Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire review

The screenshots scream "next-gen," but this shooter only looks the part

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Even with those moments of glory, the gameplay gets old pretty fast. The close-up duels are sluggish, and you'll usually end up doing the same attack animation over and over until your shattered enemy decides to keel over. Sniping only really works when your target is standing still, and a successful firefight almost always boils down to locking onto an enemy and running in circles while shooting them with power-pellet-looking bullets.

Granted, things get more interesting when you eventually earn more powerful mecha, more varied weapons and squadmates who'll actually respond to your simple commands (which don't carry any sort of visual or audio confirmation that they've been issued or understood, by the way) instead of just standing around dimly. But that takes a while, and you'll encounter plenty of frustratingly difficult enemies and seemingly cheap deaths until you reach that point.

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GenreAction
DescriptionThis simple, tactical shooter features breathtakingly beautiful robots and painfully generic action.
Franchise nameMobile Suit Gundam
UK franchise nameMobile Suit Gundam
Platform"PS3"
US censor rating"Teen"
UK censor rating""
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.