Mecha anime and manga series are popular around the world. Gundam is the best known among all the series, and even helped kick off all mecha animes. All of the series feature humans piloting huge mechanized suits in the future, battling against one another.

Gundam first began as an animated TV show back in 1979 called Mobile Suit Gundam, and was originally created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise. Since then, there have been movies, animated tv shows, ovas and movies, mangas, novels, light novels, trading card game and tons of video games all based on the series. Japan’s even used Gundam as a cultural mascot, creating stamps featuring the mechanized units, creating a RX-78 monument at the Kamiigusa Station, using it as a nickname for Japan Self-Defense for equipment and even using Gundam mechas as promotional tools.

So this week, let’s take a brief look at all the Gundam animated series out there and some games that are available. If you decide to get interested in the series, prepare to do a lot of research, as there are multiple timelines and things can get quite complicated unless you’re really paying attention to the characters and situations…

Surely nothing could beat peanut butter and jelly, you say? Well, those crazy kids at Omega Force have decided that the snack-time favorite of young kids the world over has had its reign and now it must die. What better way to kill it than with a two-story battle machine armed with a laser sword? Say your prayers, PB&J. Your time has come.

This new joint venture by Koei and Namco Bandai is slated for a US release late this summer (2007) and, judging by the screenshots, it’s literally going to be a combination of the Dynasty Warriors hack ‘n’ slash goodness that we’ve all come to know and love and giant orbital frames…