Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon is an offering by Bandai and the latest addition to the ever growing Gundam franchise.  In this newest addition you find yourself on either side of an interplanetary conflict between the forces of the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon.  The muddled morality of war and freedom are all relative to what side you choose.  But you don't have to worry about that.  As the pilot of a mobile suit your chief worry is surviving the battle.  Once that's done you can worry about planetary politics.

The gameplay is largely dictated by your experience controlling a particular Mobile Suit.  But even at its best, freedom of movement is halting.  This is especially apparent when engaged in space battles.  The only way to get around during a space battle is by switching targets.  So it becomes a game of target kill, target kill, that leaves little room for tactics.  The over simplistic combat design is highlighted by redundant controls that leave no room for more options.  The game contains basic controls for firearms, jumping, close combat, secondary weapons and most importantly targeting.  Unfortunately, it also reserves two of the shoulder buttons for redundant attacks such as jump and shoot, or jump and slash (close combat).  These are not exactly difficult moves to pull off with the basic controls and their inclusion smacks of programmers who had nothing more to contribute.  The missions are also predominantly arena based.  You finish your objective in a wide open and clearly demarcated battlefield.  This is a far cry from the complex missions of games like Armored Core.

Graphically the game is pretty decent.  I was impressed by the depth (and I mean that literally) of some of the environments.  Unfortunately, it quickly becomes a one trick pony.  Nearly every level involves some incredibly tall drop off.  Once the novelty wears off, the graphics tend to become dull, but what surprised me the most was the lack of FMV's.  With a game that has such along history of animation behind it I was expecting to see more of what made this series famous.  Instead I was greeted with digitized representations of characters as they showed up talking in little boxes on my screen.

The sound effects and track was lacking.  This was probably the most disappointing feature of the game.   With the history that the series has I expected more.  However, even at worst I would have expected it to be tolerable.  Unfortunately I found most of the sound fall beneath even this low criteria.  The Theremin sound (think Mars Attacks) of the space boards becomes mind numbing, as do most of the weapon sound effects.

The only thing more annoying than the sound is the lack of exposition.  Gundam has a huge and in-depth story.  Unfortunately, if you haven't followed the series since birth you will have no idea what's going on.  The lack of information either on mobile suits, missions or the characters who randomly show up, will leave you wondering what the heck is going on.

Overall, I think this was a rather poor attempt to capitalize on a well known series.  If the Armored Core series was too complex for you and you can't get your hands on a copy of Zone of Enders, then this would be an adequate third choice. 

Gameplay: 5.5
Over-simple controls and missions.  The game offers little in the way of tactics or challenge.

Graphics: 7 
Not bad but nothing special.

Sound: 6
Its just not good...and certainly not up to ps2 standards.  However the professional voiceovers are a plus.

Difficulty: Easy
Target kill, target kill, target kill, target kill.

Concept: 6 
Poorly executed attempt to capitalize on a series.

Multiplayer: 5
Its not interesting when fighting lots of mobile suits it, doesn't hold up to one on one play. 

Overall: 6
Lacking in every way this game is good only for small kids, desperate mech-fans, or fans of the series.