The second entry of the Wonderswan series of Super Robot Wars, the Super Robot Wars Compact 2 story was so big it had to be separated into three parts: Earth Crisis, Cosmoquake and Galaxy Showdown. The story deals with the battle between Earth's forces and the extraterrestrial Einst, who seek to restart the world they deem too corrupted. The key to Einst's success or defeat lies within two cadets in the Earth Federation's forces, serving as the game's Original Generation.
Arguably one of the more famous SRW entries, despite the obscure handheld system it started out on. It was later remade using the Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden engine as Super Robot Wars Impact, the series' first entry on the Sony PlayStation 2, with all three games compiled onto one disc. In addition to introducing a new original character named Einst Alfimi, Impact adds two new series to the game: Mobile Fighter G Gundam and Martian Successor Nadesico. Like the preceding Super Robot Wars Compact, Compact 2 and Impact features the "Free Route System": rather than following a linear plot, the games allow the player to choose the order to play certain scenarios in. This may affect the storyline or give the player an opportunity to unlock hidden units and/or characters.
Series included in the Super Robot Wars Compact 2 trilogy/Impact (debuts are in bold)
- Mobile Suit Gundam
- Mazinger Z
- Getter Robo
- Getter Robo G
- Shin Getter Robo (Manga version)
- Brave Raideen
- Super Electromagnetic Machine Combattler V
- Invincible Super Man Zambot 3
- Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3
- Aura Battler Dunbine
- New Story of Aura Battler Dunbine (Compact 2 exclusive)
- Dancougar
- Dancougar: Blazing Epilogue (Debuts in Earth Crisis)
- Dangaioh (Debuts in Earth Crisis)
- Ninja Senshi Tobikage (Debuts in Earth Crisis)
- Machine Robo: Revenge of Chronos (Debuts in Cosmoquake)
- Martian Successor Nadesico (Impact exclusive)
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam (Impact exclusive)
Associated tropes for the trilogy and remake:
- Adaptation Expansion: Impact makes several additions to Compact 2:
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam and Martian Successor Nadesico, along with scenarios based on both series, are added to the game.
- The Original Generation plot is expanded by adding a new character, Einst Alfimi, to the antagonist side.
- The Galaxy Showdown portion of the game is reworked, implementing a massive three-way route split that the player tackles in an order of their choosing. This is to alleviate the Late Character Syndrome that plagues the Wonderswan original.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Impact has the Machine Robo cast make an appearance in the "Earth Crisis" arc, despite debuting in the second game of the WonderSwan trilogy.
- Adapted Out:
- The characters Grathan and Karen are completely omitted from the Tobikage plot.
- In a rare instance of Super Robot Wars applying this trope to itself, Impact replaces the two units and fairy from New Story of Aura Battler Dunbine that can be obtained in Compact 2 with the Camouflage Billbine from the original Dunbine series, completely removing New Story from the game.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Galaxy Showdown gives the player all of their items, money, and unlockables from the previous games if it can find clear data. If the player starts Galaxy Showdown without having any clear data, the game instead gives 1,000,000 credits and a small number of items.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Galaxy Showdown is notable in that the number of units can be deployed per map is very low relative to series standards, including being much lower than the other Compact 2 games on average. For reference, the final stage of Earth Crisis has Gandor + 15, while Stage 30 of Galaxy Showdown, the Neue Regisseur stage, has Elshank, Kyosuke, Excellen + 8.
- Ascended Extra: Meganoid Generals Benmel, Cross, Mileena and Neros (who only appears in the Impact remake) only show up for one episode each, yet are more prominent in this game/series than other SRW Daitarn 3 appearances.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Compact 2 does have a "Full Upgrade Bonus" for upgrading all of a unit's stats to the max, but getting this bonus is much easier said than done thanks to each game's shorter-than-series-average length (no more than 31 stages) and general difficulty.
- Back from the Dead: Emperor Muge Zorbados and Shapiro Keats, the Meganoids, Dr. Hell (as the Grand Marshall of Hell), Baron Ashura and Count Brocken all return from the previous war.
- Big Bad: Neue Regisseur
- Big Damn Heroes: Tobikage and Rom Stoll
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: A stage in Galaxy Showdown based on God Bless Dancougar has the title "God's Breath" because the developers confused the English word "bless" with "breath" (both words are rendered ブレス in katakana) and then translated "breath" into its kanji equivalent. This error is fixed in Impact.
