Parents' Guide to Super Robot Wars 30

While this franchise is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, it's likely many people have never heard of it, because the main series has never hit the Western market before now. Super Robot Wars 30 is a dream for mecha fans with its massive roster of characters pulled from decades of sci-fi anime. Unfortunately, while the game's a love letter to the most hardcore of this fanbase, bursting at the seams with content catering to a specific audience already primed to empty their pockets for the chance to live their crossover dreams, for the rest of the world, it's all fluff and no substance.

The story in Super Robot Wars 30 is convoluted and confusing. One minute the characters are commenting on how different things are from their world, and the next, they're all acting as if they've worked together their entire lives. The stages for battles are pretty threadbare, with overly cartoonish representations of the mechs plopped down in large, almost barren stages. And the battles themselves move along at a snail's pace. One fight can easily push past the thirty-minute mark to complete, with most of that time spent watching the admittedly impressive attack animations. Each character has cutscene style sequences for almost every action, with many looking like they've been pulled straight from their respective anime series. It's fun to watch the first few times, but eventually it gets to be monotonous, especially if you've got a habit of taking the same fighters into each battle. Gamers with a more casual interest in the genre would be better suited just watching the different anime series on TV, and would likely wind up with a greater sense of accomplishment.