History VideoGame / SuperRobotWars

* AlternateContinuity: "Classic Timeline", ''Alpha'', ''Z'', ''Compact''/''Impact'', ''OriginalGeneration'', etc…

* DarkerAndEdgier: The plots of some instalments delved deeply into this post-''Alpha'' with ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsDestiny'' being an standout example. Not even the anime are immune to this, especially when comparing ''The Inspectors'' to ''Divine Wars''. [[spoiler: In the opening scene of the former, a helpless SRX Team is virtually annihilated by Beowulf]].

** TheManBehindTheMan: One way or another, some instalments will feature the TrueFinalBoss entering into the plot after the BigBad's defeated.

** The heavy AnachronismStew of Universal Century ''Gundam'' series returns, including staples ''Zeta Gundam'', ''Gundam ZZ'', ''Char's Counterattack'' and ''Gundam F91'' (at least in the case of ''X'' for the latter). Meanwhile, the less-recurring ''Crossbone Gundam'' appears for all three, ''Hathaway's Flash'' and ''Gundam Unicorn'' in ''V'', and far-flung sequel ''Gundam: Reconguista in G'' in ''X''. Excluding ''Super Robot Wars OE'', ''V'' was the first traditional ''Super Robot Wars'' game since ''Alpha 3'' to mix more than three Universal Century ''Gundam'' series together.

** ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' for the early 2000s. It appeared in six ''Super Robot Wars'' games between its debut in 2001's ''Super Robot Wars Advance'' and 2007's ''Super Robot Wars W'' after which it went on a lengthy hiatus. It's a key part of the plot in almost all of those games as well, an unusual level of representation for a series that is not tied to any of the earliest ''Super Robot Wars'' rosters.

* TopDownView: Nearly all games in the Classic Timeline uses a bird's-eye-view of the scenario map, including many handheld installments. There's also an option in modern releases where players can switch instantaneously between the 45° angle view and this.

* AlternateContinuity: "Classic Timline", ''Alpha'', ''Z'', ''Compact''/''Impact'', ''OriginalGeneration'', etc…

* DarkerAndEdgier: The plots of some instalments delved deeply into this post-''Alpha''. Not even the anime are immune to this, especially when comparing ''The Inspectors'' to ''Divine Wars''. [[spoiler: In the opening scene of the former, a helpless SRX Team is virtually annihilated by Beowulf]].

* ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWars4 Super Robot Wars Final]]'': April 23th, 1998

** A ''Mazinger'' series is present starring Koji Kabuto. The original Mazinger Z is playable, even if it might get replaced as the game goes along.
** At least one ''Gundam'' series from either the Universal Century or Cosmic Era universes is included, as UC and CE are the most popular ''Gundam'' timelines and the only two to contain more than one TV series. If it's Universal Century that's present, it is almost always an AnachronismStew of multiple UC series with ''Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack'' included to give hero Amuro Ray his signature Nu Gundam.

** An OriginalGeneration protagonist and an OriginalGeneration final boss is present. The original protagonist frequently receives a MidSeasonUpgrade.

* ChangingOfTheGuard: Series-wide, the 1970s ''Mazinger'' and ''Getter Robo'' series were silently phased out for newer entries around the start of UsefulNotes/TheNewTens, with the first ''Super Robot Wars Z'' being something of a last hurrah before they started disappearing. Excluding the remake of ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars1'', the inclusion of ''Mazinger Z Infinity'' in ''T'' ended a nearly ten-year absence of the classic ''Mazinger'' continuity.

* HardModePerks: If players keep up long enough on "Hard" difficulty, some games will award bonus credits, parts, Pilot Points, and unlockable characters/units. In some instances, these awards can only be acquired when playing on this difficulty. {{Averted}} with ''Alpha Gaiden'', where "worse" units can be obtained on a Hard run.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91'' got into ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars1'' because it was the newest ''Gundam'' series. ''F91'' got into the vast majority of games for the following decade because it was in the first ''Super Robot Wars''. It comes to no surprise that it was among the fastest of the first game's series to fall out of regular use.

The first ''Super Robot Wars'' was released on the Nintendo UsefulNotes/GameBoy, and featured mecha from ''Anime/MazingerZ'', ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' (various series) and ''Manga/GetterRobo'' (referred to as the "[[FanNickname Holy Trinity]]" of the franchise and would star in nearly every game from then on). As the franchise grew, more series were added, as well as their characters. Each game would take the storylines of all the series and merge them into one (mostly) coherent whole. This often required some creative interpretation, particularly in the case of ''Gundam'', as characters, mecha and events that took place decades apart in the original stories now occur within a matter of weeks of each other, if not, simultaneously.

* AirborneArtillery: The various warships that appear throughout the series tend to take this role thanks to often having at least one weapon with superior range (e.g. depending on the game the Main Cannon Barrage of the ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Ra Calium]]'' may have a range of 6-7 compared to the 4-5 range for the Geara Doga's beam machinegun or [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Zaku III]]). Those ships equipped with WaveMotionGun-style attacks like the ''[[Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico Nadesico]]'' or ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWars30 Weistregger]]'' can have even longer ranges (e.g. with the right skills, upgrades and equipment the ''Weistregger'' can have a range of '''13''').

* AirboneArtillery: The various warships that appear throughout the series tend to take this role thanks to often having at least one weapon with superior range (e.g. depending on the game the Main Cannon Barrage of the ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Ra Calium]]'' may have a range of 6-7 compared to the 4-5 range for the Geara Doga's beam machinegun or [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Zaku III]]). Those ships equipped with WaveMotionGun-style attacks like the ''[[Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico Nadesico]]'' or ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWars30 Weistregger]]'' can have even longer ranges (e.g. with the right skills, upgrades and equipment the ''Weistregger'' can have a range of '''13''').