- Boss Rush: Scenario 99 in IMPACT.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Excellen in Part 3
- Char Clone: Taken to logical conclusion when Anavel Gato is convinced into your group in IMPACT, he joins Char in his Colony Drop of Axis
- Chest Blaster: Mazinger Z's Breast Fire, Great Mazinger's Breast Burn, Grendizer's Hanjuuryoku/Anti-Gravity Storm
- The Collector: Benmel
- Combination Attack: While not present in Compact 2, Impact features several multi-unit attacks.
- Impact marks the Rampage Ghost's first appearance.
- Aura Battler Dunbine: Double Hyper Aura Giri (performed by Dunbine and Bilbine)
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam: Double God Finger (performed by God Gundam and Nobel Gundam), Double Sekiha Tenkyoken (performed by God Gundam and Master Gundam) and Love Love Finger (performed by God Gundam and Shining Gundam)
- Machine Robo: Double Kamaitachi (performed by Vaikungfu and Blue Jet) and Inazuma Cyclone Ganban Wari (performed by Vaikungfu and Road Drill)
- Martian Successor Nadesico: Buttercup Formation (performed by Aestivalis-Ryoko, Aestivalis-Hikaru, and Aestivalis-Izumi) and Double Gekigan Flare (performed by Aestivalis-Akito and Aestivalis-Gai)
- Mazinger Series: Double Burning Fire (performed by Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger), Triple Mazinger Punch (performed by Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and Grendizer) and Triple Mazinger Blade (also performed by Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and Grendizer)
- Ninja Senshi Tobikage: Beast Machine Combination (performed by Black Lion, Burst Dragon, and Thunder Eagle), and Zanzou Sappou (performed by Tobikage and Zerokage).
- A Day in the Limelight: Compact 2 is neither the first nor the latest game in the series to make the Gandor a fully-playable unit, but its appearance in Earth Crisis is particularly notable as it serves as the flagship of the Earth-based forces. Likewise, Professor Hazuki serves as the Earth counterpart to Bright Noa.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu??: Don Zauser, Demon Emperor Barao, Gadess, Emperor Muge Zorbados, the Devil Gundam, Neue Regisseur
- A very rare occasion in SRW where the True Final Boss is NOT this trope.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Einst Regisseur in Part 1. Part 2 has the player near-simultaneously fending off Dancougar, Machine Robo, and Einst enemies while under a time limit.
- Doomed Hometown: Mars for the Tobikage characters, Nadesico characters and Banjou Haran.
- The Dragon: The resurrected Emperor Muge Zorbados serves this role to the Einst Collective.
- Early Game Hell: The Wonderswan version of Earth Crisis has a number of nasty early-game surprises for new and experienced players alike. To start, the very first map of the trilogy is a water stage with units that are absolutely not equipped for aquatic combat. The game quickly expands the player's army, only to have them lose Zambot 3, Dancouga, and one Mazinger team for good at the end of the first chapter; for extra insult to injury, Dancouga has an unlockable weapon in Cosmoquake that requires the player to waste money on it before it heads to space. Finally, this game is one of the very first to make the player wait for powerful Newtype protagonists like Amuro and Kamille, leaving the Gundam roster as dedicated healer Fa and Crutch Characters Chris, Bernie, and Shiro until the final mission of the second chapter.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Though in many ways a "transitional" game, with the trilogy starting to peel away Super Robot Wars F-era mechanics like natural double movement, Compact 2 still has several traits typical of early SRWs. In addition, Support Attack and Support Defense run off of one stat and the player isn't given a choice to opt out of Supporting if a Support-capable unit is adjacent to an attacking or defending unit.
- As the Wonderswan Earth Crisis released before Super Robot Wars Alpha made Alpha Strike finishing moves popular within the series, the Alteisen doesn't have its signature Trump Card. Likewise, since combination attacks weren't a permanent part of the series until Super Robot Wars Advance, Kyosuke's and Excellen's Rampage Ghost isn't present either. Both were introduced in Impact.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Einst
- Evil Knockoff: Fake Daitarn 3s, Gildeens, Mass Production Great Mazingers, Einst Eisen
- Face–Heel Turn: Char and Gato in the true ending.
- Gorn: Surprisingly, given the genre. Alfimi's Limit Break, Mabuigurinote had her send her familiars to hold the target in place. And she makes her way, draw her katana, and repeatedly impale, gouge and make a bloody mess of her target.
- Gratuitous German: The names of Kyosuke and Excellen's mecha; similarly, all the names and attacks of Einst units and characters.
