see the shine.

SD Gundam Battle Alliance has me at odds because there’s a lot of things I like about it and a lot of things I don’t, both as a Gundam fan and just a general player. The mobile suits and pilots are fun to collect and explore. The story and missions are also fairly well-done and I like the look of the super deformed versions of a lot of my favorite mobile suits from across the series. My big miff is that the difficulty spike between series of missions makes repeatedly playing the same scenarios to level up your pilots and mobile suits a near-mandatory chore. I also just don’t think it makes good use of the SD spinoff formula. Mix in some annoying inconveniences in camera and other gameplay design and while SD Gundam Battle Alliance may be fun at first, the luster will likely fade for many after a few hours.

Earlier in this review, I mentioned Ramba Ral and his suit, the Gouf. If you understood the reference, then SD Gundam Battle Alliance was made for you.

SD Gundam Battle Alliance is a competent action RPG that's chock-full of content aimed at hearty Gundam fans, and they are certain to enjoy what's on offer, with the game's immense amount of fan service, fun and simple combat, and enormous amount of robots to discover, a marvelous celebration of the Gundam series. Taking a few steps away from the fandom, the somewhat repetitive missions and a plot that doesn't fascinate become more visible, but with this being an effort obviously targeted at Gundam fans it's fair to say they will enjoy the work that went into Battle Alliance the most.

...Despite the grinding, there’s enough content to go over for in a single campaign playthrough with a season pass (sold separately, of course) of content that will come later. I liked the story and its original characters, even if I can’t say I enjoy the presentation of prior Gundam events very much. If you’re an Xbox and a Gundam fan, buying this game is a no-brainer.

SD Gundam Battle Alliance is a sleeper hit. A surprising release that I believe could be one of the better JRPG’s out this year. Its fantastical charm in revisiting and renewing Gundam interest through rapid and expeditious pacing, great action in a simplistic yet somehow complex control scheme, giving you ultimate control in how to defeat hoards of enemies, and traversing across some of the most diverse and gorgeous maps I’ve seen in a Chibi style action-adventure in quite some time.

It's that simplicity that's SD Gundam Battle Alliance's bigger problem. Simply put, the fighting just isn't that interesting. You have a couple of different melee and ranged attacks, but you just do them over and over again until you've wiped out the enemies, ending with a big boss fight, and it never really mixes it up.

SD Gundam Battle Alliance is a good action RPG wrapped in even better Gundam fanservice wrapping paper and served up in a way that makes sharing the treat the best way to experience it. It can be a little grindy, a little cute, and displays some practices that I just can't get behind. Despite that, the core gameplay and fan service are just too good for me to refuse that itch of "one more go".