Mecha fan wants to know good games featuring GIANT JAPANESE ROBOTS. (i.e. Virtual-ON)

[jomon]

Yo guys and girls. I'm basically bouncing off the walls right now. I've been playing Phantasy Star Online 2 on my Vita, and holy crap, this game is amazing. Now, I love this game to bits, but I also downloaded demos of Damascus Gear and Assault Gunners just to try them out, and I actually haven't touched them yet.

What keeps blasting around in my head like a hurricane is this: I LOVE VIRTUAL-ON. Virtual-ON is my favorite fighting game series ever. I love portable gaming. I need to know how to satiate the desire to be a huge robot and run around at high speeds fighting other giant robots.

If I had my way, there would be a Virtual-ON game for Vita, because we all know the system could run it and it would be amazing (a 3DS release would also be absolutely welcome), buuuuut, no. There aren't very many rabid giant robot fans out there, and honestly, I'm kinda lost as to where I should turn for a good 3D robot game.

Here's some stuff you should know before answering my question of "What game is there for me to play, be it in Japanese or English, that is reminiscent of Virtual-ON in terms of design and gameplay?"

1) I LOATHE Neon Genesis Evangelion. The characters (with the exception of Kaworu) never develop, I dislike the music (yeah, I know, I'm weird), the designs of the EVA units are ...okay, but the biological nature of them squicks me a bit (especially the Oni version of the one Asuka pilots in the 3.33 movie), and the entire series ALWAYS leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I've watched everything there is to watch in the series' main installments, including the movies, and as well-done and polished as they are in terms of technical prowess, their storytelling nauseates me. Judge me if you want, but just know that I probably won't want to play an EVA game unless it's EXCEPTIONALLY good, like Battle Orchestra (which I'm limited to the portable version of, which means I won't play it because the PSP port is laggy, buggy, and complete GARBAGE to actually play despite being Smash Bros with health bars.)

2) I am primarily a portable gamer, as previously mentioned. I own several consoles, but they're unusable right now as I don't currently own a TV. (moved recently)

3) I love Gundam, but sometimes it just gets boring to me. Not sure why. Build Fighters is something I'd pay a lot of money for to own in game form though.

4) Eureka Seven was a blissful anime to watch. (Haven't seen AO/Astral Ocean yet) Weird, right? I hate Evangelion, yet love Eureka Seven? What's the difference? Oh. That's right. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. The characters all become the heroes they set out to be, rather than constantly resetting to NEET status and purposefully making themselves into mental wrecks without the help of any ENJERU psychic attacks. Did I mention that I hate Evangelion? XD

5) I've never played Front Mission except on Wonderswan for about 20 minutes, nor have I played any of the Armored Core games, unless there was one on windows in the late 90s to early 2000s, in which case I might have played it. Faselei! on Neo Geo Pocket was pretty cool, but kinda slow. Xenogears is one of my favorite games, though I'm not done with it.

6)This final note is important: the type of games I'm hoping to hear about will be based heavily on fast-paced action, preferably not too heavy on shooting, since I get bored with just firing at moving objects. I like being a moving object, able to fight against another moving object melee-style. Thank my Sonic-heavy childhood for that one. 3D air combat based around a platforming engine is like the icing on the cake, and that is of course directly related to my experiences with Virtual-ON.

Okay, thanks for reading my huge list of stuff about what I'm looking for in a game! If any of you have recommendations for PSP (including PSOne/"PSX"/emulation on PSP), PS Vita, 3DS (NTSC-U, since I can't hack my 3DS), I'd appreciate them very much! Other system console games are appreciated as well, since I'd like to be able to have a vast mental library of stuff like this for later entertainment, but my primary thing is portable gaming.