Background
«©NCSX» The animated move "Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space" was originally released on March 13, 1982 and ran for 141 minutes. Sunrise produced the film and regaled viewers with a retelling of the Mobile Suit Gundam television series (Episode 31 to 43). As the story begins, Char Aznable is in pursuit of White Base which has entered space. Tracking the movements of White Base, Char and a Zeon Musai squad led by Dren hit the ship with Rick Doms but White Base forces led by Amuro, Sayla and Sleggar dominate the Zeon with Amuro destroying Dren's ship. At battle's end, White Base Commander Bright has a choice of landing on the moon or Side 6. With Char likely to attack them again on the Moon, Bright orders the White Base to dock within the neutral confines of Side 6... In addition to this early battle from the animation, other dramatic battles from the Gundam III movie are featured in Bandai's latest Gundam outing. The climactic battle between Amuro and Char at the Zeon Asteroid Base of A Boao Qu is also featured. NCS Impressions
Somewhat similar to the format of Gundam G-Saviour, players enter the cockpit of a Gundam mech and blast through 3-D space against the forces of Zeon in shooting escapades. The pace of the action is quick with space armadas and their cruiser components zooming up close and fast as one blasts through the ranks of Zakus and ships. Strafing a large ship is accomplished by flying close to it and then locking onto key points on it's hull. Once the orange targeting markers light up, the Gundam may let loose with a barrage of missiles which home in on their respective targets. This portion of the game reminded us of the lock-on firing sequences in Rez. Ships, bosses and Zaku return fire when they're fired upon and the Gundam is capable of performing a rapid flip move to throttle out of danger or vector off in another direction. It's all very frantic and exciting to play although the rapid camera shifts may disorient the uninitiated. Just like the original animated movie, space fights are divided into long range projectile attacks and close-range sword slashes. A fair amount of game modes are featured in the game. They are:
-* Story Mode - Follow the story of the Gundam film and fight key battles
-* VS Mode - Battle another player in split-screen herky-jerky madness
-* Side Story Mode - New missions which happen alongside the events of the original animation
-* Ace Pilot Mode - Exceedingly fast-paced blasting exercises
-* Mission Mode - Go on various tasks which range from performing mundane work to combat runs
-* Network Mode - Online ranking Players may choose to play as Char Aznable or Ray Amuro but creative players may also choose to create their own Gundam pilot. Difficult missions reward successful navigators with more skill points and an original character created by the player may become even more of a newtype legend than the main characters of Char or Amuro. Every copy of the first production of Gundam Meguriai Sora includes a bonus region-2 DVD-Video.
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