Video Game / Gundam Evolution

Dominate the battlefield.

Gundam Evolution (stylized as GUNDAM EVOLUTION) was a 6v6 team based multiplayer Hero Shooter from Bandai Namco Entertainment, based on the Gundam franchise. It began with a Closed Network Test in April 2022 which had only Ranked mode, and officially released on September 22, 2022 on PC, and December 1, 2022 for consoles before shutting down on November 29th, 2023.

The game's premise was that in a Crossover Alternate Universe, two teams of Gundams and other Mobile Suits fought together against a separate team of Mobile Suits.

The playable characters included:

• RX-78-2 Gundam
• MS-06 Zaku II [Shooting Equipment]​
• MSN-04 Sazabi
• RGM-79SP GM Sniper II
• ZGMF-XX09T DOM Trooper
• RX-75 Guntank
• RX-80PR Pale Rider
• ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos
• MSA-005 Methuss
• NRX-044 Asshimar
• WD-M01 ∀ Gundam
• RGM-79 GM
• GN-001 Gundam Exia¹
• RMS-108 Marasai (UC)¹
• MS-06 Zaku II [Melee Loadout]​²
• G-838 Mahiroo²
• RX-0 Unicorn Gundam²
• RX-93 ν(Nu) Gundam³
• CAT1-X1/3 Hyperion Gundam⁴
• XXXG-01H2 Gundam Heavyarms Custom⁴
• GN-002 Gundam Dynames⁵
• GNX-Y901TW Susanowo ⁶
• MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam ⁷
• [MS-18E] Kämpfer ⁸

¹for suits that needed to be unlocked in the CNT

²for suits added in official release

³Added In season 2

⁴Added In season 3

⁵Added In season 4

⁶Added In season 5

⁷Added In season 6

⁸Added In season 7

The different game modes were Point Capture, a simple Attack/Defend mode where the attacking team had to capture 2 points on the map while the defenders try to stop them; Destruction, an Attack/Defend mode where attackers had to plant Megacharges on certain environmental positions while the defenders try to stop them or disarm the charge; Domination, a King of the Hill styled match where the point moved periodically; and Headquarters, a hybrid mode where the teams fought for a fixed point and the winner each round got to attack the enemy's generator to take additional points.

Not to be confused with the Gundam Evolve OVA series.

Tropes in Gundam Evolution:

