Video Game / Gundam Battle Assault 2

It's time to SUIT UP or SHUT UP.

"Wealth and glory to the winner!"

—Announcer

As far back as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System era, Bandai played with the idea of a tournament fighter that took advantage of the many mechas of Gundam, and in 1997, with the availability of the PlayStation, Bandai and Natsume worked together to make Gundam: The Battle Master, with The Battle Master 2 following the year after. A game that used the various Mobile Suits from up to Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack while introducing the exclusive Psycho Gundam Mk-III and an entirely original cast not connected to the anime in any form. In spite of their success, the games never made it out of Japan, and was doomed to fall into a lifetime of obscurity...

And then Toonami started airing Mobile Suit Gundam Wing in America.

Not wanting to pass up on the growing western popularity, Bandai and Natsume took The Battle Master 2 and modified it to include characters from Gundam Wing and the various anime seasons before it, releasing it to the American market as Gundam: Battle Assault in 2000. Once Mobile Fighter G Gundam debuted in America, Bandai followed up with Battle Assault 2, releasing exclusively in US and European territories in 2002, creating a short-lived, yet well respected subseries of Gundam fighting games lasting all the way to the mid-PlayStation 2 era.

The game is a one-on-one fighter that uses Street Fighter-esque command prompts to activate special and ultimate attacks, with each mobile suit having three layers of health and a thruster system for extra mobility.

Featured Mobile Suits include:

• Introduced in The Battle Master:
  • RX-78 Gundam
  • Full Armor ZZ Gundam
  • Zaku II
  • Sazabi
  • GP02A Gundam "Physalis"
  • Zeong
  • Hygogg
  • Nu Gundam
  • The-O
  • Queen Mansa
  • Big Zam (unplayable)
  • Neue Ziel (unplayable)
  • Psycho Gundam Mk-III (First appearance, unplayable)
• Introduced in The Battle Master 2/Battle Assault:
  • Zaku II Commander Type (requires unlock code)
  • Acguy
  • Hamma Hamma (Japanese version only, playable in Western versions though Gameshark)
  • Wing Gundam (Western version only)
  • Qubeley
  • Ball
  • Hydra Gundam
• Introduced in Battle Assault 2:
  • Burning Gundam
  • Gundam Rose
  • Gundam Maxter
  • Bolt Gundam
  • Master Gundam
  • Dragon Gundam
  • Dark Gundam
  • Wing Gundam Zero Custom
  • Gundam Deathscythe Hell
  • Gundam Heavyarms Custom
  • Gundam Sandrock Custom
  • Altron Gundam
  • Tallgeese III
  • Gundam Epyon
• Introduced in Battle Assault 3:
  • Strike Gundam (Base/Aile/Launcher/Sword)
  • Aegis Gundam
  • Duel Gundam (Base/Assault Shroud)
  • Buster Gundam
  • Blitz Gundam
  • GINN (Base/Miguel's Custom)
  • CGUE
  • BuCUE
  • LaGOWE
  • ZnO
  • DINN
  • GuAIZ
  • Strike Dagger
  • Raider Gundam
  • Forbidden Gundam
  • Calamity Gundam
  • Astray
  • Aile Strike Rouge
  • Freedom Gundam
  • Justice Gundam
  • Providence Gundam
• Introduced in Gundam SEED Destiny:
  • A1 Gunner Zaku Warrior
  • Zaku Phantom (M Blast/K Slash)
  • Impulse Gundam (Alpha Force/Gamma Blast/Beta Sword)
  • Savior Gundam
  • Gundam Astray (Red Frame/Gold Frame Amatsu Mina)
  • Abyss Gundam
  • Gaia Gundam
  • Chaos Gundam

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Games in this series include:

• Gundam: The Battle Master (PlayStation, 1997)
• Gundam: The Battle Master 2 (PlayStation, 1998)
  • Gundam: Battle Assault (PlayStation, 2000): A Reformulated Game released for the Western markets that includes content from Gundam Wing.
• Gundam: Battle Assault 2 (PlayStation, 2002)
• Battle Assault 3 Featuring Gundam SEED (PlayStation 2, 2004)
• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Battle Assault (Game Boy Advance, 2004)
• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (Game Boy Advance, 2004): A Japanese-Exclusive Mission-Pack Sequel to Gundam SEED: Battle Assault, featuring additional Mobile Suits and stages from SEED Destiny

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Ready? Trope!

