TGS 2005: Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven TR1: New Wave Hands-On

TOKYO-In what can only be seen as an attempt to corner the giant robot game market, Bandai is showing a PlayStation 2 game called Eureka Seven TR1: New Wave at the Tokyo Game Show 2005. The game primarily deals in robot-on-robot violence, but there does appear to be a bit more to it than that.

The version of Eureka Seven being shown at TGS has a few different playable sections. One is a ground-based robot battle that pits your mech against two others. In this segment, your mech skates around, and you can lock on to fire weapons at your enemies. Also, you can transform into a car with a mounted gun turret. In this form, you can speed-boost away from trouble and execute a spinning melee attack that can knock other mechs over.

Another segment of the demo appeared to be a training mission that would prepare you for later fights. Here, you play as a human character on a hoverboard and sort of just glide around a canyon. You can raise and lower your altitude and execute speed boosts. The next part of the demo puts you back in your robot suit, but this time you're airborne, riding on a similar hoverboard and attempting to blast similarly outfitted mechs out of the sky.

Visually, the game looks solid, but not especially impressive. It manages to keep a smooth frame rate, and the mech models and other characters look decent. Eureka Seven TR1: New Wave is 100 percent complete and will be released in Japan October 27.