- Guide Dang It!:
- In case randomized Spirit Command lists based on the player's Wonderswan data wasn't complicated enough, this game boosts Kyosuke's and Excellen's stats based on the Wonderswan's nickname and gender settings. The nickname alone creates a whopping 126 stat point differencenote between the least advantageous name (leaving the Wonderswan blank) and the most advantageous (inputting the nickname as eight 0's).
- Anavel Gato requires highly specific actions in all three games to acquire him. And he ends up joining Char on the enemy side if the bonus chapter is unlocked.
- Hive King: Neue Regisseur
- Human Aliens: Duke and Maria Fleed, The Zambot Team members, 3/4s of the Dangaioh team, and the Zaboom and Rodarians.
- Humanity on Trial: The Einst are disturbed by how warlike the Earthlings are and seek to Kill All Humans and replace them with a new species in an Adam and Eve Plot, using Kyosuke and Alfimi as its Adam and Eve
- Interface Spoiler: In Compact 2, you are given the option to view Kyosuke's and/or Excellen's stats before starting the game. In Galaxy Showdown, Kyosuke's stats are shown at Level 15; Excellen, on the other hand, is at Level 36. Guess who's unavailable for most of the game?
- Karma Houdini Warranty:
- After being Karma Houdinis in the series proper, Gil Berg and Garimos finally gets their warranties torn off
- Impact marks the first time that rather than letting Haruki Kusakabe live but drain his resources completely that he couldn't do the movie's darker plot anymore in this continuity, you go straight to the jugulars and kill him on spot. Henceforth, games that feature the TV version frequently feature scenarios of 'Kusakabe being so dead'.
- Loads and Loads of Loading: Impact is kinda infamous for how poorly optimized the coding in the game is, leading to everything taking forever to happen. The argument of the game being slow has less to do with the game actually being slow-paced and more that all of the loading makes everything take longer than it should.
- Luck-Based Mission: Like its predecessor, Compact 2 randomizes every character's Spirit Command list based on the player's WonderSwan bios information. One infamous casualty of this system is Dangaioh, who receives exactly one (very expensive) accuracy-raising command across all four pilots if the bios information is left blank.
- Magikarp Power: The infamous V-Up item, known for turning weak units with three or four items slots into walking death machines, shows up in Compact 2. One noteworthy candidate is NT-1 Alex, which is arguably a Disc-One Nuke in the hands of Amuro or Kamille.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: God Voice, which is unlocked after performing a sequence of events.
- Meta Mecha: Vikungfu and GP-03
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Alt Eisen Reise, Getter Robo G, GP-03, Billbine, God Gundam, Shin Getter Robo and Rein Weiss Ritter. Unfortunately, you can't have the latter and Shin Getter at the same time
- Multiple Endings: In IMPACT, the Axis Shock cutscene has three different versions, depending on two units: either you completely pass up the event to get the Rein Weissritter and Shin Getter Robo, got Shin Getter over Rein or got Rein over Shin Getter. Super Robot Wars 30 suggests that getting Rein over Shin Getter is the canon path.
- Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: The games have several of these, sometimes with Mutually Exclusive Party Members being thrown in as well.
- The most infamous case is Shin Getter Robo vs Rein Weissritter, determined by a scenario in Galaxy Showdown.
- Early into Earth Crisis, you are asked to send one Mazinger team into space; whoever you choose will not reappear in that game and will likewise be the only Mazinger characters in Cosmoquake. However, it's downplayed in this case as they eventually meet back up in Galaxy Showdown.
- Cosmoquake has the Spiral Knuckle attack for Dangaioh vs the opportunity to recruit Shazara from the same series. Spiral Knuckle is another great tool for Dangaioh, but the Wonderswan version has Shazara's Aizam the Third carry a 6-range, post movement-capable attack that costs a mere 20 EN.
- Exclusive to the Wonderswan version is Sirbine vs Zwauth, given out in Galaxy Showdown based on which path in the trilogy's only route split the player took way back in Earth Crisis.
- Nerf: Compared to the first Compact:
- Compact 2 removed natural double-movement from the player's units.
- The game no longer gives out EXP for having unused Spirit Points at the end of a map.
- Spirit Command progression is tweaked, so that pilots typically start with fewer Spirit Commands and learn them at a slower pace.
- Additionally, Impact is known for finally nerfing Aura Battlers into oblivion.