• 100% Completion: Each game has their own sets of unlockable Mobile Suits and modes to unlock. In Battle Assault 2 alone, there's 18 Mobile Suits, 3 Street Mode routes, 3 modes, a music test, and a sound test.
• Ace Custom: The Zaku IIS. It's a Palette Swap of the basic Zaku, but moves three times faster.
• After the End: The setting for The Battle Master 2 is an alternate Earth ravaged by a meteorite attack that was dubbed "The Day of Judgement". This was actually an intentional move on Symeon's part, who instigated the attack from Moon Base in order to use it as the base for his new world order.
• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: One appears in the background of the colony stage of Battle Assault 2.
• All There in the Manual:
  • The game controls and (most) of the moves for a handful of fighters.
  • Gundam: The Battle Master - Perfect Guide contains additional background info on all the MS Pilots in the game, as well as an expanded article on the Psycho Gundam Mk-III itself.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Played straight like any other fighting games, the sprites are swapped when facing the other side.
• American Robot: Gundam Maxter, which represents Neo America.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Char's Street mode has you control his famous red Zaku all the way up to the final fight with Amuro, where it switches over to the Zeong.
• Announcer Chatter: There's a female announcer for unlockables and for calling the mobile suits' names, and a male announcer for calling the mode names and during fights.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Your ammo count won't go down until you actually fire the shots from your gun, meaning getting interrupted while in your loading animation won't be counted against you.
• Attack Drone: It wouldn't be Gundam without them. Some MS can launch bits/funnels like Nu Gundam, Sazabi, Gundam Rose just to name a few. Nu Gundam's funnels are indestructible and can block some projectiles while everyone else's remote weapons can be destroyed.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The boss characters Big Zam, Neue Ziel, and Psyco Gundam Mk-III are all so large they fill the screen, in Neue Ziel's case it actually goes past the screen.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Beam Melee/Heat weapon attacks are powerful multi-hit Unblockable Attacks that can be satisfying to use in the midst of battle, but its usefulness is negated by its drawbacks. They are painfully telegraphed via a glowing purple aura and the announcer declaring "You can't defend!", thus giving the opponent time to back away or to go in for a counter attack, especially if the enemy Mobile Suit is much faster in comparison to yours. It's not as bad if you're using a Mobile Armor, as they are Immune to Flinching until they loose a health bar.
• Badass Normal: The Nu Gundam is one of just two MS in the game with no Mega Special attack. Unlike the other one, it is no joke — Nu has long ranged normals, strong shots, and the fin funnels it deploys automatically block normal beam fire. Same goes for the RX-78, at least in the first game.
• Badass Teacher: Master Asia to Domon.
• Beam Spam: A lot of the Mega Special moves are beam attacks of some kind. The boss armors Big Zam and Neue Ziel have Wave-Motion Gun weapons built into them for some truly monstrous damage, and the Dark Gundam has an unblockable high damage beam spam attack as a regular special move which it can use to basically lock down and destroy every other character in the game.
• Big Bad:
  • In The Battle Master, it's Maria Nichols, who wants revenge against the leading government organization after being used as a test subject for the Hypersensitivity Virus for years.
  • In The Battle Master 2, it's Symeon, who wants to usurp and issue a new world order using clones of himself. He forms a Big Bad Duumvirate with the previous game's Maria.
  • In Battle Assault, it's Treize, who is simply getting in the way of Heero's mission for peace.
  • Battle Assault 2 drops the idea of having a uniformed story with a singular main villain and instead gives everyone their own unique story routes. This would be carried over the Game Boy Advance games.
  • Due to the main campaign being a retelling of SEED's story, Battle Assault 3 has Rau Le Creuset.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Played straight with the Hydra Gundam. It has a beam shield that activate every time it blocks and negate all damage, even chipping damage.
• Boss Rush: Time Attack B, which is unlocked by finishing all Street Mode routes on Hard. The player fights the four mobile armors of the game, Big-Zam, Devil Gundam, Neue Ziel, and Psyco Gundam Mk. III in that order.
• Bottomless Fuel Tanks: Averted. Fighters can only fly up until their vernier gauge runs out... unless its Neue Ziel.
• Bottomless Magazines: Also averted. You only have 500 projectile units either they be energy-based or bullets. Once the counter reach zero, no projectile will shoot out of the barrels, leaving you open for counterattacks. Note that the ammo counter is tied only to special attacks and not regulars ones.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: After the player finishes a Street Mode route in Battle Assault 2, the male announcer will say "Now that you've tasted victory, I'm sure you'll be back". Also, after the player unlocks a game mode and/or fighter the female announcer says, "You better go fight some more".
• Broad Strokes: The Street Mode routes in Battle Assault 2 are very basic retellings of the One Year War, Endless Waltz, and G Gundam storylines. It also falls heavily into "Rashomon"-Style, as one's Street route can conflict with another that takes place within the same timeline of events, or come up with new scenarios that falls outside the storyline (remember when Domon kicked the crap out of the Big Zam trying to find Kyoji?).
• Calling Your Attacks: A few pilots do this.
  • Domon calls Tenkyoken, Burning Finger, Heat End, and Sekiha Tenkyoken (only in Street Mode).
  • Chibodee calls Burning Punch, Cyclone Punch, Gigantic Magnum, and Machine Gun Punch (only in Street Mode).
