Super Robot Wars Y hit Nintendo Switch 2 and Steam on August 29th. For this review, I explored the demo covering the first chapter, with progress transitioning into the full edition. It’s a new installment in a long-running series of mecha strategy games dating back to the NES, though only a few have English versions. The game combines robots from popular series such as Getter Robo, Mazinger Z, and Gundam into a vast strategy RPG playground.

This is ideal for fans of the Universal Century with a penchant for piloting Knightmare Frames, but a headache for studios dealing with complex licensing from anime distributors outside Japan.

Thanks to dedicated fan translators, Super Robot Wars has sustained a strong English-speaking fan base. It’s grown large enough for Bandai Namco to now give these games a global release, starting with Super Robot Wars 30 in 2021 and now Super Robot Wars Y.

The game is, to put it technically, outrageously fun. You assume the role of an original character, a mecha pilot tasked with guarding a young girl who commands a city-sized floating battleship. (Imagine the original Mobile Suit Gundam’s White Base but with a city.) The story then takes a dramatically playful turn. What’s endearing about Super Robot Wars Y is its bold and sincere effort to weave all the series’ plots and key moments into one cohesive narrative.

When Domon Kasshu from Mobile Fighter G Gundam makes an appearance, the admiration is not just for his victory in the 13th Gundam Fight, but also for his unforgettable romantic gesture, a nod fans will appreciate. For those less familiar, the game offers an extensive encyclopedia of characters, organizations, and events. Personally, though, the lack of prior knowledge doesn’t diminish the enjoyment.

In one fight where I was overwhelmed by mecha-kaiju, four teenagers with attitude climbed into four different mechs that then fused into one. Did I know those kids or care about them? No. Why? Because their giant mech — which I’m told is called a Dynazenon — transformed again into a giant, flame-spouting mecha dragon. Who cares about teenagers when you’ve got giant robot dragons?

Characters with similar motivations and goals are gathered on one side of the conflict and their opponents on the other, leading to legendary team-ups that were once only possible eight pages deep into an AO3 fanfic search. I cannot express how much the sentence “Lelouch vi Britannia mounted an all-out assault on Char Aznable” breaks my brain in half. But I can definitively say it was also the moment I bought all the way into this game.

The other reason I’m sold is the combat. I’ve been searching for a tactical action RPG. The last couple I’ve played, Fire Emblem Engage and Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, left me cold with a bland story and uninteresting combat, respectively.

Super Robot Wars Y has adequately scratched my itch. It works like any other tactical RPG: send units out on missions to destroy enemy mechs on a gridded battlefield. Each pilot has a suite of abilities you can swap out and improve, the same way you can upgrade mechs by changing out their parts and enhancing them.

Since this was a demo of the game’s first chapter, combat was relatively simplistic. But I can see that the upgrade systems offer depth to explore beyond that. You also get abilities called “spirits” that grant you temporary stat bonuses or let you dodge attacks, and support characters who also grant temporary combat boons, so you can build your team to your liking. There’s also something called the “Sacred Tri-Directional Galaxy Memory,” which is basically a skill tree that rewards picking a dedicated path with massive, team-wide bonuses.

There’s a part of me that wanted to caveat all the praise I have for Super Robot Wars Y with “as childish as it sounds,” but that’s not really fair. Even from the little bit I’ve played, the enjoyment I get out of Super Robot Wars Y is real, and not strictly because the combat scratched an itch or the batshit story provided a rousing good time. It reminds me of the fun I had writing fanfiction as a kid, and I hope, as the game goes on, that feeling continues.