Gundam: The Battle Master , later known as Battle Assault , is a series of fighting games released for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance. The series features mobile suits from several eras of the Gundam metaverse and some non-traditional fighting game elements. Every entry was developed by Bandai in co-operation with Japanese developer Natsume,[1] who also made the 1996 Shin Kidō Senki Gundam Wing: Endless Duel .

Gundam: The Battle Master features gameplay unlike most fighting games, let alone the other games within its series:

• Mobile suit movement is realistically slow.
  
• Repeated damage to a specific body part on an enemy will result in that part's armor breaking.
  
• There's no standard "health bar". Instead, a mobile suit has a "temperature bar" that would fill up as it gets hit. When the bar is full, the mobile suit overheats and is knocked down. When a mobile suit overheats four times, it is knocked out and loses the fight.
  
• The standard punch and kick buttons are complemented by a shoot button (for firing beam rifles or machine guns), a weapon button (beam sabers, heat hawks, etc.), and a thrust button that allows the mobile suit to fly indefinitely. This is similar to Endless Duel , as well as games such as Capcom's Cyberbots .
  
• Projectiles are unblockable.
  
• Special moves are limited. A mobile suit will have a rapid fire version of the shoot button and one or two unique moves. All special moves drain a bar below the temperature bar that can only be filled by connecting with melee attacks.
  
• Some mobile suits can dodge into the background to avoid attacks, while others can erect a beam barrier that can block projectiles (which can be held indefinitely unless hit by a melee attack).
  
• Bosses are massive and fill up nearly half the screen. They can not be knocked back by any attack unless they overheat.