SD Gundam G Generation

Go ahead, make their tiny, adorable day.

A power needed for battle... people call this, "Gundam".

A series of Turn-Based Strategy games based on the immensely popular Gundam franchise. G Generation (G Gen for short) has its roots in the myriad SRPG titles made for the Super Famicom in the early to mid-1990s. Most of these games played fast and loose with the rules, but G Gen marked the start of a more serious turn, bringing pilots into the equation and expanding the player's options vastly as time went on.

In general, G Gen games fall into one of two categories:

  • Historical games focus on re-creating the events of the Gundam animation, with the player controlling the heroes as well as a group of Original Generation characters, and usually rewarding faithfulness to the source material with bonus Experience Points or CG movies of the event in question. The Historical games tend to be released on consoles and focus on more realistic battles.
  • Crossover games put all the characters together into a common setting and unites them against an overarching threat, sometimes an Original Generation villain and sometimes an established Gundam villain who lives longer and gets better toys than his animated counterpart. Crossover games tend to be released on handheld systems and feature squad-based battles, "magic" (in the form of ID Commands), and special attacks.

The G Gen series includes:

  • SD Gundam G Generation (1998, PlayStation): The first full-fledged game in the series, covering the events from Mobile Suit Gundam through Char's Counterattack, with MS and characters from later series showing up as extras.
  • SD Gundam G Generation Zero (1999, Playstation): Covers all the Universal Century anime, with one bonus stage each for G Gundam, Gundam Wing, and Gundam X, plus extra MS and characters from those universes.
  • SD Gundam G Generation Gather Beat (2000, Wonder Swan): The first Crossover game, introducing the familiar elements (three-unit squads, ID Commands, convincing enemies, etc).
  • SD Gundam G Generation-F (2000, Playstation): Covers all the anime up through Gundam X, with many sidestories like Gundam Sentinel, Crossbone Gundam, and Gundam Wing G-Unit; Turn a Gundam gets a single bonus stage, plus extra characters and MS. In 2001, an expansion disc G Generation-F.I.F. was released, which included Nintendo Hard bonus scenarios and the ability to edit your team at will.
  • SD Gundam G Generation Gather Beat 2 (2001, Wonderswan Color)
  • SD Gundam G Generation Mono-Eye Gundams (2002, Wonderswan Color): The first Crossover game with its own Original Generation characters and plotline, and subsequently one of the more popular G Gen games. The Strike Gundam is included as a bonus.
  • SD Gundam G Generation Neo (2002, PlayStation 2): The first "combination" game, playing like a Historical game but using a Crossover plotline, which produced such popular CG event movies as Usso Evin versus the Frost Brothers, or the Wing Team squaring off against Master Asia. Includes the Strike and Aegis Gundams as bonus units.
  • SD Gundam G Generation Advance (2003, Game Boy Advance): Effectively an Updated Rerelease of Gather Beat, Advance adds in characters and MS from Gundam SEED and makes it the star of the show. Unfortunately, not much else was changed from the original release so it's slightly unpopular.
  • SD Gundam G Generation SEED (2004, Playstation 2): A game that uses the same system as Neo but focuses on Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Astray, with the other universes as extras.
  • SD Gundam G Generation DS (2005, Nintendo DS): In a sense an Updated Rerelease of Mono-Eye Gundams, despite the fact that it has new original characters and story elements. Includes characters and MS from Gundam SEED Destiny as a bonus.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: Generation of C.E. (2005, Playstation 2): Not technically a G Gen game, as it uses full-sized MS and focuses exclusively on the Cosmic Era universe, but because it uses the same engine as Neo it's considered part of the series.
  • SD Gundam G Generation Portable (2006, PlayStation Portable): Effectively a remake of F that eschews most of the manga and sidestory plotlines in favor of giving full scenarios to Turn a Gundam, Gundam SEED, and Gundam SEED Destiny (though said sidestory characters and MS are still in as extras).
  • SD Gundam G Generation Cross Drive (2007, Nintendo DS)
  • SD Gundam G Generation Spirits (2007, Playstation 2): Focuses exclusively on the Universal Century, but goes into greater detail, adding more recent stories like Gundam IGLOO and Advance of Zeta. Includes a rather surprising crossover character as the True Final Boss.
  • SD Gundam G Generation Wars (2009, Playstation 2 and Wii): Uses the engine from Spirits, but restores the Alternate Universes, including everything up through the first season of Gundam 00 (with some MS from the second season as extras).
  • SD Gundam G Generation Touch (2010, iOS)
  • SD Gundam G Generation World (2010, Playstation Portable and Wii): Another "combination" game, using the engine of Spirits/Wars and an Original Generation plotline (that unfolds in the form of several EX Missions that end each rank, plus three final stages), as well as adding in Gundam 00 Second Season, Gundam Unicorn, and as a bonus the 00 Qan[T] from Gundam 00 a Wakening of The Trailblazer.
  • SD Gundam G Generation 3D (2011, Nintendo 3DS): Announced at Nintendo's pre-TGS conference. Not many details are known, other than adding to the game Gundam AGE and Gunpla Builders.

