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Dear Import Gamer: You can do better than Super Robot Wars UX
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. Twitter followers have recently asked me: "Is Super Robot Wars UX worth importing?" The short answer is no, but the reason I won't be importing Super Robot Wars UX pretty much cuts to the heart of what irritates me about both the Super Robot Taisen franchise and Namco Bandai in general. Super Robot Wars UX is filler. It's the game that's meant to bridge the gap while we wait for more entries in the main story arc. I know this because Namco Bandai has been releasing games just like it for roughly 15 years now. When I think of Super Robot Wars UX, the first thing that comes to mind is Treyarch's early work in the Call of Duty franchise. Games released to plug the gaps between major entries. And being a strategy RPG series that is mostly known for having a lot of licensed mecha anime shows, such filler entries aren't that hard to make. There is a lot of love for the Super Robot Wars series, especially in Japan. It's one of Namco Bandai's flagship franchises. It's as if instead of going into a precipitous decline around the time of Star Wars Episode 1, LucasArts turned around and started putting out one to two Star Wars games per year. And not only that, they had found a way to cross it with Babylon 5, Star Trek, and Dr. Who in a way that inspired not rage but glee among the hardcore fans. That's Super Robot Wars in a nutshell – a strategy series that seamlessly mixes a lot of Japan's most beloved mecha franchises.
