4th Super Robot Wars

4th Super Robot Wars is the sequel to Super Robot Wars 3. The graphics are WAY better, the game engine's refined to the point that every SRW game made afterwards uses it as a template, and the story writing is actually pretty good. As it stands, it's a very good game in its own right.

Unfortunately, it's considered an Obvious Beta by the developers, who thought they could do way better, and considering the Updated Rerelease version for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation (F/F Final) is a greatly expanded version of 4 with an enhanced plot, game engine and new Mecha series added (but at cost of some previous series being removed), it appears to be true. Also got remade into 4 Scramble on the PlayStation, but that's been retconned by F/F Final, so no worries there.

The game concerns the "Guest" invasion by the Zuvorg Alliance, and marks the end of the Classic Timeline.

""Not even my father hits me!""
 * Anachronism Stew - At best, the game's set only three months after Super Robot Wars 3, but Hathaway Noah (Bright Noah's son) is grown up and playable. No one else seems to have aged that much to make this plausible, which just makes it very, very odd.
 * Art Evolution - 4's the first SRW to feature robots looking remarkably well-drawn with a more modern and less "cartoony" look. Future games simply refine on this aspect even further
 * Although EX did this to a larger extent, but Banpresto went whole hog with 4
 * Boss Dissonance - In F Final, Shapiro Keats and Paptimus Scirroco are much easier to defeat than Tennique Zezernan, even though by the time you fight them Zezernan's been dead for quite a few missions
 * Canon Immigrant - Go Nagai created Mazinkaiser for F Final, when eventually made it into its own series.
 * Continuity Cameo / Continuity Nod - If you've been following Hero Senki: Project Olympus, you'd recognize, having made his debut SRW appearance, albeit a Cameo, in 4
 * Not to mention the Gespenst is based off of from the same game
 * Eleventh-Hour Superpower - The ability for all of your units to be upgraded an extra 5 notches gained ten missions before the end of the game.
 * Final Boss - Three of them for F Final: Shapiro, Scirocco and Kaworu Nagisa
 * Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! - In one incredibly iconic scene by the SRW fandom, Shinji Ikari gets Bright Slapped by Bright Noah in F. The scene plays word for word as if Shinji is Amuro Ray during the One Year War:


 * This is awkward example as Shinji's father isn't exactly know for is parenting skills.
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere - The Fifth Angel shows up during the tail end of the game during the Earth route in a battle between the EVA pilots and the Mikene Empire, annihilating the latter's forces before turning on the heroes.
 * Heroic Sacrifice - try to stop Scirocco with this at the end of the DC route in F Final; unfortunately, they fail.  does this to stop Shapiro at the Guest-Poseidal route.
 * will only do this if dies before doing the self-destruction himself, otherwise he ends up as a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere that you need to beat.
 * Nintendo Hard - 3 was harder than this, but 4 features even more enemies with the Beam Absorb ability that completely nullifies beam attacks. This made it a bitch for early gamers sticking mostly with Gundams, who are affably religious beam weapon users.
 * F and F Final are actually quite manageable as long are you're not fighting original or L-Gaim units.
 * Official Couple - Irmgard "Irm" Kazahara and Ring Mao, considering that they're the only 2 of the 8 originals from 3 to reappear. They had their relationship fleshed out further in Super Robot Wars Alpha and Super Robot Wars Original Generation.
 * This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman - Although it's still a fairly crappy unit overall, the GP-01 is very, very useful for extended battles with Aura Battlers because it's got decent enough accuracy and a lot of ammo for its vulcans. Even though there are better units for taking down one or two Aura Battlers, they usually run out of ammo too quickly.