While there have already been two games in the Dynasty Warriors: Gundam series on the current generation of consoles, this July, it will become a trilogy. We last previewed Gundam 3 back at the Tokyo Game Show, where, much like at the London MCM Expo, people love them a big robot game. Thankfully, Tecmo Koei has them covered with four demo pods for the public to play the game on, which is where we located ourselves on the first day of the show.

　　Gundam 3's new cel-shaded art style serves its anime inspirations well.

　　The headline feature of Gundam 3 is the online drop-in, drop-out co-op, which is a first for the series. Publisher Tecmo Koei is aiming to emphasise the importance of this upgrade by issuing postrelease downloadable content that will pretty much require you to play cooperatively in order to complete it. While we didn't get to experience this feature ourselves, it appeared as though the experience would be improved with the addition of a friend, at least in terms of helping to fend off the vast waves of enemies that we encountered.

　　For fans of the series, much of the appeal of the game will lie in its collection of characters from various series of the TV show. There are 60 playable robots and 70 playable human characters from the game, from across the Gundam universe, including fan favourite Gundam Unicorn. Because of this, the game will be the first time where many of these mechs have met, let alone done battle, and the beautifully detailed cutscenes look to do the source materials justice. In action, the game is just as impressive, with a new cel-shaded look that uses very fluid animation to bring the mechs to life.

　　Co-op play is the order of the day.

　　We played the demo in the company of a Tecmo Koei representative, who was thankfully able to offer us some tips on how to complete our section of gameplay. Standard attacks were performed with the PlayStation 3's square button, which were enough to cut through the mass of enemies, but you could also call in support characters using R2. Occasionally, close-quarters combat would result in a quick-time event, which required us to tap out four buttons correctly and in quick succession.

　　We enjoyed our time with the MCM-specific demo build at Tecmo Koei's area, and if you've enjoyed previous games in the series, then it's well worth scouting out the company's stand. Thankfully, we don't have long to wait for the finished game, as it will be released in Europe on July 1, on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.