Compare Super Robot Wars, which uses the same general concept as the Crossover games, but includes more than just Gundam.

Tropes used in SD Gundam G Generation include:
  • Ace Custom: In the Historical games, Ace Customs are created by putting a character into the basic version of an MS of which they have a custom model (for example, putting Char in an F-Type Zaku II turns it into his personal S-Type). This is the only way to obtain these units without cheating.
  • Actor Allusion: Some of the characters' special attack quotes reference other Gundam characters who share the same voice actor. For example, when using the Shining Finger, Tobia Arronax quotes Sai Saici and Mu la Flaga quotes Gym Ghingham.
    • And as an example for an allusion to outside of the Gundam series: Having Setsuna using God Finger triggers either one of these quotes: Young Setsuna says "There is no God in this world! And the Gundam will do/become one!", while S2 Setsuna says "This is my GUNDAM!". Let us remind of who voiced him and what is the role both share in common again.
    • Also, Wars and World features certain Battle Demos which play with this trope, such as Amuro in the 0 Gundam vs. Setsuna in the Exia R2, or Amuro and Char versus Ribbons and Full Frontal.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Dee Triel was feared by faceless Red Shirt because of her ability. She get along with the hero group pretty well though.
  • Ascended Extra: Some of the Crossover games take canon villains and beef them up into the Big Bad who threatens the entire Gundamverse. DS does this to Gihren Zabi (no mean shakes, considering what he is in canon), but the a better example would probably be 08th MS Team villain Ginias Sahalin, who is the Big Bad of a couple of games despite being little more than a Mad Scientist who's literally off his meds in his home series.
  • Ascended Meme: Well what do you know, the Big Zam WAS mass produced!
  • A Taste of Power: The opening stage of World starts you out with the entire Celestial Being team circa Second Season, Unicorn Gundam NT-D mode, Strike Freedom and Infinite Justice, and pits you against Mr. Bushido, Ali-Al Saachez and Full Frontal.
  • Bonus Level of Hell: The HELL levels from Overworld are very appropriately named. On top of being a Playable Epilogue to the main story, they are SUPER HARD levels that basically require you to be decked out with the best mobile suits in the game just to beat their bare minimum requirements. Brief run down of the HELL you are in for (Over Impact for each level will summon clones of your most badass units at full strength, just to make your life suck even worse):
    • Nightmare Again: You are flung into a room with some turrets and massive cannons taking potshots for unblockable damage with high accuracy you have to prioritize killing, as well as a mini gauntlet of several Real Robot badasses from several Gundam series and their assorted Mooks who join the fun. This is hard enough, but doable. The HARD part comes from the OYW level nuclear missiles that show up every time you get a generation break that you must drop everything and murder, because their damage when they explode is unblockable in their area of effect and will likely kill or cripple several of your units, and you have to kill off FOUR of them each generation break.
    • Dreadnought Circuit: You have to get your carrier from one end of a hallway to the other, which seems easy enough, except for the various turrets you have to murder. Easy enough, except each turn also summons random mobile armors from various series that get more and more powerful each turn it takes before you get to the end, culminating in PSYCHO HAROS trying to kill you. Each generation break adds some even more terrifying enemies to the list, like super powered versions of the Devil Gundam and the Patulia that will block off each end of the hallway and pursue you as well.
    • Fearsome Heroes If the last level was a Mobile Armor beatdown fest, this level is one LONG slugfest against every single max strength version of every Real Robot Gundam style mobile suit, and you must kill them all to finish the level, and like the last level, you got more murderous turrets to make your life suck harder, on top of having to kill over 35 series worth of badass Gundams.