* FakeBalance:
** There is a reason why this series has a dedicated (and fairly large) page for game-breakers. In general, "balance-wrecking items" (appearing in ''Super Robot Wars'' in the form of equippable parts and purchasable pilot skills) turns mechanics such as terrain weakness and size penalties into mere technicalities.
** "Real" units were initially balanced by having poor post-movement options (aside from [[Anime/AuraBattlerDunbine Aura Battlers]], who paid for their mobility with poor range instead). Said units were also among the first to gain the aforementioned ExtraTurn, which severely downplays that weakness.
** For reasons known only to Banpresto, ''Destiny'' nearly standardized the armor ratings of the entire cast. The result is that super robots have barely more armor than ''[[Anime/{{Macross7}} fighter jets]]'' with no benefit outside of their pure damage output.
** To remove any doubt that modern ''Super Robot Wars'' runs on "balance by brokenness", the International Era games modify the Pilot Point system so that they now serve as currency ''[[BagOfSharing shared by the entire army]]'' to buy stat-raising skill parts. This eliminates almost any semblance of pilot balance, and can be used to turn pilots that are not even in regular use by the player into [[OneManArmy One Man Armies]]. ''X'' more than doubles the cost of stat-raising parts in an attempt to stymie this...which means that the player can "only" break a handful of pilots per playthrough instead of a dozen or so.

** Out of all the possible examples, however, the most stand-out is ''Getter Robo'': A trend started in ''4/F/F Final'' and its introduction of the Shin Getter Robo, it became common practice for the developers to merge elements from various installments of the Getter franchise into its appearances. In the ''Alpha'' series, for example, the characterization rings truer to the manga counterpart, yet characters don the looks and voices of their classic series, and have their units' design and animation hailing from or rendered in the style of the ''Armageddon'' and ''Shin vs. Neo'' animes.

* ArbitraryMinimumRange: Some weapons in the series cannot be used at point blank range. Ironically, this includes the [[ShortRangeShotgun shotgun]] in most games, which cannot be used against an adjacent enemy.

** {{Gainaxing}}: '''Holy crap''', particularly whenever an original female character has a SuperMovePortraitAttack. Some of them get so ridiculous you'd think their chest has its own gravity field. Latter games tried to tone this down, however, with the bounciness being reduced to a more respectable levels for the mainline games. The newer handheld games like ''X-Ω'' and ''DD'' still goes more all out, though.

* ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha The Second Super Robot Wars Alpha]]'': March 207th, 2003

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsMX'': July 27th, 2004

* SecondPersonAttack: Quite a few attacks do this, likely so the animations can play fine regardless of how the target looks. A good example would be the "[[{{BFS}} Final Kaiser Blade]]" of the Mazinkaiser.

** The game has a theme performed by Music/JAMProject.
** Most multi-game continuities (Classic, Alpha, Z) include ''Anime/{{Gunbuster}}'' in their final game.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters
** By the end of any given game, there's a complete cast of at least a dozen different series on the player's side. ''Alpha 3'' takes this to then unheard-of heights with ''twenty-seven'' series, some having a double-digit character count, leaving well over a hundred deployable characters and even more {{Mecha}} to choose from.
** The ''Z'' saga raised the stakes with the most series out of any installment; by the ''Third Z'', there's 15+ series including its OriginalGeneration from the previous games in the saga. The Sub-Orders System introduced in ''Hakai-hen'' was so players don't have to be bogged down by an overwhelming roster to choose from.

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars2'': December 29th, 1992

The series is occasionally referred to by English speakers as ''Super Robot Taisen'', the original Japanese name. While some of this usage can be attributed to Japanophilia, the ''scant'' few American releases of the series were specifically titled "Super Robot Taisen" to avoid a trademark conflict with the ''Series/RobotWars'' series. (The {{Irony}} of using an English translation of a Japanese title while using ''rōmaji'' for an English-language title should be noted.) Strangely, "Super Robot Wars" is a Japanese invention: "大戦" (''taisen'') is the actual term used, and the only bit of Japanese in the title. At some point, "Super Robot Wars" began to be used as an alternate "English-language" title in Japan, akin to "Mobile Suit Gundam" and so on. This title has been used for the English-language Asian releases starting with ''Moon Dwellers'', essentially making it the official English title of the series going forward. Strting with 2017's ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsV'', English subtitles were included, allowing North American players to finally play the game by importing the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 disc from Asia. The 2021 entry, ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars30'', will be the first to have an official North American release on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, on October 27, 2021.

* PowerCreepPowerSeep: The games hand out {{Adaptational Badass}}es and {{Adaptational Wimp}}s as much as necessary in licensed installments to balance the entries. Without this trope, ''SuperRobot Wars'' would be more literal and {{Real Robot}}s on the harder range of MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness wouldn't have a fighting chance.

* TimeLimit: Played with - given most installments are TurnBasedStrategy, a turn limit might be in effect as part of scenario objectives, ranging from destroying a specific enemy or reaching a point on the map in a set number of turns.

** The [[Anime/Macross7 Sound Force]] are, in most cases, {{Support Party Member}}s whose music is used to buff allies. However, their music is capable of dealing damage to the Protodeviln (who are resistant to other types of damage) and the [=DaMON=], original Mooks from ''2nd Z''. The music has a ''different'' interaction when used on [[Anime/MacrossFrontier Vajra]], "attacking" their Morale and forcing them to retreat once their Morale dips below a certain amount.

* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: While there are countless unit archtypes given the sheer number of series that ''Super Robot Wars'' has covered, a few units have their own separate mechanics:

** [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelions]], on top of their very unusual archtype of being {{Stone Wall}}s with real robot-esque weapon sets, have a number of mechanics that are (or were) unique to them: