Mobile Suit Gundam U.C. Engage is a 2021 Free-To-Play Mobile Phone Game released for the Android and iOS platforms. The game presents itself as a 6v6 strategy game, where players make squads of six mobile suits and six plots from the Universal Century timeline of the Gundam and put them against enemy forces. Player involvement is minimal after setting their squad, only choosing to use cinematic EX Skills.
The game first opened in Japan in November 30, 2021. On October 17, 2023, a worldwide release was made available.
This game provides examples of:
- Alternate Continuity: Notably averted, the game focused solely on the Universal Century continuity and only has pilots and units from that timeline. The game also makes no difference between the regular UC timeline and the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin and Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt microcontinuities, which while still UC, are their own alternate continuities incompatible with the "main" UC timeline. Interestingly, Suletta Mercury and the Gundam Aerial did make a unique limited appearance, but she is still the only AU unit in the game.
- Gacha Games: The gameplay exists to encourage players to build up their roster of favorite mobile suits and pilots from across the Universal Century, with one free roll per day and better rewards for using premium currency.
- Gaiden Game: The game has a number of original stories that fill in various gaps with certain events. The main story involves Peche Montagne, a Zeon test pilot who finds herself being involved in the events of the Universal Century and her connection to Zeon's Newtype-focused "Bishop Plan".
- Original Generation: Aside from a few new characters in the form of the navigational girls, there are a handful of mobile suits that, while they're written to be part of the Universal Century, are original to the game. The most prominent is the "Engage Zero" which could be considered a cousin to the mobile suits from the Gundam Project by Anaheim Electronics and its pilot, Peche Montagne.
- Popularity Power: A unit's rarity, and therefore its power, is generally tied to its overall popularity in the fandom. It's why, as usual for Gundam games, the venerable and beloved RX-78-2, despite being the oldest and most obsolete Gundam possible, can keep up with or exceed a mobile suit from later in the timeline (along with Power Creep, Power Seep allowing older units to keep up with more advanced suits).
- Power Creep, Power Seep: Units from the One Year War (the first conflict involving mobile suits ever) can keep up with newer, more advanced mobile suits in the game for the sake of balance. Ace units from all eras are at roughly the same level of power
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Each mobile suit has a type (Red, Blue, or Green) and takes more damage from another Type, and less against the third.
- Theme Naming: The trio of navigators have unlikely surnames relating to data recording: Save, Preserve, and Storage.
- Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: In the tradition of many non-story based Gundam games, the story is an Excuse Plot where cute navigator girls guide the anonymous player character through story missions while the meat of the game is pitting Gundams and grunts from one series against others.
- What If?: In established canon, the Engage Zero lost out to the Gundam GP 00 "Blossom". However, the game created a "what if?" scenario that shows what if the Engage Zero beat the "Blossom" and created the Engage Gundam, showcasing a plethora of equipment from other eras, even a Neo Zeon-based variant.
