PS5 players can look forward to Atlas Fallen: Reign Of Sand while PS4 players get Sayonara Wild Hearts and, oddly, enough, Poker Club. Of course, the latter is backwards compatible on PS5, further expanding the line-up for current-gen owners.

Exclusive to Premium subscribers are two PlayStation Classics – Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings from the PS2 era and MediEvil 2 on the PS One with rewind, up-rendering, and quick save. Both are playable on PS4 and PS5, and the former is a great way to prepare for the arrival of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle this Spring for PS5.

February 9 sees Madden NFL 23 joining the service’s catalog for console and PC via EA Play, while SD Gundam Battle Alliance arrives on the same day for console, PC, and cloud. On February 14, TaleWorld Entertainment’s acclaimed strategy RPG Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord becomes available for subscribers on console, PC, and cloud.

On the next day, February 15, city builder Cities: Skylines will be added to the service for cloud and console (Xbox Series X/S, specifically), while February 16 will bring the recently-announced Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition to subscribers on console, PC, and cloud.

Finally, the biggest release of the batch, Atomic Heart, will be added to the service day and date upon launch on February 21 for console, PC, and cloud.

The highest selling game of the week, however, is Earth Defense Force 6, which recently launched in Japan. It also occupies two places, with the PS4 version taking the top spot with over 68,000 units sold and the PS5 version coming in at No. 4 respectively with over 24,000 units sold.

SD Gundam Battle Alliance is the next new release of the week that figures into the charts, and it also occupies multiple places. Its Nintendo Switch version takes the second spot with over 38,000 units sold, the PS4 version comes in at sixth place with over 17,000 units sold, and the PS5 version slots in at No. 10 with over 9,000 units sold. The final new release of the week in the top 10, meanwhile, is Saints Row, selling over 10,000 units and taking the ninth spot.

On the hardware front, meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch is dominant once again, collectively selling over 113,000 units across all of its models. The PS5 trails by a massive gap, having moved over 25,000 units over the course of the week, while the Xbox Series consoles follow with over 16,000 units sold.

You can check out the full software and hardware charts for the week ending August 28 below.

Software sales (followed by last week’s sales):

1. [PS4] Earth Defense Force 6 – 68,341 (New)
2. [NSW] SD Gundam Battle Alliance – 38,634 (New)
3. [PS4] Soul Hackers 2 – 31,604 (New)
4. [PS5] Earth Defense Force 6 – 24,363 (New)
5. [PS5] Soul Hackers 2 – 20,257 (New)
6. [PS4] SD Gundam Battle Alliance – 17,950 (New)
7. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 11,644 (4,802,581)
8. [NSW] Nintendo Switch Sports – 10,576 (706,637)
9. [PS4] Saints Row – 10,013 (New)
10. [PS5] SD Gundam Battle Alliance – 9,625 (New)

Hardware sales:

• Nintendo Switch – 113,530
• PS5 – 25,109
• Xbox Series X/S – 16,726

The thing that makes this depth in the combat actually worth it in this case, unlike in so many similar games, is that the game is explicitly designed around you properly taking advantage of all these combat mechanics too. The game’s mission-based structure, which seems to recall Monster Hunter series in a lot of ways, almost always culminates in a big boss fight – and these fights are deviously designed, incredibly well crafted encounters that call upon the player to remember and properly apply all the tools in their arsenal that the game gives them access to. From melee attacks to ranged attacks, from combos to stun locking enemies, from dodging to dashing, SD Gundam Battle Alliance gives you a lot to properly win your way through all that it throws at you.

And that is before we get to the “Monster Hunter” inspiration I alluded to earlier, which is the whole thing where as you fight and complete missions, you get the ability to craft new Gundam suits, or upgrade your existing ones, making you better equipped to take on more powerful enemies, that enable you to craft even more powerful suits, and so on. The gameplay loop is incredibly compelling – and can put up a hell of a good challenge too.

"Everything I’ve talked about so far covers how this game will appeal even to non-Gundam fans. However, if you are a Gundam fan, then you’re really in for a treat with this game as, in addition to the extremely well designed core gameplay loop, you also get a game that’s essentially an almost overbearing love letter to the property and everything that fans love about it."

Everything I’ve talked about so far covers how this game will appeal even to non-Gundam fans. However, if you are a Gundam fan (also known as being normal), then you’re really in for a treat with this game as, in addition to the extremely well designed core gameplay loop, you also get a game that’s essentially an almost overbearing love letter to the property and everything that fans love about it. The story in it is almost inconsequential – you’re essentially a nobody who is trapped in a virtual recreation of Gundam history, trying to fix the corruption in the data so you can escape back to the real world. This setup allows the game to not be limited by any one specific “era” of Gundam, so to say, and allow the game to include Gundam suits from across the franchise’s entire storied history, as well as evoking some of its greatest moments across the innumerable works it has put out over the years. What this means is that the story itself is largely incoherent, and just barley functional enough to set up the premise and get you into the core loop – but moment to moment, the game is filled with loving references and homages to the entire Gundam universe, which, if you are a fan, you know encompasses quite a range.

The one thing I can see turning off some fans of the IP, at least at first, is the game’s aesthetic. SD Gundam Battle Alliance adopts a chibi look during gameplay, meaning your Gundams show up as small, exaggerated, stylized renditions on screen. This can feel disappointing to those hoping to see the various Gundam realities collide, because what you see can feel disconnected from the rest of the IP. However, as mentioned, the game is really good with its homages and references, and while the gameplay itself does adopt a chibi art style, character portraits for dialogs and cutscenes are properly proportioned, so you do still get a hint of the traditional Gundam art style in this game regardless.

While the chibi stye can be (unfairly, in my opinion) a deterrent for some, on the sound side of things, SD Gundam Battle Alliance is great. The music is fantastic, and the voice acting is great – though, unfortunately, there are some caveats associated with each. The voice acting is Japanese only, meaning if you don’t like subbed audio tracks, then you’re a bit out of luck here. The music is roundly excellent, and in and of itself has no failings – but unfortunately, the music (and the almost Draconian rights that come along with the Japanese music industry) is the reason that this game completely rocks video clip recording. You can’t record a single frame of it – which is especially a shame because, as mentioned, there are some thrilling fights in this game that would lend themselves well to being captured and shared.

"The one thing I can see turning off some fans of the IP, at least at first, is the game’s aesthetic. SD Gundam Battle Alliance adopts a chibi look during gameplay, meaning your Gundams show up as small, exaggerated, stylized renditions on screen. This can feel disappointing to those hoping to see the various Gundam realities collide."

Over on the gameplay side, thankfully, there are no similar stumbles. The big one I can see being off-putting to many, especially those who might just be looking at a straightforward action game, is how much the game can tend towards grinding the further you get into it. This, of course, makes sense. It’s a role playing game, and more importantly, it is a role playing game that seems to take a lot of cues from Monster Hunter. Grinding is almost built into the design – but it does mean that if that’s not the kind of thing you like in your games, or at the very least, if that’s not what you were looking for from your Gundam game, then this game may not be for you.

These issues aside, though, SD Gundam Battle Alliance is an excellent outing, and a game that holds almost equal appeal to everyone, regardless of how much they are a fan of the property it is based on. Whether you are looking for an ode to all things Gundam, or just a well designed and compelling action RPG, SD Gundam Battle Alliance might be exactly what you are looking for.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 5.