Dynasty Warriors: Gundam Reborn (for PlayStation 3)

It's a Gundam!
While Mobile Suit Gundam is one of the most successful TV shows in Japan—so much so that there's a museum and a 60-foot statue dedicated to the titular mech in Tokyo—it barely made a dent in the United States' popular culture. Unless you remember it from when it was on Cartoon Network 15 years ago, you may be unfamiliar with characters like Amuro Ray, Char Aznable, and Kamille Bidan.
That's okay, because this game is strictly for the fans. Specifically, fans of Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Char's Counterattack, Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, and the recent Gundam Unicorn. Those are the shows whose storylines Dynasty Warriors: Gundam Reborn retells in its Official Mode.

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Official Mode consists of short battle missions punctuated by static, 2D story interludes complete with Japanese voice acting and subtitles. These scenes are serviceable and purists will appreciate the original voiceovers, but they're too brief and leave out far too many details. Newcomers will not understand the motivations of the characters or the conflicts they're in. Major characters from the shows pop in and out, and entire ideas like Newtypes and battle plans aren't properly explained. If you want to experience these stories for real, I recommend watching the original shows or movies. Otherwise, these segments amount to Cliff's Notes that set up the playable missions. Mission Accomplished?
The missions play out like your standard Dynasty Warriors game. As one of many Gundam characters (for example, Amuro Ray in his original RX-78 Gundam or Heero Yuy in Wing Gundam) piloting a mobile suit—the in-universe term for "mech"—you shift the flow of war by defeating enemies and capturing land. There are light strategy and RPG elements, but for the most part Gundam Reborn is a mindless beat-'em-up.
The game's light strategy involves rushing all over the map to defend certain areas, save characters who are in danger, protect friendly ships, and sometimes shoot down specific enemy ships or defeat specific enemy units. A handy objective box in the corner notifies you of all possible changes to the mission. There is a slight thrill to zipping around to help friends, but the solution is always to mash buttons. There are combos, but they all amount to the same basic action: slash, slash, slash, with the occasional laser shot thrown in. Deep, this isn't.
There are over 100 Gundams and partner characters (who aid you during special attacks) to unlock. That means grinding through mission after mission to achieve random objectives like attaining arbitrary amounts of money or completing missions on different difficulties.
Some CG cut scenes interrupt the action to recreate famous scenes from the show. They look great, but the rest of the game's graphics would look more at home on the PlayStation 2. The soundtrack, which lacks many of the iconic Gundam themes and songs, is similarly drab.
The light RPG elements mainly revolved around combining mobile suit plans. These plans, which you find on the battlefield as reward pick-ups, affect your mobile suit's parameters for such things as defense, energy, and special attack gauges. You can also swap out some parts for your mobile suits. The plans and part-swapping provide a modicum of depth, but the only way to deal with them is between missions via unwieldy menus. I wish Tecmo Kei had streamlined this process.
Is Gundam Worth it?
That's the extent of Dynasty Warrior: Gundam Reborn, collecting and playing with your favorite Gundam action figures through a best-of catalog of Gundam stories. There's nothing wrong with that, and there's definitely some satisfaction in destroying entire mobile-suit armies, but all that effort becomes a repetitious blur pretty quickly.
Pull the trigger if you're a Gundam superfan. Otherwise, there are better Dynasty Warriors games out there, such as the recent Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Complete Edition. That game contains deeper combat, more interesting play modes, and looks marginally better (though the PC version has quite a few problems). Better still, wait and see how the Tecmo Koei/Nintendo case of synergy turns out when Hyrule Warriors hits store shelves later this year.