Super Robot Wars Compact is the first game of the Super Robot Wars franchise on the Wonderswan. Like the original Super Robot Wars on the Nintendo Game Boy, Compact features no Original Generation; in fact, it doesn't even have any new series, at all. However, it's the first game to use the "Free Route System": instead of following a completely linear progression, players are able to choose what order to play certain scenarios in, potentially affecting the plot or giving the opportunity to receive hidden units or characters. The same system would be used again in Super Robot Wars Compact 2, its Video Game Remake Impact and Super Robot Wars MX. The "Tactical Area Selection" system in Super Robot Wars 30 also takes inspiration from this mechanic.
Series included in Super Robot Wars Compact:
- Aura Battler Dunbine
- Brave Leader Daimos
- Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3
- Super Beast Machine God Dancougar
- Getter Robo
- Getter Robo G
- Shin Getter Robo
- Mobile Suit Gundam
- Heavy Metal L-Gaim
- Mazinger Z
- Brave Raideen
Tropes for this game include:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Emperor Muge Zolbados' attack on Jaburo.
- Alternative Calendar: The game takes place in the year 00XX of the Universal Century calendar.
- Attack Of The Four Hundred Foot Whatever: Don Sauzer becomes very large to take on the Londo Bell as part of the final battle.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit
- Back from the Dead: Emperor Muge Zorbados, Don Zauser and Koros from the previous war.
- Badass Army: Londo Bell, as usual.
- Big Damn Heroes: In the scenarios "A New Strength" and "Inside the Winds of Light", Londo Bell comes to the rescue of Judau Ashta and Seabook Arno, respectively.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Four Murasame and Rosamia Badam, as in their home series. Both can be recruited for player use.
- Bus Crash: Gihren Zabi and Kishiria Zabi were assassinated off-screen, allowing Haman's rise to power.
- Char Clone: This trope's taken to its logical conclusion when Quattro Bajeena convinces Anavel Gato to join Londo Bell; Gato realizes Quattro is Char and he immediately joins.
- Colony Drop: Neo Zeon, Koros and Don Sauzer plan to do this to Earth.
- Degraded Boss: Rafflesia, (Mecha) Gilgilgun, Hyper Leprechaun, Quin Mantha, Auge, Original Auge (Augi), and Gerbera Tetra.
- Excuse Plot: None of the Big Bads from Getter Robo, Raideen and Great Mazinger show up. Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket get the first 4 scenarios to share with Aura Battler Dunbine. The rest of Universal Century Gundam gets only one to three scenarios each. The Colony Drop from Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack gets started by the Meganoids.
- Face–Heel Turn: Chang Wufei and Trowa Barton in between the wars, though they eventually reveal themselves as moles.
- Fairy Companion: The Fairy subsystem returns, allowing several Aura Battler Dunbine fairies and L-Gaim's Lilith Fau to be assigned to pilots from their respective series.
- Final Boss: Don Sauzer
- Fix Fic: Most characters, due to Heel–Face Turn; also, South Burning and Lalah Sune survive their canonical deaths, while none of the Downer Endings from any of the series occur.
- Fun Size
- Heel–Face Turn: Char, Bernie Wiseman, Four, Rosamie, Puru, Puru 2, Gato, Kwathan, Gabley, Quess Paraya, Minerva X, Tekkou Ki, Kouchou Ki, Richter and Aizam if all the latter are convinced.
- Guide Dang It!: If the usual Guide Dang It wasn't bad enough, Compact Color completely changes each secret's unlock condition.
- Lethal Joke Character: Leina Ashta's ridiculous potential is something of a Running Gag across the Compact series.
- Luck-Based Mission:
- Compact introduces a system where each character has five separate Spirit Command sets; the game chooses one based on an equation using the birthday and bloodtype entered into the player's WonderSwan. This means that, unless the player uses factory settings or deliberately matches their information up with another player, no two playthroughs will be the same. This especially applies to the color version, where the differences between Spirit Command sets are much more noticeable.
- At certain points, the monochrome version might hand the player a bonus unit at random. The color version gets rid of this and awards the player units based on their turn count instead.
- Man Behind the Man: "Iron Mask" Carozzo is the one puppeteering Mariemaia Khushrenada.
- Don Sauzer is behind Emperor Muge.
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Billbine, Nu Gundam, GP-03 Dendrobium Orchis, Neue Ziel, Getter Robo G and Shin Getter Robo. Subverted with L-Gaim Mk. II, as you get both L-Gaim units at the same time.
- Nerf: The color version is based on Compact 2 and thus receives all of the nerfs included in that game. Additionally, both damage-raising Spirit Commands were nerfed in effectiveness.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Carozzo wants to slaughter the entire population of Earth.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: The color remake gives Gundam 0080 its own BGM, whereas the monochrome version, much like every other Super Robot Wars until Compact 2, has 0080 use BGM from the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Since 0080's theme took the data slot of the original Gundam's "Dashing Char", units from the first series use Char's Counterattack's "Sally" instead.
- Robot War: Mentioned to have happened in the previous war with the Meganoids.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: A particularly good example given to Paptimus Scirocco by the heroes:Scirocco: "By averting that Colony Drop, you wasted a good chance of getting rid of all those fools whose souls are bound by gravity."
Kouji Kabuto: "Oh, don't give us that crap! We won't let you even touch the Earth we live in!"
Scirocco: "The lives of those who cannot understand genius are of no importance to me, since genius surely is the driving power of the world."
Daba Mylord: "This Scirocco guy's just as bad as Posaydal... and I'm afraid the same mistakes will be committed in this universe as well."
Kamille Bidan: Scirocco! We're not letting despicable people like you, who laugh at others from their comfy seats, get away scot-free!" - Title Drop: The final scenario is simply titled "Super Robot Wars".
- Timed Mission: Scenarios 32 and 33
- Title Theme Drop: In Scenario 33, "Fight for Tommorrow", the music for the title screen, is the BGM.
- Trapped In Byston Well: The game begins with the Argama and its crew getting transported to Byston Well; this lasts for 4 scenarios and they're sent back to Earth with the Aura Battler characters.
- Units Not to Scale
- Updated Re-release: Super Robot Wars Compact for WonderSwan Color. While the primary selling point is that the game is now in color, this version also implements the mechanical and, in some cases, audiovisual changes from the Compact 2 trilogy.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Axis Colony
- Villain Team-Up: Olban and Glemmy Toto work with Poseidal. The Principality of Zeon works with Drake Luft’s forces in the beginning scenarios.
