Behold, the humble licensed game that started a franchise!
The mighty Super Robot Wars series, which has seen regular releases over the course of more than 30 years, began as a simple Nintendo Game Boy title released in April 1991.
A space monster by the name of "Gilgilgun" reaches the "Super Robot" homeworld - a planet inhabited by sentient robots from the Mazinger, Getter Robo, and Gundam franchises - and uses Mind Control to enslave its population. Fortunately, some robots are able to elude the monster's grip, and work together to bring an end to Gilgilgun's tyranny. This is accomplished by taking control of Gilgilgun's towers, while simultaneously attempting to liberate more of the Super Robot homeworld's denizens.
In April 2014, a High Definition Video Game Remake of this title was released digitally for the Sony PlayStation 3 and Sony Play Station Vita. This version of the game blends modern and classic Super Robot Wars mechanics, doubles the game's length, and adds a handful of new robots.
The original Game Boy release was fan-translated by Aeon Genesis.
Series included in the inaugural game of the Super Robot Wars series:
- Getter Robo
- Getter Robo G
- Mazinger Z
- Great Mazinger
- Mazinger Movie Series note
- Mobile Suit Gundam note
The first Super Robot Wars provides the following tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: The remake introduces an entire second chapter that doubles the game's length. The player puts together a team from the original starter units, Cybuster, and successfully-convinced enemy mecha, and goes to war against Sentou God Noa.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: The game has a Spirit Command ("Heart" in the original, "Resonance" in the remake) that allows the player to convince an adjacent unit with 100% success. However, both incarnations of this Command have clauses that make it impossible to trivialize bosses: Heart doesn't work with anything that has a Loyalty stat of 0, while Resonance doesn't work on anything that's parked on a Tower.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: A textbook example. The first Super Robot Wars is radically different from any of its successors; Super Robot Wars 2 would borrow only the most basic of concepts (such as "Spirit Commands", abilities that are manually activated and either trigger Status Buffs or enemy debuffs) and completely reimagine the core gameplay.
- All robots, allied and enemy, are sentient. This is a big part of why the Gundams look specifically like their SD Gundam counterparts; the bots in SD Gundam are similarly sentient.
- No Original Generation is present, not even the Big Bad; he's from an obscure-to-Westerners Mazinger/Getter crossover movie. The remake adds Cybuster and Mecha Gilgilgun from Super Robot Wars 2 and an original final boss.
- The object of the game is to capture the enemy's main tower, which is occupied by a scenario boss.
- Units are upgraded using parts instead of credits.
- Weapons do not consume ammunition or energy (EN).
- Spirit Commands are exclusive to the Hero Unit, available Spirit Commands are randomly chosen, and Spirit Points are consumed as soon as the Command Menu is opened. The remake attempts to find a middle ground between the original game's mechanics and more modern SRW's Spirit Commands: all allied units learn a small selection of Commands, but the hero is given three constantly-changing exclusives in addition to their normal set.
- Almost any enemy unit can be convinced to pull a Heel–Face Turn, with the remake allowing the player to do the same against bosses. Enemies can also try to convince your units to pull a Face–Heel Turn. To accommodate this, units have "Charisma" and "Loyalty" stats, which no other Super Robot Wars game features.
- The game features a multiplayer mode. The only other games to feature any kind of multiplayer are the "Complete Box" (a compilation/remake of Super Robot Wars 2, Super Robot Wars 3 and Super Robot Wars EX), Super Robot Wars XO, and the Mon-like Spin-Off games Super Robot Wars Link Battler and Supa Robo Gakuen.
- Excuse Plot: It is more blatant here than even the wafer-thin plot of its immediate successor. The story consists of three pages of text in the opening demo, some text upon starting a playthrough, a short description of each scenario, and a couple of pages of text for the ending.
- Final Boss: Gilgilgun, from the Great Mazinger vs. Getter Robo film. The game introduces a new second half in the remake, with Sentou God Noa as the boss of this half.
- Hero Unit: Upon starting a scenario, the player must designate one allied unit as the "hero". This unit is granted five extra freely-assignable stat points, and is either given sole access to Spirit Commands (original) or an increased amount of SP plus access to powerful exclusive Commands (remake). However, the game ends if this unit is defeated.
- Original Generation: None in the original game. Mecha Gilgilgun, Sentou God Noa and Cybuster in the remake.
- Orwellian Retcon: Mazinger Z's Boss Borot is one of the most recurring units in the series, yet wasn't available in the first game. The remake adds it to the starting Mazinger team.
- Permadeath: Fallen allied units are gone forever. Zigzagged, however, in that there is a chance that the player will later encounter a unit of the same type, which can then be captured and used as a replacement.
- Retraux: Sprites in the remake may be in HD, but the animation (or rather, lack of it) harkens back to the pre-Super Robot Wars Alpha days.
- Sequel Escalation: Inverted with SP in the remake. Most Super Robot Wars games have SP and Spirit Command costs in the two-to-three digit range, but just about everything related to SP is single-digit here.
- Spell My Name With An S: Given the amount of "R"s and "L"s in Gilgilgun's name, this is inevitable.
- Transformation Sequence: A short animation plays whenever a robot transforms.
- A Winner Is You: The ending consists of two to three pages of text.