  • Master Asia calls Darkness Finger, Tenkyoken, Master Block, and Sekiha Tenkyoken (only in Street Mode).
  • Zechs calls Mega Cannon Max Mode (only in Street Mode).
  • Amuro calls Hammer Punch, Gundam Javelin, and Gundam Hammer (only in Street Mode).
• Canon Discontinuity: You know it's an issue when Build Fighters is more willing to reference G-Saviour than to ever acknowledge The Battle Master's existence. Though the Psycho Gundam Mk-IV's creation in Mobile Suit Moon Gundam shows that Bandai is partially still aware of it in some capacity.
• Cast from Hit Points: In a bizarre example, dodging in Battle Assault would take away some of the fighter's own health, although doing so can't overheat them.
• Character Customization: Downplayed, but in SEED: Battle Assault, you can adjust your Health, Special, and Thruster gauges before each match, meaning you can either be a Mighty Glacier, a Lightning Bruiser, or a Glass Cannon.
• Character Select Forcing: In Battle Assualt 2, you will have to play as the main protagonist mechs in their Street Modes if you ever want to unlock the game's hidden characters. This isn't so bad in most cases, but playing through Maxter Gundam's Street Mode will make more than one player gnash their teeth.
• Cherry Tapping: Beating an opponent with a light punch or light kick.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
  • Poor Hamma Hamma can't catch a break, as the Mobile Suit was removed during the localization process to make room for the Wing Gundam, and failed to turn up in Battle Assault 2 onwards.
  • The Zeta Gundam, Qubeley, and The-O from The Battle Master and Battle Assault 1 are all absent in Battle Assault 2. Strangely enough they're all present in the game's code and completely playable (The-O even has Scirocco as its pilot) with the right Gameshark codes.
  • All of the Original Generation characters introduced in The Battle Master were completely omitted when the game was localized as Battle Assault, and have never appeared in another Gundam property since.
    • It goes double for the Psycho Gundam Mk-III, which was all but abandoned after Battle Assault 2.
  • Everything related to the Universal Century era was gone by Battle Assault 3, and even the Wing and G Gundam content was Out of Focus, with only the Wing Zero Custom, Tallgeese III, Burning, and Master Gundams returning.
• Close-Range Combatant: The Epyon has no range attacks and rely solely on melee combat.
• Cool, but Inefficient: Poor Sazabi. Ironically enough for Char's final MS, it's just not fast enough to compete against its thematic rival Nu Gundam, and is usually the lowest-ranked of the funnel-using MS.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Armor levels (your life bars) are arranged in different colors: green, yellow and orange. Bosses can have extra armor levels: blue and purple.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Maxter's not half bad in close range combat, but its ranged options are limited to a pair of pistols that do terrible damage and quickly run out of ammo.
• Critical Existence Failure: Downplayed. Parts of fighters' bodies will be visibly damaged when hit enough, but this has no game-play affect. On the other hand, fighters will be knocked down (or launched slightly upward at an angle if they're a mobile armor) upon losing a health bar. Aside from this, fighters will play perfectly fine until they lose their final health bar.
• Cutting Off the Branches: The Battle Master has multiple endings for each of the MS Pilots playable in the game, with a key factor in the sequel's story being Gloria finding out that Maria is Not Quite Dead upon recuing Pixie (since every ending shares the common element of Maria being killed in battle). That said, it's heavily implied that Mercury's ending in the first game is the canon ending, due to him being reduced to a bounty hunter in TBM2 as well as him knowing the truth behind Maria's motivations which is why he's no longer part of the Federation in this game.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Neue Ziel has five health bars, the highest among all the mechas. And on top of that, he has boss' damage reduction. You think you'll be fighting him for a while, but each of those five bars is actually shorter than the standard health bar, sparing him from being a Marathon Boss.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: For some reason, Battle Assault 2 lacks the option to have a dedicated button for dodging, so players of the first Battle Assault will have to get used to pressing two attack buttons simultaneously in order to dodge.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • The Battle Master already had a bit of a dark setup, but The Battle Master 2 takes it even further, being post-apocalyptic with the main character's parents being among the fatalities, and a conspiracy that involves an artificially made child being a key element to overrun the world's government.
  • Battle Assault 3 can be this compared to Battle Assault 1 and 2, but that's only because its story is a complete retelling of Gundam SEED's storyline, rather than be a series of loosely connected fights. The soundtrack and aesthetics is also a lot more dramatic as well, though it's still not without the in-your-face nature of the second game.
• Deflector Shields: Most MS have can evade. Those who don't usually have beam shield that can negate any damage from projectiles (including super attacks) and beam sabers.
• Divergent Character Evolution: In the original Battle Assault, the Wing Gundam was nothing more than a reskin of the already existing (and playable) Zeta Gundam, due to the developers wanting to cash in on Gundam Wing's American success. Thanks to Endless Waltz, the Wing Gundam was retired for the Wing Zero, giving it the full arsenal it was known for in the anime.
• Dragons Up the Yin Yang: The design of Dragon Gundam is based on eastern dragons.
• Dub Name Change: Inverted for the Japanese version's G Gundam disc, where Burning and Dark Gundam are changed back to their original "God" and "Devil" Gundam names.