    • Hidden Past You only get one small mercy on this level, no generation breaks or Over Impact to worry about. To make up for that, this level is like the worst parts of the first three HELL levels distilled into their most terrifying form, with three sides of the map spawning all sorts of superpowered mobile suits and armors as well as many more Elite Mooks, and the more you kill, the difficulty climbs higher and higher. And after you've managed to kill off increasingly badassed waves of reinforcements from any side at least ten times, the Barbados Mirage shows to make your life miserable.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Sera in Mono-Eyes
  • Break the Cutie: Not that big of a surprise for many but in G Generation DS... Well, see this cute, kind, happy and strong-willed girl here? That's Haman. THAT HAMAN.
  • Bridge Bunny: You can assign operator to battleship. How good the character perform as operator is depend on his/her "communication" secondary stats. In addition to the Bridge Bunny from other series, Ra Mira Luna, Ricole Chuart and Pamela Smith - the Mission Control characters from Zero, F and Neo - will embrace this trope whenever they are recuitable.
  • Calling Your Attacks: See under The Dev Team Thinks of Everything; just about every major character gets at least one special attack quote. Hell, even Trowa Barton gets one for the Shining Finger.
  • Character Development: The standard group of original characters came into existence as little more than seat-fillers. Later games started giving them more distinct personalities and roles in relation to one another; for example, Mark Gilder, the most common pilot of the Phoenix Gundam, seems to be becoming The Hero amonst the G Gen originals.
  • Character Exaggeration: Especially in crossover titles.
  • Cloning Blues: In DS, Dee is one of the many Legion clone pilots made by Gihren Zabi to operate his Centurio MS; she's simply the one who was rescued and started establishing an individual identity.
  • Continuity Drift - Trans-Am 00 Raiser suffers this in its animations on World. Most of the times when someone attacks it, the animation played is that of him entering in quantization, however the enemy STILL hits him as if he stood still there.
    • Also, for whenever he executes the actual Quantization trick to evade enemy beam shots, he always appears with the GN Sword III, even when he's supposed to be equipped with the pair of GN Sword II.
  • Cutting Off the Branches: Generation of C.E. Famously, upon the game's release, the staff claimed that one of the endings was the originally intended ending for the Destiny TV series, but refused to elaborate, leading most fans to assume that it was "The Awakened Sword", in which Shinn defeats Kira and co. and Durandal takes over the world.
  • Demoted to Extra: Because the games obviously can't include everything, something inevitably has to be removed in the end. Generation of C.E. is an interesting example; it was released around episode 39 of Gundam Seed Destiny, and so only covers the MS up to Strike Freedom, meaning Infinite Justice, the Akatsuki, and DOM Trooper aren't included. For that matter, neither is the Legend Gundam, despite the fact that it did appear before S-Freedom.
  • The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: In later installments like Wars and World, any character can be put into any MS. As a result, the characters get a truly staggering number of vocalized lines that they wouldn't normally say, like this video, which shows all the different characters who get special attack quotes with Nu Gundam's Fin Funnels.
