| Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo | |
|---|---|
 North American cover art | |
| Developer | Bandai |
| Publisher | Bandai |
| Composers | Takanori Arima Koji Yamada |
| Platform | PlayStation 2 |
| Release | |
| Genre | Action |
| Mode | Single-player |
Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo (機動戦士ガンダム,Kidō Senshi Gandamu; lit."Mobile Suit Gundam") is an action game based directly on theMobile Suit Gundam films and series. The game begins at the start of the series and ends at the ending of the second film. The game plays in an action game format with a standard third-person view. It features newly hand animated cutscenes that depict events from the original television series as well as a CGI opening depicting a space battle from theOne Year War and then a scene of theGundam destroying several Zaku IIs before being attacked byChar Aznable. A sequel,Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space, was released in 2003.
The English dub of the video game features the voices of the actors who were cast for the Mobile Suit Gundam television series as with most games subsequent to the series' dubbing, rather than the English cast of the films.
Journey to Jaburo takes place during theOne Year War, and depicts the crew of theWhite Base making their way from the Side 7 sector of space colonies to the Federation headquarters at Jaburo. The game starts atAmuro Ray's home of Side 7, where threeZaku mobile suits attack the Federation's prototype mobile suit weapons. Amuro, in the confusion, fights the Zaku units in the Gundam, and is assigned to the White Base as the Gundam's pilot. After the White Base leaves the colony, it is pursued byChar Aznable, "The Red Comet".
Char attacks the White Base during re-entry (where the power of the Gundam's beam rifle was revealed), which diverts them into the Zeon-controlled territory ofNorth America. After going through many Zeon defenses (includingGarma Zabi in Seattle), the White Base heads into Asia, where they battleRamba Ral, an ace pilot who raisedSayla Mass when she was a child. After Ramba Ral commits suicide by jumping into Gundam's hand with a grenade, the White Base crew makes their way to Belfast for repairs.
After they leave Belfast, they eventually make it to Jaburo, where Char's "Mad Angler" squadron finds the location of the base, and launches a massive attack to conquer it. The Zeon forces are beaten back, and the White Base, now dubbed the "13th Autonomous Mobile Squadron", heads out into space.
Tactics Battle mode is an optional mode available once story mode has been completed. In this mode you play either a Federation or Zeon pilot who remains nameless and faceless. You begin at a low rank and with only one mission available to each side. As you successfully complete the missions available with the MS available your rank increases and more missions and MS are unlocked. Five Missions can be unlocked in total. The first three are standard attack or defense missions, they are available to both factions, though what your role is varies by faction. The last two are available only to the Federation. These are duels with the RX-79BD-1 GM Blue Destiny Unit 1, and RX-78NT-1 Gundam "Alex" being piloted by Yuu Kajima and Christina MacKenzie, respectively. Christina compliments you during battle, whereas Yuu remains silent while in his duel Maureen Kitamura spurs him onward with encouraging remarks.
After each mission is completed a verbal assessment is given either byMatilda Ajan, Kergerenko, or Char Aznable. After this there are brief cutscenes featuring either Matilda or Kergerenko complimenting the player on their performance. If the player fails a mission, but does not retry it they will reprimand the player. As certain circumstances are met cutscenes with Char,M'Quve andBright Noa are unlocked. There are also cutscenes featuring Christina, Shiro Amada and a White Dingo pilot when each allows use of their Mobile Suit. If the player continues fighting and raises their rank to Colonel in either faction they receive a special reward video. On the Zeon route this is a video of the major members of the Principality of Zeon thanking the player for their service, on the Federation side it is video of the major female members of the Federation from MS Gundam,War in the Pocket, and Blue Destiny competing for attention as they enthusiastically thank the player.
| Character | English voice actor | Japanese voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Amuro Ray | Brad Swaile | Tōru Furuya |
| Bright Noa | Chris Kalhoon | Hirotaka Suzuoki |
| Char Aznable | Michael Kopsa | Shūichi Ikeda |
| Sayla Mass | Alaina Burnett | Yō Inoue |
| Fraw Bow | Kristie Marsden | Rumiko Ukai |
| Mirai Yashima | Cathy Weseluck | Fuyumi Shiraishi |
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 58/100[1] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AllGame |   [2] |
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | 4/10[3] |
| Famitsu | 27/40[4] |
| Game Informer | 6.5/10[5] |
| GamePro |  [6] |
| GameRevolution | D+[7] |
| GameSpot | 6.8/10[8] |
| GameSpy | 68%[9] |
| IGN | 6.5/10[10] |
| Next Generation | [11] |
| Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine | [12] |
The game "mixed" reviews according to thereview aggregation websiteMetacritic.[1] David Smith ofIGN said, "...it's not a recommended purchase for those who aren't fans of the series (...), but it was never intended to be anything else."[10] Jim Preston ofNextGen said of the game, "The mixture between television show and videogame is superb, but the actual gameplay is not."[11] In Japan,Famitsu gave it a score of 27 out of 40.[4]