Friday, May 27, 2005

:::If They Battle:::

[Special Issue!!!]One of the favorite discussions amongst my friends and myself are "what would happen if (insert names here) fought?" Well in this case, we will discuss the advantages of various anime (both movies/shows and video gaming) mecha. Here are our players: The Gundam, The Guymelef, The Oribital Frame, The Variable Fighter, The Armored Core, and The Megadeus. The rules are quite simple: I will use all of the most recent data from each series, and in the games, movements displayed in FMVs IN ADDITION TO in game functions will be used, because the developers created those FMV movements to show how they INTENDED the mecha to be used (especially in the case of Armored Core.) The Gundam The Gundam is probably the most commonly known form of mecha, from all of the Mobile Suit series. Armor: The biggest advantage for the Gundam's over every other mecha featured is the Gundamium alloy their armor's based on. This makes them formidable opponents against the majority of the featured mecha, with the exception to the Orbital Frames, which come standard with high yield energy weapons. Armaments: This area may vary, depending on the Gundam type, so I will try to generalse them as a whole. The majority of the Gundams primarily use long range weapons, which puts them in yet another advantage over two of the other mecha. Their secondary/melee (if not their primary) are beam sabers, powerful energy blades capable of cutting through most metals, including the Gundamium alloy. Reaction Time: Though the Gundams possess alot of advantages, one of the biggest disadvantages they have is their slow reaction time. Though its not noticable against other mobile suits, in this arena we also feature high speed combat mecha, and even Gundamium has its limits. The Guymelef Guymelefs (Guy-MELLE-IFS) are known from the popular "Escaflowne (Ess-cuh-FLOWN-ae)" series. These mechs are a type that stands apart from the other featured mecha, due to the part that the technology is extremely odd in design and when it comes to powerplants. The Variable Fighter The Armored Core The Armored Core is best known from the popular gaming series 'Armored Core.' In a nutshell, the Armored Cores represent walking tanks, loaded with explosive armaments, and much like a tank, its not the fastest in the world, so weapon dodging maneuvers are a must, with the assistance of maneuvering thrusters/jump jets, in addtion to multi-plated armor, made from the standard titanium alloys. Armored Core's(AC) boast an advantage of versatility; almost every single part is designed to be changed out and replaced with another part that's more useful to completing particular missions. This means that in one instance, an AC can carry lightweight, soft punch armaments in a convert operations mission, where speed and stealth are a must, return to base upon completion, and get switched out with heavier armor and weapons for an assualt mission. Not much is known about the control interfaces, except from one FMV that showed two ACs battling, and someone was inputting commands via a keyboard. Given the way they'd move and attack during the battle, it may be possible to use a keyboard to issue commands, if they user were an experienced typist. Now when it comes to movement, the AC, much like a Guymelef, may be lacking. Even when equipped with the tank thread legs, or hovering bottom instead of standard legs, the AC is still extremely slow without the assistance of thrusters, though the thrusters are temporary and rechargable (overheating calls for slower recharge times so the entire system can recover.) I truly believe that, with the right intelligence to give before battle data on the enemy, these bad-boys can be configured to engage ANY of the other featured mecha. On the other hand, I'm not sure about any results. The Megadeus The MEGAZORD (Surprise Guest!!) While developing this (paper,) I COULD NOT RESIST including the ever-so-powerful Megazord (from the original Power Rangers series.) The Orbital Frame (The best for last. . .that says alot from a hardcore gundam fan like myself. . . ) I don't even know where to start. The Orbital Frame is hands down the most sophisticated of all features mecha. Armor: It has the ability to SELF REPAIR its armor due to the advance Metatron alloy metal. In addition to that, it has the ability to DOWNLOAD upgrades remotely, and cause the Metatron to rebuild its circuitry in accordance to the 'device drivers' downloaded. STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES!

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