  • Disc One Nuke: In nearly all the games, proper planning and Level Grinding can allow you to obtain outrageously powerful units like Turn a Gundam and Hi-Nu Gundam very, very early. Especially in Wars and World, due to the Master system, which allows you to start with a gimped version of a main character unit, which, with a few levels, can be easily turned into a proper version of the same unit (or even a powered-up version, in the case of Turn-A). And from Spirits on, you can very easily get the Phoenix Gundam in less than an hour of gameplay.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Typically a new series will have few key MS in G Gen before it makes its full debut in the next game (see: Strike and Aegis in Neo, 00-Raiser in Wars). A special case of this occurs in Mono-Eye Gundams, where you can actually obtain an early design version of the Aile Strike Gundam (but see Guide Dang It for more details}.
  • Early Installment Weirdness: G Gen Zero makes some AU characters such as George de Sand and Quatre Winner into Newtypes, presumably to explain things like the former's use of Attack Drones and the latter's "Space Heart".
  • Expy: It's hard not to see Dee Trier of DS as Rei Ayanami's long-lost sister.
  • Evil Counterpart: One of the G Gen originals is the Zanspine, effectively Zanscare's answer to the Victory 2 Gundam, complete with three crimson Wings of Light.
  • Eviler Than Thou: The original Devil Gundam Jr., a spawn of Devil Gundam that goes so high in Evolutionary Levels that it live on after the destruction of Devil Gundam. Devil Gundam maybe an Omnicidal Maniac, but that's because its program was corrupted. Devil Gundam Jr. is outright malice, it want to enslave humanity and dominate the world.
  • Face Heel Turn: Obviously this occurs in Historical games, but in some of the Crossover games you can lose the use of characters like Char and Shinn if you don't take the right steps to keep them on your side.
  • Guide Dang It: In Mono-Eye Gundams, you can find the Strike Gundam if and only if you move one specific MS onto one specific square of one specific map in one specific battle.
  • Hate Plague: Over Impact in Overworld functions as an artificially induced version, turning friend to foe. It does work to your advantage when trying to capture new units, as killing any ship that has been OI moded that has units assigned to it makes those units available to capture for your own use. Same goes for units that are slaves to other units if you trip secret stage conditions and kill their leader unit.
  • Heel Face Turn: G Gen lets you recruit characters that even Super Robot Wars has never let you use, like Cima Garahau and the Druggies from SEED and Destiny.
  • Heroes Unlimited: Most character can pilot a mobile suit and fight, even ones like Actual Pacifist Relena Peacecraft. That being said, Wars introduce limitation to character role and you can't see Dr.J kicking ass in MS or commanding spaceship anymore.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In Advance, Mu la Flaga will sacrifice himself to kill Rau le Creuset (as per the manga adaptation of Gundam Seed if you don't take the proper steps. Note, this also costs you the Freedom Gundam, since Rau is piloting it in his final battle.
  • I Am Legion: Crosses with Meaningful Name: In DS, the clone pilots are actually named Legion; this includes The Rival Norma Legio and protagonist Dee Trier.
  • Infinity Plus One Mecha: The Phoenix Gundam, which is generally considered to be on par with the Turn A and Turn X, and is effectively an All Your Powers Combined Gundam with weapons and abilities cribbed from every universe.
    • Nerfed in later games by several extremes.
  • Item Crafting: Both formats of games allow you to make mobile suits in different ways. Console games let you combine two machines together to produce a new one, typically with a degree of logic behind the combo[1]. Handheld games let you combine items with MS to make new ones, and they can also be scrapped for parts.
  • Love Dodecahedron: Mono-Eye Gundams is driven by one: Sieg loves Sera, who loves him back. Ein has a psycho crush on Sera, and undergoes a Face Heel Turn so he can kidnap and brainwash her. Mian, The Captain's daughter, has a Precocious Crush on Sieg, which upgrades in the seven-year gap between the One Year War and the Gryps Conflict.
  • Magikarp Power: One of the original characters, Eterna Frail, starts with abysmal stats in G Generation F (her debut title). But keep level grind with her (or just take advantage of her high charm by assign her as the ship's guest) and suddenly, her shooting jump from 12 to 48 (and it can still go up to 50) which is higher than most characters.
