Bandai Namco has announced Gundam Battle: Gunpla Warfare, a collection-based battle game which just so happens to be the first Gundam title that will make its way to the West on Android. This upcoming release is themed around the hobby of collecting and building Gunpla and will feature 25+ Gundam from the anime series. A summer release is expected, and you can pre-register on the Play Store starting today.

The trailer linked above goes into a few of the details for Gundam Battle. The first highlight is that you can build your very own digital Gunpla on your mobile device, which sounds pretty interesting as a fan of the physical models, especially since it looks like you can customize the colors of your kits to your liking. Of course, the gameplay appears to be another story as it revolves around fighting giant robot battles, which at first sounds awesome until you discover that an auto-battle mechanic is included. To top off the questionable gameplay design, you can also expect a bunch of collection aspects where you'll accumulate Gundam parts as well as individual pilots. I suppose the story mode may be the title's saving grace, but sadly it revolves around the simple concept of keeping a high-school Gunpla club from shutting down, an overused trope that any anime fan should be familiar with.

So far the details surrounding Gundam Battle are few and far between. We still don't know how the game will be monetized, though a free-to-play release with in-app purchases is expected. The Android version is scheduled for a summer release, and if you take a quick look at the Apple App Store listing, you'll notice that August 21st is the expected launch date for Apple's version, so most likely our release should land around the same time.

As a big fan of Gundam and Gunpla, I'm somewhat excited by the announcement for Gundam Battle: Gunpla Warfare, because I'd love nothing more than an opportunity to build digital Gunpla on the go. But as we all know, this title wasn't designed for fun, it was designed to make money, and so all the aggravations of a free-to-play release are expected. I genuinely hope that I'm wrong and that Gundam Battle exceeds everyone's expectations, so if you're as hopeful as me, feel free to pre-register for the title through the Play Store widget below.

Source: Gundam Battle