- New Work, Recycled Graphics: Impact's battle animation engine is an enhanced version of the one used in Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden and thus it reuses Alpha Gaiden assets whenever it can get away with it. On the other hand, this lets Impact have a lot of mobile suits that Compact 2 doesn't have (such as the ZII and Nu Gundam HWS) since there were already sprites available for them, albeit with a very notable disparity in animation quality due to Art Evolution.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Ninja Senshi Tobikage and Mobile Fighter G Gundam units (Impact only)
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Nintendo Hard:- The WonderSwan trilogy, especially from the back half of Cosmoquake onward, are incredibly difficult by traditional Super Robot Wars standards. The removal of double-movement from the first Compact means that Mobile Suits deal far less damage overall. The games also love messing with the player's roster, with units joining only to leave a few missions later and taking your money investment with them, adding an extra element of Guide Dang It! to the game. The requirement for the True Final Boss (clear the trilogy in less than 777 turns) results in yet another extra layer of difficulty, all but eliminating the "EXP after Game Over" and "Repair grinding" Anti-Frustration Features and forcing an aggressive style of play.
- Impact is less difficult overall but still achieves this status with its own True Final Boss requirement, requiring the player to amass 50 of the most difficult Skill Points in the entire franchise. Most of said Skill Points involve shooting down enemies who will retreat if their HP falls below a certain amount, forcing players to find creative ways to deal enough damage to bypass their retreat threshhold and defeat them outright.
- Old Save Bonus: The Compact 2 games are mostly self-contained; players use the WonderSwan's internal memory to carry event flags and other data between the games in the trilogy. This is not the case for Impact, which is one continuous game.
- One Game for the Price of Two: The first two games are basically branches of one giant route split, while the third game brings all of the characters together.
- No One Could Survive That!: Subverted: Excellen didn't survive the shuttle accident; the meddling Einsts brought her Back from the Dead
- Official Couple: Kyosuke x Excellen, of course
- Overly Long Fighting Animation
- Overrated and Underleveled:
- In the Wonderswan games, Alt Eisen plays up the Awesome, but Impractical angle a bit too well; bad mobility, unimpressive armor, and its strongest weapon "Square Claymore" is an awkward range 1-2 non-post-movement attack (and the Spirit Command to make every weapon post-movement-capable hadn't been invented yet). Forget to tinker with your Wonderswan's nickname, and you'll also be greeted with a Kyosuke bearing abysmal attack stats and accuracy/evasion on the level of third-rate Mobile Suit pilots.
- This trope is another reason why Galaxy Showdown is Nintendo Hard. Think having to regain your units is bad? Try regaining them at anywhere from 5-10 levels below your top aces.
- The Power of Love: Which grants Kyosuke and Excellen their Combination Attack, complete with witty banter
- Also slightly played at the same time: Excellen only ever calls it the "Love Love Attack"
- The original attack even shows up. The only difference is that Rain pilots the Shining Gundam for Impact.
- Put on a Bus: The only characters from Mobile Fighter G Gundam brought over for Impact are Allenby Beardsley, Domon Kasshu, Dr. Kasshu, Dr. Mikamura, Kyoji Kasshu, Rain Mikamura, Schwarz Bruder, Master Asia and Ulube Ishikawa.
- So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: In the WonderSwan games, at least. Hope you know who ends up on Earth and who ends up in space!
- One cross-game secret in Earth Crisis even forces the player to upgrade a unit that leaves for space almost immediately and isn't seen again until Cosmoquake.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Bernie Wiseman (as a result of retconning his death in Gundam 0080), Norris Packard, Master Asia, Schwarz Bruder, Puru and Puru 2 get to live
- Spell My Name With An S: Is it Alfimi or Alchemie?
- Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: Galaxy Showdown starts the player off at the intermission screen with a massive wad of cash and units whose levels are in the teens instead of the single digits, warning the player to expect the difficulty curve to be short and sharp.
- Taking the Bullet: Compact 2's claim to fame, aside from its originals and sheer length, is the fact that it introduced the Support system.
- A Taste of Power: Galaxy Showdown lets the player use both the Earth and Space teams for a few missions before pulling a Let's Split Up, Gang!.
- Took a Level in Badass: The GP01-Fb, compared to the first Compact. Enabling its Beam Rifle to be used after moving changes it from a generic Gundam unit to one of the most mobile attackers in the game. Especially notable as the other Mobile Suits were hit hard by the double-movement nerf.
- True Final Boss: Char Aznable
- Video Game Remake: Impact combines the three Compact 2 games together and mixes fan favorites Mobile Fighter G Gundam and Martian Successor Nadesico in.
