Well this is a happy bit of news concerning a hugely disappointing game.

I wrote late last year that Bandai Namco’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS Force for the Vita was one of the most disappointing releases of 2016. As a huge fan of the series, I wanted this portable entry to at least be a fun way to enjoy the game on the go a bit more casually. Instead, it launched with the single player Force mode, no free battle, a lack of suits, and no ability to change controls. It was a mess which was made even more painful because the game ran well and looked great. The game sold over 100k copies, but was still a huge bomb. It’s pretty easy to dig around shops in Japan and find it selling for around 2,000 yen already.

Looks like Bandai Namco hit the panic button and is trying to make things right. Today they released Free Update Ver.1.02, which adds a special mission to the game, as well as Free Battle Ver1.00, something that was sorely lacking in the original release.

The update adds a VS. Extend option to the main menu, which when you select leads to a Free Battle option. There, you can select from any of the units and do 1 v 1 or 2 v 2 battles on any stage with whatever music you want. You can adjust the time limit, damage level, and all the sorts of stuff you’d expect from a Free Battle mode.

Bandai Namco also announced that in the next free update, Ver.1.03, they’ll be adding six new playable suits to the game:

Mac Knife from G-Reco



Gundam Physalis from Mobile Suit Gundam 0083



Master Gundam from G Gundam



Turn X from Turn A Gundam



Strike Freedom Gundam from Gundam Seed Destiny



Double 0 Gundam from Gundam 00



In addition, the update will add a Custom option to key configuration that’ll allow folks to customize their controls in both Extreme Force and Extend modes.





Course Battle mode will also be added to the game, allowing players to choose a course based on difficulty and play through a series of battles against the CPU.





Free Battle will be updated to Ver1.01, which will add a VS menu to the moment before battle starts.





Finally, Extreme Force mode will be updated to allow you to go back to completed missions and use whatever mobile suits you’d like.





I’m genuinely surprised by all of this, but I’m glad Bandai Namco is trying to do right after launching what was a effectively an incomplete game.