• Abandoned Mine: The Quarry map takes place in a facility focused on mining precious minerals.
• Adapted Out: Most of the mobile suits have fewer weapons than they had in the source material. Perhaps the most notable is the near-complete absence of Beam Sabers. Over half of the featured mobile suits canonically carry a beam melee weapon of some sort, but the only ones in the game are Marasai (UC)'s Beam Blade and Gundam Exia's GN Beam Daggers and GN Beam Swords (the latter being available only during Trans-Am). Gundam, Pale Rider, Dom Trooper, and Nu Gundam use beam sabers only in their surprise MVP animations while Methuss and Turn A Gundam use a beam saber in one of their MVP animations.
• Animal Motifs: The Abyss Guardian skins give each Mobile Suit a specific animal or mythical animal, except Methuss.
• Ascended Meme: The "Charge!" icon showing Guntank rushing forward with its arms raised up high was one of the most common stamps you could obtain from supply pods. This lead to a meme among the community called "GUNTANK WOOOOO!" which is usually exclaimed when Guntank gets MVP. Season 6 would see an official "WOOOOO!!" stamp added.
• Attack Its Weakpoint: Called "Critical Hits" in this game, most commonly occurs when a mobile suit is struck in it head. Crits gets extra damage dependent on the weapon, most commonly double. Conversely, most weapons do one quarter less damage hitting a limb compared to the torso.
• Bait-and-Switch: The Surprise MVP screens at first show the supposed MVP of the match, only for the real MVP mobile suit to perform a Dynamic Entry and take the spotlight.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: The "Season 3: Ignition" trailer shows off the capabilities of Gundam Heavyarms Custom, who is raining death from above with its Double Gatling Guns. Asshimar tries to sneak up on it, but Guntank charges out of nowhere to knock it aside, and the two pepper the battlefield with bullets while covering the other's back.
• Bottomless Pits: On the second half of Harbor City, mobile suits will be destroyed if they fall off the harbor or the docked ship into the water.
• Boring, but Practical: Pale Rider's kit is just a placeable heal, a short-ranged stun grenade, and the ability to ADS, making it a simple but effective kit for any situation.
• Butt-Monkey: The MS-06 Zaku II is the target singled out in most of the Epic-quality MVP animations from non-Zeon mobile suits. The Zaku gets sliced, stabbed, stomped, crushed, blasted, and minced up by the Pale Rider, Gundam, Gundam Barbatos, Turn A Gundam, Gundam Exia, Nu Gundam, and Gundam Heavyarms Custom.
• Charged Attack:
  • Barbatos has an overhead smash that outright flattens enemy MS if it connects.
  • ∀ Gundam can charge its beam rifle to shoot a slower, stronger beam which pierce through enemies.
• Combat Medic: The Methuss has a dedicated heal and a turret. The Pale Rider and GM also have some healing capacities.
• Cool vs. Awesome: Want to settle a fight between the Sazabi vs. the RX Gundam? Or maybe want them side-by-side versus the Barbatos and the Exia?
• The Computer Is a Lying Bastard:
  • Exia's specs says the GN Beam Daggers are "Effective up to medium range." Bizarrely coming from a melee-focused suit, the daggers actually fly perfectly straight and true, with no damage falloff at any distance. Their travel low speed and fire rate makes outright sniping impractical, but they can still be quite a nasty surprise to slowed down or clustered together enemies in the distance.
  • The same descriptor is used for the Heavyarms' gatling guns, which also lack any damage falloff, though the spread is considerable.
  • The description for Sazabi's Enemy Search—"Detects enemies through any obstacle for a short time, revealing their position."—is very misleading. It makes it sound like you can activate it to detect enemies currently hidden from view. It actually only affects enemies in sight (and in range) of you when the ability activates, marking them so they'll be visible through walls afterward for a few seconds. Also unmentioned is what makes the ability most useful: scanned enemies become visible to your entire team through obstacles, letting your teammates get the jump on them.
• Conveniently Empty Building: The Colony Trading Post has been placed under an emergency evacuation. Warning prompts and sirens are going off around the map.
• Cranial Processing Unit: All mobile suits take extra damage when shot in the head, with a headshot from the GM Sniper II's rifle being a One-Hit Kill to all but the most durable. This isn't generally how it worked in canon^*The Sazabi has the cockpit in the head, but they're more often in the center or upper torso. Amuro once lost the RX-78's head and boasted "All you destroyed was the main camera!", but it's a simpler and more intuitive design than having to remember where each suit's cockpit is.
• Dartboard of Hate: One stamp featuring Nu Gundam has a nearby punching bag with a picture of the Sazabi's head on it.
• Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Guntank, Unicorn Gundam, and Zaku Ranged do little damage per bullet, but rather unleash a lot of bullets all at once. In the Guntank's case, it can concentrate fire on an enemy or just pepper the general area it shoots at to attack multiple targets.
• Death Mountain: Flak Fort and Mountain R&D Lab take place on mountainous terrain.