• Dual Boss: Battle Assault 3 lets you engage in 1-on-2 or 2-on-2 matches, and in Multi-Mook Melee matches, you always fight two Mobile Suits at a time until the Unit counter on the top of the screen is depleted.
• Early-Bird Cameo: This game and its predecessor were many Western fans' introductions to the Hydra Gundam and its pilot Valdor Farkill, as the side-story manga they appear in wasn't given a Western release until years later.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The very first Battle Assault game can be traced back to 1997's Gundam: The Battle Master, and it is a far-cry from the refined gameplay of Battle Assault 2. Every Mobile Suit had Regenerating Health and 4 layers of health, rifle attacks were unblockable and can recover energy over time instead of having limited ammo, beam weapon attacks were mapped to one button instead of being a command input and were hell of a lot faster, and no one had any Super Moves to turn the tide of battle with.
• Easy-Mode Mockery: Downplayed. The player can only unlock certain fighters and game modes by finishing Street Mode on Hard difficulty, although the game doesn't chastise them for finishing on Easy difficulty or Medium difficulty.
• Endless Game: Survival mode which is your MS versus an endless wave of battles. Your health bar refill after each battle and you regain a single super move if you used one. However, you will not recover any health bars that you lost along the way. The game ends when you lose all of your health bars.
• Energy Ball: Burning Gundam's and Master Gundam's Tenkyoken.
• Excuse Plot: Battle Assault 1's story can be largely summed up as "Heero Yuy going around kicking everyone's ass to create a new era of peace". Which isn't a bad thing, but considering The Battle Master 2 had an original cast with an all new story...
• Expressive Health Bar: Downplayed. When a fighter is down to half or lower of their final health bar the pilot's portrait will flash red.
• Everyone Has a Special Move: Almost played straight. Every MS has a super move (dubbed "Mega Special", "Ultimate" in Battle Assault 3) attack except two: the Ball and the Nu Gundam. The RX-78 also lacked a Super Move in The Battle Master 2/Battle Assault 1.
• Final Boss:
  • Maria Nichols in the Psycho Gundam Mk-III in The Battle Master. It's status as an SNK Boss below explains why she earned her position in this game.
  • In The Battle Master 2 and Battle Assault, it's the Hydra Gundam, but who pilots it depends on which version you're playing. In Battle Assault, it's Treize, but in The Battle Master 2, it's Pixie.
  • Played with in Battle Assault 2. Every Street Mode has its own final battle, most of which are with high-tier unlockable characters. Same goes for SEED: Battle Assault and SEED Destiny.
  • Battle Assault 3 has Rau Le Creuset and his trusty Providence Gundam as the last boss of Mission Mode. Due to it replicating SEED's events, winning by Time Out is not an option.
• Final Boss Preview: Downplayed. On Amuro's Street Mode route, while Zeong itself is the final boss, the player fights Char, its pilot, twice beforehand while he's piloting Zaku IIS.
• Flash Step: Deathscythe Hell's teleportation is this, causing it to disappear and reappear elsewhere.
• Flight: All mechas can fly providing their thrusters gauge is full. While in flight mode, they can't block or evade, but they can't be knocked down. Neue Ziel has permanent flight however.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Maxter's specialty.
• Grenade Spam: Zaku II and Zaku IIS super moves is throwing lots of grenades in succession.
• Homing Projectile: Most missiles in the game will home on the target.
• Hover Mecha: Zeong and Neue Ziel are this by default, and most of the other mechs can become this via Vernier Mode.
• Humongous Mecha: All the mobile suits, which is standard for Gundam. This is especially true for the mobile armors.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Downplayed. Some fighters put away and take their weapons out of nowhere for certain attacks, such as Gundam's hammer special and mega special.
• Immune to Flinching: Mobile armors. Other mobile suits gain this in Vernier Mode, which enables them to hover until their thruster gauge runs out. Subverted in that all mobile suits and mobile armors flinch when they lose a health bar.
• Improvised Weapon: The Zeta Gundam's (and by extension the Wing Gundam) Super Move is this, using their transformed Waverider/Bird form to attack the opponent in a Shin Shoryuken-like fashion. The Wing Zero Custom also uses its wings to Shield Bash the enemy as a regular special attack.
• Inconsistent Spelling:
  • For some reason, despite getting the names right in both the original anime and the Perfect Guide book, The Battle Master 1 and 2 uses different spellings for the Zeong ("Ziong"), Big Zam ("Bygzam") and Hygogg ("Hygog"). Battle Assault corrects them, but introduces another error in naming the Hygogg "Hy-gogg".
  • Also in Battle Assault, Kamille's name uses the literal romanization of "Kamiru".
  • Ple Two in Battle Assault is changed to "Puru Two" for Battle Assault 2 before going back to "Ple Two" in most later works, along with Queen Mansa switching back and forth between that and "Quin Mantha" elsewhere.
  • Valdor Farkill's first name is spelled "Valder" in other works he shows up in.
  • Dozle Zabi, despite being spelled that way in Battle Assault 1 becomes "Dozul" Zabi in Battle Assault 2.
• Joke Character: Ball. It only has three command moves, one of them being a projectile attack whose weak variant alone can only be used five times before running out of ammo, with the strong variant being usable only once at full capacity alone (both moves share ammo). The other two are a multi-hit melee attack with pathetic range and a rising attack that both leave it wide open if it misses. On top of all this, it's the only fighter to take extra damage from all attacks. Gloria Chanvalley, who would normally pilot any other Mobile Suit in The Battle Master 2's Story Mode, is stuck using Ball during versus duels, and her win quotes has her complaining about how much the Ball sucks.

