Lo and behold, yet another Gundam game to grace our presence. Bandai keeps churning out these games for the HUGE anime series’ fan base… yet for some reason can’t come up with a winning title. Sadly, its more of the same with Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow.

Visually, they are very faithful to the cartoons, mixing a flashy contrast of colors with intricate details. After all, these crafts aren’t exactly worried about camouflage, so you’re going to see patterns better befitting a rave rather than the war zone. Add to it some exotic environs, from space to urban battlefields, and you are further immersed into this futuristic world. Also, the numerous CG clips really tie in the series even more and are generally excellent. But beyond those examples, everything else is pretty vanilla. The animations are jerky and seem to skip sequences, not to mention the way the weapon effects often don’t match up with their respective combat systems. Speaking of the latter, the explosions and general particle effects resemble stuff seen on late Playstation 1, a far cry from an extremely maxed out PS2 system, whose architecture has been around for years.

Sound wise, its more hits and misses again. The background music is decent enough, adding enough substance to keep you revved up for action, but at times it will annoy you. Everything seems a bit subdued, as if played through a wall almost, muffled, distorted, etc. There is some solid (if repetitive) voice acting, but even that can’t bring up another sub-par department.

You start out with a lovely opening cinematic, outlining the confusing relationships in the Gundam universe. Something about fighting to protect this and that, and to save this or that, blah blah - been here, done that. But to help you, gentle reader, the game takes place in the Cosmic era, where the human race is split into 2 warring factions. The everyday Joes - yup you guessed it - “Normals” versus the genetically altered Coordinators. You get the choice of 2 young pilots from either side, Athrun Zaja from ZAFT, and Kira Yamato from Earth Alliance.

As you progress in Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow, you will go from campaign to campaign, which are divided into smaller missions, and linked with gorgeous cut scenes. Of course, beauty doesn’t mean brains, so don’t expect much help from these poorly translated/written/conceived (who knows) segments. Oh yeah, did I mention every mission is about the same? Drop down in a huge robotic suit, fight some henchmen, and then take on the “boss” in his equally supped up crazy- Asian- mecha- happy- happy- fun- time- Gundam- suit. The venue may change, like space, or some watery location, but the tune is still the same. Although, while in space, it’s air only, making for a slight change of tactics and maneuvering, but nothing grand, really. The battles are also pretty dang hectic and confusing, primarily due to the wonky controls. You can attack at range with some nifty weapons, or charge in close to deal some serious melee damage, the latter being sluggish at times. Rounding out your primary attacks are the specials, one each for distance and up close, although they can put a serious drain on your precious energy. The PS2 never felt more awkward. It’s an odd combination of analog sticks for movement, the shoulders for flying and the right stick to look around - it’s just plain hard to handle with only 10 fingers. Thankfully, you do have an auto-lock on feature that makes some encounters bearable, but just pray a ton of enemies don’t burst onto the scene. Well, if things do get too crazy for you, there is a partner option, which provides you boosts like buffing your attack speed or massive wide-scale damage attacks. These come in pretty handy, but you are limited a bit on whom you can choose from (over a dozen) to help out in a pinch. But, honestly, you won’t really need to call on them much, if you have half a brain and some reflexes.

There is a 2 player versus mode where you and a friend can jump into your gigantic- ruby red- aqua velvet- mechanoid- dancing- giants and duke it out. Unfortunately, there is no online support, so get comfy on that love seat. The brawls can drag out due to the size, and nature of the Gundam’s ability to zip around dodging to and fro.

This is a really straight-forward action game; just go in there, aim your big guns at the baddies, and blast away. In the rare case you need a hand to hold, you can call in the support players who can give you boost or two. But really, you should breeze through this game in a day or so. Ya just gotta get a handle on those funky controls…

If you haven’t played a Gundam game before, you will be in for a sharp learning curve with regards to the control department. As I mentioned before, it’s a bit odd with the 3 major points of control, and both thumb sticks needing liberal use. Even the 2 alternate configs don’t really help much. I mean… Lord knows I wish I had 6 fingers (Princess Bride reference…), but, unfortunately, I didn’t grow up near any nuclear plants. The camera switching around during fights when you enter melee mode also threw me for a loop for a while. The enemy mecha can obscure your vision and just be a nuisance. Some of the worst mechanics I have seen in a game - EVER.

Whelp… if I were anyone involved with making Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow, especially Bandai for being the driving force behind it, I would be ashamed. With piss poor controls/camera, lackluster graphics/sound, and mind-numbing gameplay, this title should be avoided at all costs, save for those extreme Gundam fans. It’s sad too, because I am a huge fan of ginormous- metal- behemoths clomping around, eviscerating foes with laser beams, and cleaving others asunder with energy swords. Problem is, the words “Bandai, “Gundam”, and “videogame” = craptastic. Please, take some time with your next game - for your loyal fans at least.