Gameplay
''SD Gundam Dimension War'' is a tactical role-playing game based on the '' Gundam'' franchise. The gameplay involves players maneuvering their fleet of robots and ships around a grid-based map and destroying each of the enemies scattered about. The objective is to complete each of the game's eight levels without losing their fleet. Enemies are placed towards the top of the map, while players start at the bottom. Players are not required to destroy each enemy to progress to the next level, but they must at least destroy the enemy battle cruisers that are placed in specific spots on the map. The third level adds a heavily-armored boss that must be defeated to move onto the next level. Players are able to attack enemies should one of their robots be near them. Two combat options can be chosen: indirect, which allows players to fire from a distance, and attack, which while more dangerous allows for stronger attacks. Choosing to attack enemies causes the game to shift to a combat scenario, where players are forced to attack the enemy either with a ranged laser cannon or through melee combat with a laser sword. Players and enemies are able to shift into the foreground and background, and must fight each other until one of them is destroyed. When fighting enemy cruisers, the game takes place within a third-person perspective, as players must fire enough shots at it to destroy the cruiser. An autopilot option is available where the AI performs the battle automatically, without any player input. There are three save slots available, allowing the player to save their progress and come back later.Development and release
''SD Gundam Dimension War'' was developed by Locomotive Corporation and published by Bandai for the Virtual Boy, and the final game they developed for the system. The game is based on the '' SD Gundam'' series, a spin-off of the larger '' Gundam'' franchise by Sunrise and Sotsu. Most ''Gundam'' games have been developed by Tose, with ''Dimension War'' being one of few ''Gundam'' games not to have any involvement from them. The "SD" in the title is short for super-deformed, a Japanese art style that depicts characters with large heads on small bodies, similar toReception
The four reviewers at '' Famitsu'' found the game to be a mediocre tactical RPG that suffered from poor combat sequences and pacing, but liked its music for fitting in with the atmosphere. Jason Moore, a writer for the magazine ''Retrogames'', was more positive in his review, writing that it was a nice diversion from the Virtual Boy's arcade-like format. He liked it for being much more "involving" of a title than other games for the system, but criticized its character animations for being poorly-made. Retrospectively, ''SD Gundam Dimension War'' received largely negative reviews, with critics ranking it among the worst Virtual Boy games. Dave Frear of '' Nintendo Life'' described the game as being largely disappointing, especially for hardcore fans of the '' Gundam'' franchise. He took issue with its presentation, while also criticizing the game's combat scenarios; while he said they were fun at times, they needed a lot of polish and were largely repetitive. However, Frear felt that the music was done well, and that the game made good use of the system's 3D capabilities. Jeremy Parish claimed that ''Dimension War'' may have the worst action scenes on Virtual Boy, disliking the game's pacing, confusing controls, and combat sequences. Parish argued the only reason to get ''Dimension War'' was for collectors interested in getting a complete Virtual Boy library, further adding that the game added almost nothing new to the concept established in previous ''Gundam'' games for consoles such as the Game Boy. He concluded by claiming that it is better than ''Virtual Lab'', a poorly-received falling-block puzzle game, which he noted was not difficult to be. The staff at '' Retro Gamer'' magazine similarly compared it to ''Virtual Lab'' in terms of quality, saying that its value was nowhere near the high price point it has online.Notes
References
{{Video Games of Gundam 1995 video games Bandai games Gundam video games Japan-exclusive video games Tactical role-playing video games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Boy games