  • Lethal Joke Character: That said, what Ball lacks in durability, it makes up in sheer speed alone, being able to trap even the largest of Mobile Suits in long combo loops, and even has a drop-down attack that can chain into additional attacks. Anyone skilled enough can make anyone fear and respect the Ball, which is probably why the developers decided to put Shiro in its cockpit for Battle Assault.

• Laser Blade: Multiple fighters use this as an unblockable attack(s).
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • On the Japanese side, the Hydra Gundam's existence in The Battle Master 2 is this (though the intro labeled it as an "Unknown MS"), as The Last Outpost was only just wrapping up in 1998.
  • Ulube Ishikawa piloting the Psycho Gundam Mk-III reveals him to be a pilot, which was a part of an important plot point in G Gundam. The Japanese versions averts this by bringing back Maria Nichols as the pilot.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: Rather than stick with the 2½D gameplay that Battle Assault 2 sets up, Battle Assault 3 is instead a full 3D-figher with only two attack buttons, a shoot button, no separate ammo clip counter with both Thrusters and ammo being tied to the same meter, Mobile Suits only have one health bar (or two segmented bars), item pick ups were scattered throughout arenas, you can upgrade your Mobile Suit mid-fight, and the game has an overly large focus on Gundam SEED content, complete with the game's intro being ripped from the anime and the story mode being a retelling of SEED's story. The title is also different than before, as it was called Battle Assault 3 Featuring Gundam Seed, rather than simply Gundam: Battle Assault 3.
• Let's You and Him Fight: A lot of the matchups in the Street Mode missions are more-or-less random encounters, especially if the opponent is someone outside of his or her universe.
• Lighter and Softer: Because of the completely altered cast and plot, Battle Assault is nowhere near dark in tone compared to The Battle Master 2. And that's ignoring how Battle Assault 2 takes it even further into Denser and Wackier territory.
• Long-Range Fighter: Heavyarms rely mostly on projectiles attacks and have very few melee attacks.
• Long Song, Short Scene:
  • The four different ending themes of The Battle Master lasts nearly a minute and a half at most, yet every fighter's ending only lasts about two short screens.
  • The main menu music and the fighter select music in Battle Assault 2 are lengthy given how little time players will spend on either screen (the songs are 2:15 and 2:08 respectively). The staff roll theme is also longer than it needs to be, clocking in at 3 minutes when the actual credits itself runs for only 2.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Master Gundam's Master Cloak allows Master Asia to tank any attacks for a short amount of time, and can be cancelled out into other Special Moves. Likewise, Hydra Gundam comes equipped with a shield that negates all damage while blocking, and Gundam Epyon will generate a damaging field barrier when it is about to use its tackle move.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Like their anime counterparts, you can fire multiple missiles in barrages. Some home on the target while some others don't.
• Market-Based Title: From The Battle Master in Japan to Battle Assault in America and Europe. Ironically, the Battle Assault series would eventually outlive The Battle Master itself.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: The 4 mobile armors, who are all giant and have super armor. Big Zam also has an additional health bar, while Neue Ziel has two additional bars.
• Mighty Glacier: The four mobile armors, Big-Zam, Devil Gundam, Neue Ziel, and Psyco Gundam Mk. III. They're the slowest and heaviest fighters in the game. On top of this, Neue Ziel needs to input a down+forward+kick command just to turn around when a fighter gets behind it and can't block. Meanwhile, Big-Zam can't turn around at all on top of not being able to block. But:
  • They don't flinch from attacks that don't empty one of their health bars.
  • They have the highest damage output.
  • Big-Zam has four health bars as opposed to three, and Neue Ziel has five health bars.
  • Neue Ziel has an infinite thruster gauge, meaning it can flying anywhere on the screen for the whole match.
  • Big-Zam takes reduced damage from all attacks.
  • Big-Zam can hurt fighters by walking into them, and Dark Gundam's forward+down+back+punch unblockable attack reaches across the whole screen horizontally.
• Mirror Match: When both players or the player and the computer use the same fighter.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: Gundam SEED Destiny, the Japanese-exclusive sequel to Gundam SEED: Battle Assault. Aside from some menu UI changes, Destiny characters, added stages and songs, and altered effects, it's largely the same game as before. To make it even more abundant, the original SEED: Battle Assault is fully included and playable on the same cartridge with the same balance and graphical updates from Destiny.