• Eternal Engine:
  • Thermal Plant takes place at an energy plant.
  • The second half of Colony Trading Post takes place in an underground location with conveyor belts moving cargo across the map.
  • Ironworks takes place in a facility near an active volcano.
  • Large Conveyance Facilities takes place in facilities in snowy mountain range.
• Every Bullet is a Tracer:
  • Shots from the GM Sniper leaves a white trail and makes a loud noise to make it easier to know where you're being shot at.
  • Mahiroo's Ren-Do grenades leave a trail along their whole path, even as they bounce around.
• Evolving Title Screen: The Earth in the title screen is shown at day or night time depending on when you launch up the game.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Supply Pods normally unleash a white light when opening. Supply Pods that contain a legendary skin will unleash a golden light instead.
• Guide Dang It!: Some mechanics and abilities aren't fully explained by in-game menus.
  • The basic unit information includes how many consecutive dashes each unit can perform from a full bar, but it's not explained that the distance a dash covers and the rate the bar recovers at also vary.
  • Turn A's Overhead Throw gives the user 50% Damage Reduction, not just the Super Armor the visual indicates.
  • Gundam's Super Napalm has its own health bar because it's a Destructible Projectile that will fizzle out completely if destroyed fast enough.
  • While Asshimar and Methuss's weapons are described as having "zero accuracy loss", this isn't just talking about their lack of recoil, but how they can uniquely be accurately fired in midair.
  • The shield deployed by Nu Gundam's G-Maneuver and Hyperion's Armure Lumiere block and destroys all projectiles that hit it, including ones that penetrate normal shields. Fire damage still works, but only if the source doesn't hit the shield before detonating. Both can also be bypassed by moving inside the shield.
• Heal Thyself: Alongside the Regenerating Health, the ∀ Gundam and the DOM have self-healing capabilities on their skills and G-Manuever respectively. There are also Haro pickups dotted across maps which repair mobile suits instantly.
• Hitscan: Most of the guns are hitscan in the game.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The Asshimar, GM, and Gundam can be damaged by their own flames.
  • Explosive weapons such as grenades, remote charges, or explosive rounds can deal self-damage if they're too close. Inexperienced DOM players will probably get themselves killed in close combat sooner or later.
• Humongous Mecha: Every single one of the mobile suits, shown around the map are normal sized buildings and skyscrapers to remind the player of the general size they are.
• Jump Jet Pack: All mobile suits can hover in the air, sprint, and dash quickly thanks to these. There is a meter that limits how often it can be used.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Ironworks map takes place near an active volcano. Lava is a present danger in certain areas that damages any mobile suit that is on it, even if defensive skills are used.
• Limit Break: G-Manuevers, which are charged by dealing and taking damage.
• Loot Boxes: Supply Pods provide random cosmetic items and can be bought with Evocoins or Capital.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me:
  • Sazabi, Gundam, GM, and Hyperion Gundam each have an active shield that protects them and allies behind them in combat.
  • DOM Trooper holds one during its G-maneuver (which represents the armor it gets for the duration) and in one of its MVP animations.
  • Nu Gundam shows off one in an MVP animation, but does not use one in gameplay.
  • GM Sniper II's "One Shot, One Kill" MVP animation shows it using a shaped shield to stabilize its shot.
• Meaningful Background Event: In the first half of the Colony Trading Post map, there are giant TV screens on the buildings broadcasting events happening in other maps, such as Thermal Plant and Harbor City.
• Metropolis Level
  • The first half of Harbor City takes place in a city, where the buildings can be used for cover and elevated spots.
  • The first half of Colony Trading Post takes place in a city inside a space colony.
• Mighty Glacier: The Sazabi has a very powerful Short-Range Shotgun, and a powerful G-Manuever with its funnels, but is among the slowest mobile suits. On the defensive side, it has the strongest shield in the game, currently.
• Mutual Disadvantage: Presumably to avoid stalemates, all three units with shields as a standard ability have ways to negate enemy shields. Gundam and Sazabi both have unblockable projectiles that stun. GM has a stunning Shield Bash and a firebomb that damages through shields.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The RX-78-2's Super Napalm is an obscure weapon from the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, but the way it's thrown and then shot to detonate calls back to its portrayal in Super Robot Wars A Portable.
  • The RX-78-2's "You Can't Run" MVP animation recreates the classic scene of the Gundam slicing a Zaku II in half from behind with the beamsword.
  • ∀ Gundam's spawn animation has it emerge from a rock formation, much like its first appearance in ∀ Gundam.