  • Merchandise-Driven: G Generation F used Card Codes to let you unlock new MS and ships. How do you get Card Codes? Why, they're included in every G Generation model kit and Collectible Card Game pack, of course!
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: Both formats allow you to upgrade your mecha in a number of different ways. Historical games let you turn a sufficiently leveled MS into a related one [2], or combine the plans for two different MS to produce a new one [3]. Crossover games use a system akin to Item Crafting, where you apply a special parts to an MS to change it [4], and you can subsequently scrap an MS to break it down into parts.
  • Mind Control Eyes: Sera in Mono-Eye Gundams and Dee Trier in DS.
  • Mirror Match: Stage Final-02 in World features eight Neuro Copies, which take the form of units you have onboard your battleship. If you're very unlucky, you will fight eight copies of the 00-Qan[T], Crossbone X1 Full-Cloth,Balbados or Turn-A (Black History ver) you've brought along.
    • You can use it as your advantage though, by using only a few strong unit while the rest are piloting Mook units. And these copies have fixed stats while yours can *usually* outperform them......Unless you're playing in Hell world.
  • Mook Promotion: Happens on occasion; for example, Advance takes Alex and Muller, a pair of asshole pilots from Gundam Wing who only lasted one episode before getting karmic justice at Zechs' hands, and turns them into recurring antagonists, even giving them Mercurius and Vayeate.
  • Multiple Endings: 'Mono-Eye Gundams has three endings: One where Mian sacrifices herself to save Sera, one where Sera kills herself in a moment of clarity, and the Golden Ending where you save Sera without anyone dying.
  • Munchkin: Ein in Mono-Eye Gundams uses System Fafnir, which enhances his Newtype abilities to the point where nobody, be it Amuro Ray, Kamille Bidan, Domon Kasshu, Heero Yuy, or anyone else can lay a finger on him. Battles against Ein become an exercise in frustration until Sieg figures out how to counter it.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: If you fail to convince Athrun in Advance, he realizes that he's been helping the bad guys all along and pulls a suicide run against Dozle Zabi.
  • No Campaign for the Wicked: Averted in DS, which has a Villain Route where you take control of the Titans, OZ, and OMNI Enforcer among others. And you unlock it by following the original Gundam novel and killing Amuro Ray at A Baoa Qu.
  • Oh Crap: DS, four words: Muruta Azrael, Devil Gundam.
  • Original Generation: Handled a bit differently. Historical games have a pool of established original characters who make up the bulk of the player's forces (since famous characters like Amuro and Char can only be rented for one stage at a time). There are also a number of original MS, which will filter back into the mainstream once in a blue moon. Crossover games tend to stick more closely to the Super Robot Wars model, though occasionally canon villains like Gihren Zabi will be the Big Bad, just with better toys and longer life expectancy.
    • Wars also play with this. The thing doesn't get mentioned until EX missions, which are unlocked after you have clear at least third of the game. And you actually see it only for last two missions, yet it turn out that the Generation System is one that control every events in this game.
  • Recursive Canon: G Gen uses this rather strangely, claiming that Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team was turned into a TV series in the UC 0090s (with input from Michel) and the space-use variants of Shiro's Gundam Ez8 exist because the writers extended the fictional story beyond what happened in the real world.
  • Retcon: The Phoenix Gundam was always described as coming from beyond the solar system, and can be combined with literally anything in the games' Item Crafting system. World explains both of these aspects by saying that the Phoenix contains ELS cells with data on every MS ever made.
