SD Gundam World: Gachapon Senshi - Scramble Wars
Two teams, the blue army and the red army, compete on tiled maps in an attempt to vanquish one another in battle. Each team starts off in one particular portion of the map, usually but not always on opposite sides. Throughout the map are cities which start out neutral, but can be converted to the red or blue side through occupation. The more cities a team has, the more energy that team produces every round to direct toward the construction of newer and more powerful Gundams. Each team gets to issue three commands per turn, whether it be to move a Gundam around the map, or construct a new Gundam. Each type of robot has different ranges of movement, and different terrains effect how far a robot can travel. In order to destroy each other, players must attack the opposing team's Gundams by moving one of their own to a tile occupied by the enemy. When two Gundams rest on the same spot, a battle is initiated.
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As I write this, I'm in the midst of writing an article about the history of SD Gundam tactical games, and this right here is the origin. This one!
I'd never played anything on the Famicom Disk System, and I found it fascinating. It was like a suped-up NES, and it was really rad.
This game is, well, it's what it says on the tin: it's the progenitor of what was to come, and it shows in every single way. The core DNA of the series is here right from the start: moving icons around on a grid, engaging in real-time battles, unit production and seizing cities to make more money.
What I find fascinating is the grid here isn't hexes; it's squares. You get all of the downsides that come with squares instead of hexes for movement on a grid, which I find really interesting--what it means is you can easily minimize the angles opponents can take to get to you because moving diagonally "costs" extra, whereas with hexes, it's all the same.
The art is adorable as usual, and the sprites are wonderful.
This is a little treasure of a game, and I would absolutely adore playing against a real human.