• Moveset Clone:
  • The Wing Gundam was nothing more than a sprite swap of the Zeta Gundam in Battle Assault 1. Thankfully, the Wing Zero Custom escapes this fate by the second game.
  • Zaku II and Zaku IIS, the latter having better thrusters.
• Mythology Gag: The alternate palettes for certain suits reference other mobile suits:
  • The Zeong's alternate palette is red. While there never was a red Zeong in the anime or even the Variations line, it does highlight Char's tendency towards red-painted mobile suits.
  • The alternate palette for Denim's Zaku is brown, much like the Desert-type Zaku.
  • The previous game's Qubeley's black palette brings to mind ZZ's mass-produced Qubeley line.
  • Char's Zaku gets a gold alt colour similar to the Hyaku Shiki.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: In The Battle Master 2 and Battle Assault, Gloria, Pixie, and Heero have stock lines that they say in response to the different Mobile Suits they can select. For some reason, they will react with disgust or confusion whenever you highlight the Acguy.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: Quin Mantha has a throw where it tosses its foe into the air which only damages them when they make contact with the ground.
• Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: They seriously settled on calling it Battle Assault 3 featuring Gundam SEED instead of Gundam Battle Assault 3?
• Old Master: Master Asia, who pilots the aptly named Master Gundam.
• One Game for the Price of Two: In one particularly odd case, this game was split into two separate games in Japan as part of The Simple line of budget games. One disc focused on the G Gundam cast while the other used the Wing Endless Waltz cast (though it uses the original Wing logo), though both games share the Universal Century content.
• Original Generation:
  • The Battle Master didn't feature anyone from the anime unlike Battle Assault, instead opting to create a whole new cast of pilots such as federation officer Mercury Promenade, the grieving widow Rachel Aiphath, Ryu-parody Keiji Date, and evil mastermind Symeon. The mobile suits they pilot are all from the anime, so replacing them with their original pilots for the Western release wasn't that much of an issue, but things become awkward once you take into consideration...
  • The Psycho Gundam Mk-III is a Mobile Suit created for the original The Battle Master game in Japan and has never appeared in any other Gundam media, be it canonical or otherwise. It's even more apparent when you take a look at the number of hoops the localizers for Battle Assault 1 had to jump through in order to justify its existence there.^note In the original The Battle Master series, Maria Nichols is the Psycho Gundam Mk-III pilot, using it for revenge after years of being a human test subject for the Hypersensitivity Virus. In Battle Assault 1, Valdor Farkill was given command of the Psycho Mk-III, despite already having a mobile suit of his own, the Hydra Gundam, which was instead given to Treize, who by all canonical accounts, shouldn't even know of its existence. In the Japanese versions, Maria Nichols from The Battle Master returns to pilot the Psycho Mk-III once more.
• Password Save: For some reason, SEED: Battle Assault has a password function that is used to handle game data.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The Gundam Epyon's pilot isn't Zechs (who uses the Tallgeese III), but Treize. Appropriate, since he built the MS and it fits suits his melee weapon-only philosophy.
• Promoted to Playable:
  • The Big Zam, Neue Ziel, and Psycho Gundam Mk-III were unplayable boss characters in The Battle Master. While you do need to unlock them for Versus Mode first, they are all playable characters in The Battle Master 2 and Battle Assault 1.
  • Originally in The Battle Master 2 and Battle Assault 1, the Zaku IIS was only available via inputting a cheat code before selecting the regular Zaku. Battle Assault 2, The Zaku IIS now has it's own separate slot even with the regular Zaku still being present.
• Purposely Overpowered: Being the Big Bad of G Gundam, it's no surprise that the Dark Gundam is so powerful, but even then the creators kind of overdid it.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gloria usually makes it a point to tell her opponent how they lost and why they're a screw-up every time she wins a Story Mode battle in The Battle Master 2. Heero sometimes does this as well in Battle Assault, depending on the matchup.
• Recycled Soundtrack:
  • Any pilot returning from The Battle Master has their themes reused for The Battle Master 2, with Mercury's and Keji's themes being more justified if you managed to trigger the secret battles against the RX-78 and v Gundam in Story Mode. The Neue Ziel is a special case as while the Mobile Armor does return from The Battle Master, it's piloted by Symeon instead of Schtein like in the first game. As such, an entirely new theme is composed for the Neue Ziel to reflect the different pilot.
  • Battle Assault 2 unapologetically reuses songs from the first Battle Assault/The Battle Master 2. Not that anyone minds, as the songs are just as kickass here as they were in those games.
  • Likewise, Battle Assault 3 remastered some tracks from Battle Assault 2, but also reuses almost all of its other tracks from the Japanese-exclusive Mobile Suit Gundam SEED shooter game released a year prior.
• Rocket Punch: Zeong's rocket punches fired on wires.
• Scratch Damage:
  • Any MS that are knock downed will receive damage reduction (even from super attacks) until they can get up. Same if they are overheated (just lost a health bar).
  • As long as he is blocking, Hydra Gundam will not suffer any chipping damage from any projectiles, even if they come from ultimate attacks.
• Secret Character: The player can unlock several fighters through different means.
  • In The Battle Master 2 and Battle Assault, you can unlock the Nu Gundam, Gundam RX-78, Zaku IIS, Neue Ziel, Psycho Gundam Mk-III, Hydra Gundam, and Ball for use in Duel mode.
    • Funnily enough, despite Gloria Chanvalley being the main character of The Battle Master 2's Story Mode, she is considered a hidden character in Duel Mode. As everyone already has a Mobile Suit, Gloria is stuck using Ball. She is not happy about it.
  • In Battle Assault 2, you can unlock the Gundam GPO-2A, Quin Mantha, Master Gundam, Hygogg, Gundam Heavy Arms Custom, Full Armor ZZ Gunda, Hydra Gundam, Tallgeese III, Acguy, Ball, Zeong, Zaku IIS, Gundam Epyon, Dark Gundam, Big Zam, Psycho Gundam Mk. III, and the Neue Ziel. The Zeta Gundam, Qubeley, The-O and Hamma Hamma are also accessible, but only with Gameshark codes.
  • In Battle Assault 3, The Burning, Master, Wing Zero Custom Gundams, and Tallgeese III can all be unlocked through Mission Mode.
  • In SEED: Battle Assaut, you can unlock Gundam Astray, CGUE, Freedom, and Justice Gundams after completing Normal Mode with a set amount of characters. Or just using the unlock all Password code.
• Serial Escalation: Zig-zagged. Battle Assault 2 has 30 fighters (34 counting the Game Shark fighters) as opposed to Battle Assault's 20 fighters, but it also has only 8 stages compared to 1's 16 stages.
• Shoto Clone: Burning Gundam and Master Gundam, but only marginally. While their Tenkyoken is a straight-up Hadouken, there's some other noticeable differences.
  • Burning Gundam's rising attack, Burning Finger Uppercut, is ironically more of a ground move as it throws a forward jab before uppercutting. However, if the jab misses, is blocked, or is dodged then the uppercut won't happen. Meanwhile, Master Gundam's rising attack of the same name instead fires a projectile at an upward angle from the ground.
  • Burning Gundam's rush attack is a sliding kick, which Master Gundam lacks.
• Shows Damage: All mobile suits lose their armor plating the more poundings they take. This doesn't affect how they fight, though.
• Slow Laser: The beam weapons.
• The Smurfette Principle: With Haman from Battle Assault 1 MIA, Puru Two is Battle Assault 2's only female character. This is the only time this phenomena happens, as The Battle Master 1 and 2 and the SEED Battle Assault games have a healthy plethora of female fighters in the roster.
• SNK Boss:
  • The Neue Ziel is a large Mobile Armor that cheats in one very simplistic way: Every other Mobile Suit has limited thrusters that needs a moment to recharge before you can use it again. The Neue Ziel has infinite thrust and is in a permanent flying state. There is nothing stopping the AI from getting a few good hits on you before flying up to the very top and waiting out the clock to win, and even then, it can still win by KO via homing rockets that doesn't take up regular ammo. And if you think you can pull the same trick used on Big Zam and get behind it, then the Neue Ziel will zip offscreen to turn itself around, granting it Mercy Invincibility. Battle Assault 2 takes it even further by giving it 5 separate health bars to take out.
  • The Psycho Gundam Mk-III is an absolute beast of a Mobile Armor to fight in Battle Assault 1's story mode. Sure it's big and slow, but that doesn't matter when all of its normals can cleave through a third of your health, has a full-screen Super Move with juggling potential, comes equipped with a Blade Below the Shoulder that it swings upwards, and has a rising uppercut that will murder you if it connects. Yes, it's one of the last Mobile Suits you unlock, but those in the know will remember that this thing was the final boss of The Battle Master for a reason. Battle Assault 2 decided to up the ante by giving it a command grab Special that's just as damaging as its uppercut.
