Pros: the hack and slash has some mindless fun
Cons: repetative and just isen't worth 60 bucks.
The bottom line: Shaggy if he was a Gundam pilot.
I rented Dynasty Warrior Gundam for my new Xbox 360, I wanted to check out what the 360 offered and I thought Gundam could do worse. Now I have never played a Dynasty Warrior game but I have played a bunch of Gundam games before. Has a Gundam game it’s pretty average, there are better Gundam games out in the market, but there are a lot worse.

Story.
There are two story modes in Dynasty Warrior Gundam. The first is the official mode which follows stories in the UC century; you have Amuro in the one year war and then two pilots from the Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam series which happens 7 years after the one year war. There is also an original mode which involves a mysterious planet heading towards the earth, the planet has bend time and space and Gundam pilots from all different universes have teamed up with each other to duke it out over control of the planet. The story makes no sense but it’s a good way to see Amuro Ray and Heero Yuay duke it out in a fight and I guess that’s what the developers were going for. I should warn you non-Gundam fans that the game does not stop to really fill you in on the different universes the Gundam pilots share and there unique history. And there are characters from series like Turn-a-Gundam which have never to my knowledge been released state side, so the story can get a bit confusing for newbie’s.

Graphics.
The graphics are lot a like other Gundam games, were the focus are more on Gundam model rather then settings. Basically the Gundams look pretty good even though they look like animated forums of the plastic models Bandai sells they are animated nicely. But there environments are a bit lacking in a lot of arenas all look like the same desert waste land.

Sound.
We get some music from each of the series and the sound effect does a nice job of the hacking, slashing, and exploding. Most of the English VA’s have return to fill in there parts and sound good, with the exception of Heero Yuay and Damon from the G fighter Gundam series. Heero replacements does a good job of playing the monotone Gundam pilot, but Damon is so grating I was tempted to turn on the Japanese VA because he was so annoying.

Gameplay.
The first thing you should know about Dynasty Warriors that Hack and Slash button mashing doesn’t being to describe the amount of times your going to be pressing the attack button. The idea in each mission is to wipe out the field commander and take control of the filed. Basically it means whenever you enter a new area of a map on a mission a bar appears and when you get it down to zero and defeat the field guardian that appears (not necessarily a boss) the field will become yours and field around it will become weaker. So how do you get the bar down by killing all or most of the enemies in that area. And if you seen the screen shots in the game you have seen 30 Zaku’s on screen swarming just ready to kill you. Well not quite, while the game does a good job of keeping a lot of enemies on screen, the enemy AI is about has toothless and has harmless as an 20 year old dog. Basically they just stand there occasionally swing a sword or fire a shot and let you hack through them. While it’s fun mowing down the crowds of enemies it gets repetitive after a couple of missions. I would have taken 10 enemies that were actually out to kill me, then 30 enemies that are just standing there waiting to be mowed down. The bosses take a little more effort and actually attack you but a few well time special attacks will take out most of them so there no threat.

Has for the controls which can make or break a Gundam game the good news is the controls are ok however the camera can get lost between rocks or swing around to sometimes missing the boss character that is standing right behind you right out of view. It’s not a deal killer but it’s still annoying.

Has for differences between each of the Gundams there aren’t a lot. Each moves and has pretty much the same ability to hack and slash. All though some of the combos perform like Damons hurricane slash do add things up. The only really big thing different is the special attack gage. When the green bar on the bottom fills up you can do a special attack and each one does it differently so figuring out were to stand to do the most damage to the enemy field is crucial. And has you kill more enemies and level up your mobile suit the bigger the bar will become and you can do more damage with each combo. Also standing by allies and doing special attacks can sometimes boost the amount of the attack.

Final Recommendation.
While Dynasty Warriors Gundam isn’t a terrible game, it’s not exactly a great game. While the controls work flawlessly and the game is fun to play in straight burst it is also repeative. If this game was available for 20 bucks in the bargain bin I would probably give it a 4 star and a yes rating but at 60 bucks it’s getting a 3 and a no recommendation.