  • Robo Speak: When Dee talking near the end of DS, her dialogue appear in all katakana (a usual way to utilize this trope). She only "speak" naturally via newtype power.
  • Serial Escalation: Some of the games, particularly F and World, include a truly staggering number of series, characters, and mecha. F in particular claimed to have over 1,000 playable machines, though in truth Bandai did cheat a little[5].
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In DS, the entire Turn A cast travels back in time in the hopes of preventing the Dark History...except for Gym and his cronies, who want to set it off even earlier.
    • Timeline-Altering MacGuffin: Because of this, Gihren Zabi gets his hands on future technology, which lets him produce the Centurio series of MS, essentially Mass Production Turns, complete with Moonlight Butterfly Funnels.
  • Shout-Out Theme Naming: Mono-Eye Gundams has a few nods to Der Ring Des Nibelungen: protagonist Siegfried Wagner, based out of the battleship Walkure, fighting a rival whose MS is equipped with "System Fafnir".
  • Super Prototype/Unseen Prototype: A lot of the G Gen originals are prototypes that were rejected or never built, like the Gundam Aquarius, Epyon's Mobile Doll-busting brother.
    • Mono-Eye Gundams revolves around a trio of Zeon prototype Gundams that were never built until the designs fell into Titan hands.
  • The Theme Park Version: Crossover games will typically pare each series down to its barest elements, but the Alternate Universes get it worse. For example, Gundam Wing is usually nothing more than Heero, Relena, Zechs, Noin, and the relevant MS; Gundam X likewise gets stripped down to Garrod, Tiffa, the Frosts, and their Gundams.
  • True Final Boss: The more recent games have included Nintendo Hard extra bosses you fight at the very end; in Spirits, it's the full-powered version of the Turn A Gundam - which is considered to be one of the most powerful Humongous Mecha ever.
    • Wars introduces the O Gundam, a stupid-powerful version of the 0 Gundam,complete with an AI that sounds remarkably like Fucking Ribbons[6].
    • 3DS features Fucking Ribbons again as the final boss, beginning with an overpowered version of the Reborns Gundam, and then the ELS unit called "Nemesis R.A." who attacks with a massive spawn of GN Fangs and Funnels.
    • Marathon Boss: The O Gundam in Wars is just the last part of a 28 Phase fight against the Generation System's security program, which has the player fight against 27 main character Gundam units in chronological order, starting with Amuro Ray's Gundam and ending with Setsuna's Gundam Exia.
  • Ultimate Universe: The historical games tend to mash several episodes into single mission.
  • Up to Eleven: The Great Zeong introduced in Spirits[7]; while the original could launch its hands, this one can split into seven separate pieces. For extra fun, some of the parts are modeled on Zeon mobile armors: the chest resembles the Apsaras III, the waist looks like the Big Zam, and the legs are vaguely Bigro-like.
  • World of Cardboard Speech: In Advance, you face off against the Gromlin Fossil, a Zeon mobile armor equipped with DG Cells that lets it constantly regenerate. After Dr. Kasshu tells you how to stop the Cells, the next character to attack the Gromlin (regardless of who it is) delivers a speech before hitting it so hard it completely shuts down the DG Cells and gives you a fair fight.

And many other tropes associated with the Gundam metaseries.

  1. ↑ Combining the Rick Dias and Gundam Mk-II produces the Zeta Gundam, which is exactly how Kamille described the design when he first created it
  2. ↑ Like Wing Gundam into Wing Zero
  3. ↑ Rick Dias plus Gundam Mark II equals Zeta Gundam, as per the anime.
  4. ↑ RX-78 Gundam plus Magnetic Coating equals Gundam Alex
  5. ↑ They counted Transforming Mecha like the Zeta Gundam as two different units.
  6. ↑ 00 Second Season had just ended but wasn't included in Wars, so this was as close as they could get to recreating its final battle.
  7. ↑ supposedly based on Tomino's original plan for the design
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