Kidou Senshi Gundam : Senjou no Kizuna (Mobile Suit Gundam : Bonds of the Battlefield) is an arcade game that's a major hit with the Japanese. Based on the One Year War era of slow plodding nuclear fueled giants of destruction, Senjou (for short) has you pilotting your choice of Zeon or Feddie mobile suits from within a pod designed to emulate the cockpit of an MS. Pretty impressive as it's an experience that can't be emulated on a home system without a $200 controller like Steel Battalion.
What's even crazier about this game is that it's networked, the more pods your arcade has the more players can join. An 8 player vs. battle between teams of 4 isn't a rarity to be seen as the Gundam license itself is pretty big in Japan. My constant ramblings on this blog about Gundam should probably give you a clue as to how much (and how improbable) I want to play this thing. The controls seem to be based on the good old fashion dual stick tri-window setup. It even has that old classic White Base attack theme song all the old school viewers seem to love.
Is this only the first step? A glimpse into the future? After all, how many more years will it be before they adapt this into an army vehicle of some sort? Preprogrammed human-like motions coupled with the proper mechanical technology with a sufficient power source? It seems the Japanese already have the control scheme down...
Even crazier is what you do when you're not playing. They have a bench area where players sit and wait in a line and off to the side is a view screen for players to watch the other would-be pilots show their skill. Below the screen is a stats window I believe probably detailing the overall combat situation ladder style.
This guy Joshua Zimmerman explains it all very well. Youtube can at least give us a glimpse at what you'd like and the Japanese NEVER give you.
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