Beginner's Guide to Gundam Extreme VS Maxi Boost ON

With three weekends remaining until the release of Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS Maxiboost ON, there's still plenty of time to get some early games in the Open Access online beta on the PS4. And for those who want to jump in but haven't played any of the previous Gundam VS games, I've put together a quick video explaining the basic controls of the game as well a few tips for new players.

Movement

Since this is a port of the arcade game, movement is limited to an 8-way digital arcade stick. The directional buttons and left analog stick work well enough to control your character but I do recommend using the directional buttons to avoid any miss-inputs when executing certain commands.

Four Button Fighter

The Gundam VS games have mainly used four buttons. Five if you count the one for quick communications. On the PS4 controller, these are all mapped to the face buttons. Square being your primary projectile attack, triangle for melee, cross for boost and circle to switch targets. The shoulder buttons are shortcut options for alternate commands that require combinations of the face buttons to be pressed at the same time.

R1 is reserved for the Sub Weapon attack and is a shortcut for Square+Triangle. R2 is mapped for the Special Melee attack (Triangle+Cross). L2 is for your Special Projectile (Square+Cross). And L1 is for the aforementioned communications button that can either send preset quick messages to your ally player partner or to change the AI behavior of your partner in the single-player modes. The game does offer a quick control change option if you wish to play on an arcade stick and there is also the option to completely remap all of the buttons to your liking.

Taken from GGEZ.Space

Boost Dash

Boost Dashing and Boost Dash Cancelling is one of, if not, the most important features of this game. To initiate a Boost Dash, double-tap the Boost button (Cross) to propel your unit in whichever lateral direction you wish. Holding down the Boost button or a directional button after the double-tap input will hold the dash until released or until the boost gauge depletes. Boost Dash Cancelling is done by simply inputting the Boost Dash again. You can Boost Dash Cancel out of almost any action, making it so you can act again. This can be used both offensively and defensively and will most likely be the action that you'll doing frequently in matches. There's a technique that players have dubbed the "zunda" wherein you cancel a projectile shot into a boost dash in order to fire in rapid succession and chain attacks that otherwise wouldn't combo into each other naturally.

Boost Step and Rainbow Step

You trigger a Boost Step by quickly double-tapping the same directional button which makes tour character do a quick little sidestep or short dash in that direction. This helps when dodging incoming attacks, be it projectile or melee, as it subverts any tracking properties that said attacks have when timed correctly. However, when a Boost Step is done while dodging a melee attack or while you yourself are performing a melee attack, a rainbow streak can be seen during the Boost Step animation. Commonly referred to as a Rainbow Step. Rainbow Steps don't provide much distance when compared to a Boost Dash but recover significantly quicker and thus are more optimal when chaining together melee attacks for combos.

Burst Mode and Burst Attacks

A Burst gauge fills upon landing successful hits or when taking damage. When full or filled halfway, you can go into your Burst mode by pressing the R3 button which is a shortcut for Square+Triangle+Cross. Initiating a Burst will refill a portion of your boost gauge and during this mode, you gain access to a few effects such quicker ammo reload and the ability to Step cancel most projectile attacks. You also gain access to your character's Burst Attack which can be done once by inputting the Burst command again while in the Burst Mode.

And those are the basic controls for Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS Maxiboost ON. I personally cannot wait for the full release of this and try to get in as much game time as I can during the 24-hour Open Access during the weekends. Hopefully, this guide has been useful to you in some way and maybe we'll run into each other online.

A basics guide on how to get started in Gundam EXVS Maxiboost ON for PS4. Apologies for the black square on the lower left hand corner of the screen. I forgo...

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