Well, this one is really easy to answer: Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS. Maxiboost ON is catered to all those Gundam fans outside of Japan, allowing them to play one of the most popular arcade arena fighting games, now on console.

If you are not a hardcore devotee of the number one Mecha franchise, then you should move along because this game is not for you. Of course, you can always try it and see if it tickles your fancy, but you'll be missing all the fanservice...

If you like arena fighting games and enormous piloted robots, then you're in luck! This game celebrates the whole Gundam franchise and puts all our favorite heroes and villains to fight each other, from Ray Amuro and Char Aznable (Mobile Suit Gundam, 1979) to Leos Alloy and Sthesia Awar (Gundam EXA, 2011).

Unlike other anime games, MSG: Extreme VS. Maxiboost ON is not only hard to master but also pretty unfriendly to the casual audience. This is because of how technical its gameplay mechanics are, but also because of the amount of info you'll have to process as soon as you launch the game: all the pilots/mechas available, all their unique weapons, etc. After all, this is a crossover fighting game, so it lacks what one would call a story mode. How much can you take as a Gundam neophyte without feeling overwhelmed? That's for you to decide!

It doesn't matter if you're fighting or just browsing the menus; following the unmistakable futuristic imprint of the Gundam franchise, this game is a combination of straight out of the anime/manga 2D illustrations and stunning 3D models.

We have to say they did a wonderful job in porting MSG: Extreme VS. Maxiboost ON to the PS4, and all Mobile Suits—and their animations—look amazing in combat. That being said, some stages look more impressive than others, and the HUD is still too crowded, so you'll need some time to get used to it.

If we have to highlight anything about this game, it would definitely be its music and sound effects. We already stated this is a celebration of almost 4 decades of Mobile Suit Gundam (sadly, the newer series are not included), so MSG: Extreme VS. Maxiboost ON obviously includes some of the most iconic songs from all these anime's original soundtracks.

It's hard not to feel fired up while listening to "The Wings of a Boy that Killed Adolescence" from Gundam Wing, but if you need something calmer yet equally epic, maybe "A Point of Contact" from the Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation trilogy is a better option. And how about singing along to Daisuke Inoue's "Ai Senshi" from Soldiers of Sorrow? And if you hate all these GUndam songs, don't even worry about it. You can import your own mp3 songs, too!

Another thing we'd like to mention is how good the voice acting and sound effects are, making you feel like you're actually part of a Gundam fight in the anime. Since Gundam Wing is our favorite, we went for Relena Darlian as our navigator, but there are 30+ available navis for you to choose from!

If you're here, then you probably love everything about Gundam, from the marvelous designs of the Mobile Suits to the intricate politics that make the plots move forward. However, Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS. Maxiboost ON—and the whole Extreme VS. sub-series, for what it's worth— only pays attention to the former, and the single-player mode is just a bunch of random battles, one after the other.

For those who like playing off-line, there are 3 main modes. First, you have the Free Battle mode, where you can craft your own battle scenario, choosing the number of participants (1v1, 2v2, or even 1v2—you can play with/against the CPU or another human player), which Mobile Suits they're using (180+ available units), the stage where they will fight, the background song, etc.

Then, there's also the CPU Battle mode, where you can play a Branch Battle (alone or local co-op) or a series of Maxi Boost Missions. This new game mode, exclusive to the PS4, faces you against several units with precise winning conditions, only to fight a boss at the end of the line. Last but definitely not least, we have all the online options: teaming up with a friend/stranger for a Branch Battle, casual versus battles, or the more hardcore ranked matches (team shuffle and team hold).

By playing the game, you'll be earning GP, which brings us to one of the most exciting features of this game: customization. We already talked about how many navigators and Mobile Suits there are, but you can spend some GP to buy more pilot outfits, emblems, and titles to flair while going online. In fact, you can even buy new gauge designs if you don't like how your HUD looks.

Something we didn't like, however, is how some Mobile Suits feel incredibly stiff and underpowered compared to others in the same tier. This definitely is an issue when fighting online, so be prepared to fight a lot of people using the same units and neglecting others... At least the difference between tiers is solved thanks to how many times you can revive in battle: each team has 6000 available points at the start of a match, so for example, a team consisting of 2 Mobile Suits that cost 3000 points each will have no revives, while a team consisting of 2 Mobile Suits that cost 1500 each will have 2 revives.

If you, like us, are a Gundam enthusiast, then you'll have a blast learning to master your favorite Mobile Suits and customizing your team to better represent your passion. That being said, you'll need to armor yourself with a lot of patience if this is your first time with an Extreme VS. title, because it plays nothing like other fighting games (button-mashing is not an option!), and to make things worse, all units have their own weapons and abilities, so you'll need to understand them all before feeling truly prepared to attack and counter-attack.

The only downside to this game is that it doesn't have a real campaign, so sooner or later, you might feel tired of all these random battles. That's why having these online modes is so important, though!

Are we the only ones who feel like rewatching all our favorite Gundam anime and movies?! Probably not, but it's hard to find time to watch the shows if we're too busy crushing unit after unit in this game...

We're happy that Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS. Maxiboost ON is finally out, but how about some DLC with the more recent content?!