A rare Japanese fighting game based on the Mobile Suit Gundam series is finally playable again, thanks to the efforts of the feature phone preservation community.
Gundam VS Fighting Spirits Plus is a one-on-one fighting game that was released for i-Mode compatible phones in 2009 and sees players piloting a giant mech into a series of 2D battles, where they must face off against various machines from across the Mobile Suit Gundam films and TV series.
This includes the RX-78-2 Gundam, the RX-75 Guntank, the RX-77-2 Guncannon, the Zaku II, and the MS-07B Gouf.
It was previously preserved last year by members of the Keitai Wiki Discord, according to RockmanCosmo in a recent Twitter post, but was reportedly unplayable at the time, thanks to needing a connection to a server, which had long since been discontinued by its publisher, Bandai Namco Games.
As a result, the ROM hacker and preservationist Yuvi, known for his work on various fan translations, as well as the ongoing project to revive Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, stepped up to help, creating a new server to finally get the title up and running again.
In the post, RockmanCosmo wrote, "This may be the best keitai fighting game we've preserved so far," claiming "it runs incredibly smoothly for a keitai game."
It should be available to play now, via the Keitai World Launcher.