  • The Hydra Gundam is no better either, being the final boss of The Battle Master 2 and Battle Assault 1. Don't let the normal-sized stature trick you, the Hydra comes equipped with laser beams, a shield that stops all damage, and a 10-hit auto combo that ends with an unblockable beam sword attack, and the standard size means that you'll be dealing with a Lightning Bruiser that will destroy your Mobile Suit ten times over.
  • Gundam Epyon in Battle Assault 2 is Heero and Duo's Final Boss, and it's the one boss players have spread horror stories about. Good news: Epyon has no ranged attack, so you can try and zone it down with Buster Rifle shots (or Tallgeese-III's full arsenal in Zech's route). Bad news: It doesn't matter since Epyon is designed to rush you down no matter what, with an omni-directional whip attack, a tackle move that grants Epyon an invincible barrier that can hurt you on start up (and can be delayed, allowing it to tank attacks) that can also be used twice consecutively, and has a multi-hit unblockable Super Move that can tear through of one of your life bars. It's worse when using the Deathscythe Hell in Duo's Street Mode, as it does not have as much ranged options to counter the Epyon.
  • The Dark Gundam is absolutely relentless, having the most over-powered and spammable Specials in the entire game. In the player's hands? Be prepared to make the rest of the game piss-easy and lose some friends in the process. In the computer's hands? Be prepared to face one of the biggest bastards in the game.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: One side-effect during the Battle Assault conversion was that the western game kept the same soundtrack as The Battle Master 2, so enjoy associating Anavel Gato with country rock music every time you fight him in Physalis.
• Sprite/Polygon Mix: The Mobile Suits are all segmented sprites textured onto flat polygons, allowing them to freely rotate for different attacks, with the backgrounds in Battle Assault 2 being fully rendered in 3D, allowing for dynamic transitions. In The Battle Master 1, 2, and Battle Assault 1, all backgrounds were static image textures.
• Super Mode: Burning Gundam and Master Gundam will turn gold after executing their Mega Specials, meaning they are in their Hyper Modes. While in this state their attacks do increased damage.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: This happens only in the Street Mode, which means only those characters will get a picture while doing ultimate attacks.
• Sword and Fist: Most mobile suits do this with an emphasis on fist.
• Sword and Gun: Several MS are also equipped with these.
• Sword Fight: Downplayed. While numerous MS have a beam saber or heat hawk attack, it’s usually just 1 attack.
• That Russian Squat Dance: Bolt's Gundam low kick attack is done like a Cossack dance, which is kinda natural since its from Neo-Russia.
• Unblockable Attack: Any attack done with a beam saber or heat melee weapon cannot be blocked, only avoided. This goes the same for Deathscythe Hell's beam scythe regular attacks. Beam shields can stop those unblockable attacks however. An exception is Hydra Gundam, who can block anything without any chipping damage thanks to its EMF Shield. The other exception is Nu Gundam's funnels when they are deployed, although they're unreliable because they move a lot.
  • The Battle Master didn't do this with beam saber attacks, but instead with projectile weapons. Honey-B's ZZ Gundam was quite over-powered in that game because of it.
• Units Not to Scale: The Quin Mantha is a bulky MS, but is still at the same scale as the other non-MA suits which are all in the 20-25 meter range. In its original canon the Mantha was a successor unit to the Psycho Gundams, so it should be as large as the Psycho Gundam Mk-III. The Ball is also subject to this, but on the reverse end, being increased in size from its original appearance.
• Versus Character Splash: Happens before every fight in Street/Story Mode.
• Victory Pose: Every suit has a unique pose when they win.
• Video Game Sliding: Burning Gundam's strong low kick.
• Walking Tank: In probably the most ridiculous case of this, Big-Zam fits this trope by not only being a tank on legs with copious beam weapons, but walking on it's own can damage enemy mobile suits if its legs touch them.
• Wolverine Publicity: Even during its The Battle Master days, three of Char's signature Mobile Suits were playable in the game (Zaku IIS, Zeong, and Sazabi). This means that during the Battle Assault conversion, Char takes up three character slots alone, with two of them being from the UC 0079 days.