Akihabara Electric Town.
Kenji had just beaten space harrier yesterday, and today he dragged his best friend Tatsuya to Akihabara to find new MD games.
His gaze was firmly drawn to a poster at the entrance of a game store, his pupils reflecting the giant robot that seemed to leap off the paper.
"Tatsuya, look! getter and mazinger z — they're in the same game!"
On the poster, steel giants from different worlds stood side by side, with a burning city and shattered stars in the background. This scene was an irresistible fantasy for any boy who grew up watching robot anime.
Kenji was already imagining the impossible scenario.
"How will they interact? Will they team up directly, or will they fight first and then become friends?"
"Someone as stubborn as Ryoma Nagare might just fight mazinger z first!"
Standing beside him, Tatsuya's gaze fell on the dense small print at the bottom of the poster.
Sunrise, Toei, Tohoku Shinsha. "It's not just them."
"Look, even Space Battleship Yamato is there."
His finger pointed at the copyright list, as if touching some sacred relic.
"How will works with such vastly different worldviews be integrated? What will the story be like?"
"Just imagining the dialogue between Amuro and Koji makes me impatient."
The two exchanged a look, no longer able to suppress the impulse in their hearts, and rushed into the store without hesitation to buy the cartridge with countless robot head icons printed on it.
Back at Tatsuya's home, the two impatiently inserted the cartridge and turned on the MD.
Exhilarating electronic synthesized music burst from the TV speakers, each note precisely striking their childhood memories.
On the screen, avatars of various classic mechs flashed rapidly.
The opening animation was not complex, but the story background subtitles scrolling from bottom to top reminded them of Star Wars.
But when they saw mazinger z soaring from the Photon Power Laboratory, flying over familiar city silhouettes.
At that moment, the two seemed to be pulled back to those distant afternoons spent in front of the TV, cheering for every heroic sortie.
The game officially began.
They quickly experienced their first battle.
Kenji controlled the getter Robot, choosing "getter Beam" as the attack command.
The screen instantly switched, no longer a simple map piece.
A green spiral beam tore across the screen, accompanied by powerful sound effects, instantly engulfing a Zaku.
"Oh oh oh oh oh!"
Kenji couldn't help but let out an incomprehensible roar.
And during the cutscene dialogue, Amuro Ray's avatar popped up on the screen, with a line of subtitles below it.
"My dad never hit me!"
"What's wrong with hitting you?!"
The classic lines, coupled with Amuro's unwilling and angry expression, and the subsequent "Yudou's Great Turn," made Tatsuya's mouth unconsciously curl upwards.
They were completely immersed.
Every weapon selection, every attack launched, felt like a solemn pilgrimage of sentiment.
This was no longer a simple strategy game.
This was a passionate love letter from Sega to an entire generation of robot anime fans.
As the game progressed, they arrived at a new map.
The stage name was "Odessa Operation."
Tatsuya's eyes instantly sharpened as he stared at an inconspicuous white transport plane unit on the map.
Lieutenant Matilda.
His mind immediately conjured the tragic scene from the original work, where Matilda's transport plane was shot down while covering the Gundam, and she perished.
The mission objective in the game was only to defeat all enemies, with no mention of protecting the transport plane.
But a voice in Tatsuya's heart told him that things weren't that simple.
"Kenji, let's split our forces. Protect that transport plane at all costs."
"Huh? Why? The mission doesn't require it, and the enemy's firepower is strong. If we split, the Gundam might be in danger."
"Trust me."
Tatsuya's voice was beyond doubt.
The difficulty of this challenge far exceeded their imagination.
The enemy's Black Tri-Stars were like ghosts, constantly assaulting their defenses with "Jet Stream Attack."
They tried several times, failing at the last moment each time.
Every time the transport plane's HP bar flashed red, it felt like a heavy hammer striking their hearts.
After another failure, Kenji irritably ran his hand through his hair.
"Forget it, Tatsuya. This might just be a plot kill, unchangeable."
"Just one more try."
Tatsuya's eyes were fixed on the screen, his brain working rapidly, re-planning every movement and calculating every bit of damage.
This time, they invested a lot of spirit commands into the transport ship, and finally, at the last moment before the transport plane was shot down, they annihilated all enemies.
The battle-end music played, and both collapsed onto the sofa, exhausted.
Instead of the clear screen immediately, a special story dialogue popped up.
Lieutenant Matilda expressed her gratitude to the crew of the White Base.
Immediately after, the scene switched to Jaburo Base, where a man who should have died later in the story due to his fiancée Matilda's death in battle, and his own impulsive death—Captain Woody—was discussing something with technical personnel.
"Thanks to the latest equipment Matilda brought back to Jaburo, we can reinforce and modify the Gundam ahead of schedule."
A story that shouldn't have existed, a man who should have died, lived because of their efforts.
In the pre-battle preparation screen for the next stage, when they clicked on Amuro's unit, both were stunned.
Next to the original Gundam, a brand new option appeared.
[RX-78-3 Gundam]
"No way—"
Kenji mumbled, rubbing his eyes. Tatsuya, meanwhile, shot up from the sofa, his body trembling with excitement.
Based on this astonishing discovery, they began frantically digging for other possible "IF routes" in the game.
Soon, they had a new goal.
A Baoa Qu Battle.
In the original work, Amuro sensed Lalah Sune here, but because Sayla entered the battlefield, he ultimately accidentally killed the girl he had wanted to understand.
"This time, we'll save Lalah too!"
They tried to only repel Char's Red Gelgoog without killing Lalah's Elmeth.
After the battle, a miracle happened again.
In the final battle, Amuro's mobile suit became the [Perfect Gundam] published in MSV.
And as an opponent, Char's Zeong also evolved into [Perfect Zeong].
That wasn't all.
When the story entered the Z era, they clearly saw Lalah Sune's name in the character list, and her mobile suit, Elmeth, was also in the corresponding unit list.
The two were ecstatic, enveloped by a tremendous sense of happiness that overturned their Cognition.
Tatsuya stood up excitedly, pacing back and forth in the room like a caged beast.
"They are truly masters!"
He analyzed incoherently.
"Sega didn't just crudely shove these robots into one game!"
"They took the biggest regrets and unfulfilled desires of anime fans for over a decade and turned them into 'IF routes' that we can change with our own hands!"
This discovery was like a key, opening the Pandora's Box named first super robot wars.
They immediately realized that this game contained countless secrets and miracles waiting for anime fans to uncover firsthand.
Tatsuya's gaze fell on the phone. He no longer hesitated, immediately picked up the receiver, and dialed a familiar number.
On the other end of the line was an editor from a game magazine he knew well.
After listening to Tatsuya's rambling yet excited narration, the editor's breathing also quickened.
After personally participating in the excavation and confirming the authenticity of these hidden elements, the editor lit a cigarette in his office. Amidst the swirling smoke, a title that could ignite the entire player community formed in his mind.
"The True Way to Play Super Robot Wars! We Can Change History!"