If there was ever a game that hit the fans-only mark, this would be it.  Despite the Gundam franchise spanning decades - with innumerable characters, plots, side stories, mobile suits and Gundams - there is little to no information given about specific characters, and only brief tidbits about the events that unfold throughout the main campaigns.  Those who know the franchise as only Transformers sans the transforming will find themselves lost and confused, while those in the know should find some enjoyment in piloting the fifty or so mechs and tackling the plethora of unlockables.

The game is broken up into several modes: arcade (which can be played with a friend), survival, versus and “universal century combat”, the latter being the bulk of the game.  One of the main reasons to play the arcade mode, aside from having all the Gundams (used to reference mobile suits and Gundams from now on) playable from the get-go, is to accumulate points.  Said points are added to those accumulated in universal combat mode, and they are spent on opening any number of the hundreds of unlockable items stored away.  Including promotional art, showroom models of dozens of vehicles (from Gundams to cargo ships), in-game movies, the downright unnecessary loading images without the “Now Loading” text, and a video of a Gundam launching with the ability to change the background, pilot, mech, and weapon – the amount of fanservice is impressive. There is also a random section, which allows for boxes to be purchased to acquire items using a pot-luck method.  If all of the unlockables and the ability to play one of dozens of Gundams weren't enough, the game also allows you to change the series’ history.

In universal century mode the player is allowed to take on the role of particular pilots.  As they progress other pilots will be unlocked, with each progressing along a timeline, and at certain points in the timeline there are events that can alter the course of history.  With characters from the A.E.U.G. (Anti-Earth Group), the Titans, and the Axis, you will be able to experience the battles from all sides, and also open alternate, intertwining timeline paths.  What this also means is that the “hundreds of missions” description isn't as good as it sounds - many are simply the same missions replayed with a different pilot.  They would indeed be different if the Gundams had noticeable variations in control or were vastly different from one another in terms of weaponry and abilities, but they are not.  Each has a main weapon of the beam or artillery variety and head-mounted machine guns as secondary weapons. The most differentiation you'll find is in the disparities between cheap units and expensive ones – the latter have far more firepower and armor. Aside from the visuals, the experience using one unit won’t be terribly different from that of another.

Allies often accompany you on missions.  In some modes they can be controlled, but I use the term loosely: you can only choose their distance from you – near or far. You also choose which Awaken mode you wish to have throughout the battles.  These really aren’t explained well in the manual, so I’m not sure of the particulars in of themselves, only that you build up a gauge to enable them, and when activated they give you certain bonuses (better attacks, resistance to knockdown, etc.).

Each battle lasts as long as one side has energy left in their energy bar, and the first side to run out loses – the fights usually take about two minutes.  Since each Gundam has an energy cost, the bar is depleted depending on the cost of the unit that is destroyed - if you kill a handful of expensive units, the round will end more quickly than if you took down the same number of weaker units. The strategy involved in which unit(s) to gun for involves the consideration of the energy cost, threat and difficulty of opposing mechs. Since the units tend to all have the same maneuvers (long-range and melee attacks, as well as jump boosts and side steps), combat tends to be firing at long range while closing in, then side-stepping and swiping with your melee weapon.  There is an annoying feature that gives downed units invulnerability so they can get up without taking constant damage, but that tends to end with them getting a free shot.  Combat stats are tallied at the end of the battle, taking into account enemies killed and allies lost, and then points are awarded separately for upgrading machines and unlocking extra content. Upgrading is really only efficient if you stick to one pilot at a time and focus on maxing out his vehicle, otherwise you’ll be spending all your points without much tangible return. The upgrades bring about such innovative and exciting improvements as greater weapon capacity and increased strength.  This feature is nice, but its implementation is too elementary to be very substantial.           

Battles take place in cities, isolated towns and even space.  It’s a bummer that the game doesn’t look better being so far along in the system’s life-cycle. I would have hoped by now that giant robots, Gundams or not, would look sufficiently large and imposing, with each move being a crushing blow actually representing the force of tons of metal (or whatever super futuristic material they are made of) slamming into another giant mountain of a machine, as opposed to the model kit-esque robots we always get - or possibly buildings that actually take damage as it is inflicted, and not just crumble all at once into nothing.  Space battles look decent, with planets in the background and huge satellites littering the battlefield - and control surprisingly well, thanks to the camera being controlled solely by the locking function (though the camera does have a tendency to get stuck behind objects) - but they still aren’t all that exciting.  That is really one of the title’s biggest flaws: for a game being about massive robotic monstrosities beating the hell out of each other, it’s not very thrilling.         

Overall: 4.5/10

It’s a shame that a series with such a rich history wasn’t given the attention it deserves.  The more tightly focused Gundam Side Story: Rise From the Ashes on the Dreamcast was a much less ambitious title in terms of covering the universe, but managed to provide an exhilarating experience that more adequately conveyed the feeling that you were actually piloting giant robots and destroying skyscrapers with missed blows.  Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs Zeta Gundam is a lightweight in this regard, and even though its quick-capped battles provide a glimpse of potential - Virtual On already exists, so they might as well have taken the formula and refined it - its shortcomings will nonetheless most likely be overlooked by fans bowled over by the sheer amount of stuff for them to check out.