  • There always three DOM Troopers in its MVP animations, referencing the three DOM Trooper pilots from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (themselves a reference to the Black Tri-Stars from the original series).
  • Guntank's G-Maneuver involve the Core Fighter launching to crash and explode into the enemy, a bizarrely dark reference to Ryu Jose's Heroic Sacrifice in Mobile Suit Gundam.
  • Kampfer's spawn animation has it rising out of and destroying a warehouse as it had done in Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket.
• No Plot? No Problem!: The game does little in terms of making a plot reason on why these mobile suits are fighting.
• Play Every Day:
  • There are daily missions that grants players more Battle Pass progression.
  • Season 4 introduced reward campaigns that could be completed by logging in 10 individual days over a generous time period of 30-40 days for the event.
• Plucky Girl: Voice E is very enthusiastic, almost bordering on Blood Knight levels of wanting to be in the battle.
  Voice E: Enemy sniper wrecked!
• Port Town: Harbor City consists of a city and a large docked ship next to it.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: As with most other Gundam crossover works, the relative strength of the units heavily deviates from the source material, but it's even more pronounced due to the game's focus on a balanced, esports-focused FPS gameplay. The suit description lampshaded this by ending all of them with the disclaimer "In-game specifications may differ from the original work".
  • The Zaku II (Ranged)'s machine gun, a weapon which struggles to even dent the original Gundam, can destroy it in as little as 13 rounds in this game.
  • Both Methuss and Asshimar can only stay transformed in mobile armor mode for a few seconds, despite being able to do it indefinitely in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
  • The head-mounted vulcan guns almost never affect other mobile suits in canon without hitting a weakpoint, instead being for infantry, smaller vehicles, and to intercept projectiles. The only usable one, on the GM Sniper II, can take a good chunk of health off any unit—its main weakness is the long cooldown between bursts.
• Red Boxing Gloves: A stamp featuring Nu Gundam has it practicing boxing with some boxing gloves on.
• Regenerating Health: Characters restore their HP slowly if they haven't taken damage or attacked after awhile.
• Resurrective Immortality: Some of the voices are aware that they are being killed.
  Voice B: Again? How mortifying.
  Voice E: I really do not enjoy the dying...
  Voice F: If you could all stop shooting me for one moment...
• Scunthorpe Problem: The chat censors are pretty touchy about just about any word that can be construed as offensive in one language or another. "Hello", "Rough", "Butterfly", and "Disconnect", for example, will be automatically censored, even if only partially.
• Ship Level: The second half of Harbor City takes place on a large ship.
• Shot in the Ass: Voice E expresses shock in disbelief when she gets attacked from behind.
  Voice E: They shot me in the BUTT!
• Shout-Out: The trailer revealing a Mobile Suit Gundam Wing representation uses, almost word-for-word, the iconic speech from the Toonami trailer.
• Sniper Duel: Season 4 introduces the Dynames as the game's second long-range unit after the GM Sniper II. The trailer has both dueling each other with their sniper rifles, each one dashing to avoid the other's shots.
• Super-Deformed: Some of the animated stamps features the suits rendered in the SD Gundam art style.
• Taught by Experience: Voice H will sometimes reflect on his death while trying to hold back the contempt.
  Voice H: That was... educational...
• Thanking the Viewer: Each season pass had a different player icon as the last unlock besides tickets. The final season's is labeled "THANKS FOR PLAYING!"
• This Cannot Be!: Voice H loves to exclaim this in sheer disbelief of getting knocked out.
• Training Stage: Practice Mode allows players to use any mobile suit, even those that have not been purchased, in a training area with enemy Zaku targets and friendly GM allies.
• Trip to the Moon Plot: Lunar Comm Station, Missile Base, and Ministry of Defense take place on the moon, although reduced gravity plays no effect on any map.
• Tron Lines: A standard design for Epic or Legendary skins is to add contrasting lines to the default mobile suit design. Black, white, and blue are most common to see.
• Unblockable Attack: Shields don't block melee attacks. Besides Marasai's regular Sea Snake, every skill that stuns the target bypasses shields and forces them to drop for the duration. Fire damage bypasses enemy shields entirely because their protection is directionally-limited and fire attacks all have an Area of Effect.
• Underground Level:
  • The second half of Underground Command Center takes place in an underground base.
  • The second half of Colony Trading Post takes place underground within a space colony.
• World of Ham: Many of the voices for the pilots really ham up their lines.
• X-Ray Vision: The Sniper's G-Manuever. The Sazabi and Unicorn have smaller scale versions as normal skills, and the Mahiroo can use one that only it can benefit from.

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All pilots, the battle is over. Mission complete.