Gundam vs. Series/YMMV


 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: Extreme Vs did a good job at winning fans over not only by bringing in the insanely popular Crossbone Gundam and Astray Red Frame, but by finally updating the game's graphics beyond Dreamcast levels, where they've been since the series began a decade ago.
 * The later addition of Harry Ord's Gold SUMO certainly generated a pop.
 * Or how about the confirmation of a console port coming in December 2011 for the Playstation 3?
 * Character Tiers: Built into the game automatically thanks to the resource meter. The earlier games had a larger system, ranging from four stars to a half star (590 points to 200, out of 1000 per battle). Computer-controlled machines are always worth half their normal value. Of course, the actual tier rankings take a lot of different factors into consideration, including cost effectiveness.
 * Gundam vs Gundam streamlined the system, setting the resource meter at 6000 points and dividing the characters into three tiers: 3000 points for big names like Nu Gundam and the AU protagonists' Mid-Season Upgrades, 2000 for middle-of-the-road machines, and 1000 for lower-level machines. Extreme Vs adds a 2500-point tier for machines that are just below protagonist level, like the Infinite Justice and Cherudim Gundams (and, for some reason, God Gundam; Master is 3000).
 * Excuse Plot: Gundam vs Gundam. Devil Gundam taking over arcade machines? Who cares, let's get to the fighting.
 * First Installment Wins: The original series gets more characters than any other series in Gundam vs Gundam NEXT, even if some of these inclusions are questionable (Guntank? Acguy?)
 * Inverted with Extreme VS, which gives the most recent series (00 and Unicorn) a disproportionate number of mobile suits and characters, and added even more via DLC and in the Full Boost sequel.
 * Game Breaker: The Launcher Strike and Strike Noir are banned from Alliance vs ZAFT tournaments because they're so powerful. Launcher because of its exceptional ranged ability (further enhanced by Green Homing) and the fact that the anti-ship vulcan can be used to cover its landings, making it virtually untouchable. The Strike Noir is out because it's a Lightning Bruiser of the highest order.
 * Gundam vs Gundam gave the Freedom Gundam an ability called S.E.E.D., that let the player instantly cancel whatever he was doing, providing insane combo opportunities and elevating Freedom to God Tier. In Next, the ability (now called Next Dash) is made part of the basic game engine, while Freedom's ability becomes a miniature Awakening. Extreme Vs scales Next Dash (now Extreme Action) back even further by removing the ability to use it during melee combos.
 * Goddamned Bats Guntank. Weak,cheap (1000BP), bad at melee. It's main weapon are twin long range cannon. Normally this is not a big problem. But Guntank carries 30 ammo, making to quite hard to takedown even using 3000BP melee based mecha. Better work on your boost management or prepare to get bombarded.
 * And Zeong's head on last leg mode. Can turn your possible victory into frustrating stalemate because it's speed and small size.
 * Good Bad Bugs: The SEED games introduced Green Homing: When an enemy machine is near you, the targeting recticle turns red and certain attacks (beam rifles/cannons, missiles, etc) get improved homing; when they're far away, the recticle turns green and they're harder to hit. Green Homing occurs when you fire while switching targets from a distant enemy to a nearby one, giving the improved homing to a long-range attack and letting you pull off some insane tricks.
 * Signature Scene: Just like Super Robot Wars, this series gives a good bit of Fan Service by letting the player re-create famous moments from the franchise such as the RX-78's Last Shooting, the Sekiha Tenkyo-God Finger, Wing Zero's last stand, and so forth.
 * That One Boss: The Alpha Azieru, thanks to the fact that it has two different rapid-fire all-range weapons, and absolutely LOVES using both of them on you at the same time (made all the worse by the fact that you have to listen to Quess giggling and whining about Char as she spams you to death). The Apsaras III as well, thanks to its hard-to-dodge, highly damaging beam sweep and the infinite Gouf Flight Type assists that keep you from simply getting in its blind spot and hacking it to death with melee.
 * Extreme Gundam Tachyon Phase. This is the Extreme's close-combat form, so you are probably not going to outperform it with melee, especially with its habit of spamming stun shockwaves. The problem? It is really hard to keep your distance and bombard it, because it has insane dashing abilities and plenty of mid-range attacks, such as sword beams, sword bits, increasing its sword's range by a factor of ten... Its melee combos can also take a 3000-tier suit down to a quarter health in one go.
 * That One Level: Next Plus's Mission Mode has a stage where you only have one hit point and are forced to fight Kamille's Mk-II and the Hyaku-Shiki (both possessing Revival abilities) and on top of this, you're on a tiny platform in the middle of a volcano; one misstep and you're dead.
 * In Federation vs. Zeons Mission Mode, the Federation has a stage where you have to prevent Zeon from stealing a Gundam. In this mode, however, the Gundam is absurdly powerful, meaning that one or two beam rifle shots is probably enough to kill you (unless you're also in a Gundam, which you probably aren't). In AEUG vs. Titans it gets even worse with a similar stage, except that this time you're facing off against two' Zeta Gundams at the same time (one with the beam rifle, one with the mega launcher).
 * Federation vs. Zeon also has the opening battle for Operation Odessa on the Federation side. You have to defend a Big Tray from waves of Zeon mobile suits. The Big Tray is seriously unprotected - so much as one hit from a Zaku's Magellan cannon takes a fifth of its health away. Even worse if you brought a beam rifle, as it will pierce through the Goufs trying to slice it up and deal friendly fire.
 * And then there's also the stage where you have to destroy 50 Acguys trying to run across Jaburo one at a time, and if so much as one of them makes it across you lose. Even worse, about halfway through that's put on hold so you can take part in a storyline Amuro vs. Char fight - not only do you have to worry about Char potentially dealing insane amounts of damage to you if decides to attack you, he also has a goddamn Zock supporting him.
 * Extreme Vs brings to the table several missions: one where you fight three Exias, two 00 Gundams, and then three 00 Quantas all in one stage, with barely enough time to kill them; one where you have to fight three Destroy Gundams at once; and one where you have to take down both the Turns and the Rafflesia in less than 30 seconds. The worst though is probably "Vs. Gundam (2)": in one life, without skills, and without a partner, fight a Double X and God Gundam tag team, then take on the 00 Quanta, Turn A, and the Destiny all at once.
 * The Problem With Licensed Games: Mostly averted; even X-Play gave Federation vs Zeon a positive review. However, the same couldn't be said for Gundam vs Zeta Gundam, which Adam and Morgan found impenetrable to non-fans and too similar to its predecessor gameplay-wise.
 * Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Allowing the players to recreate long-debated battles such as Amuro Ray vs Heero Yuy is another big draw for the series.
 * What Could Have Been: The Excuse Plot of Gundam vs. Gundam says that in 2032, Vs. Games exist for every Gundam series. The intro for NEXT Plus flashes a few names by, including Federation vs. Zeon II and OZ vs. White Fang, games which will assuredly never be made.