Robotech was the awesome early eighties import of Big West's Super Dimenional Fortress Macross TV series (plus Southern Cross and Mospeada, which all make up the Robotech Chronology). With a few different names and conceptual changes, Robotech: The Macross Saga was born! The show did incredibly well and caught the attention of a whole generation, it also paved the way for bringing anime into the mainstream for the USA. The story for the most part involved a war torn earth united against an alien threat and utilizing the alien's own technology against them.
This game is aimed mostly to appease hardcore Robotech fans, fans of the show will also note all the familiar voices like Cam Clarke as Jack Archer, who had roles in the original series back in its heyday (Cam played Max Sterling). We also hear the voices of Roy Fokker, Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes and Minmei make their comeback as they also play the new characters in the game like Izzy and Kiyora. The genre this falls into is basically that of a mission based shooter not unlike Medal of Honor... however there's several distinct differences, for instance Battlecry is a third person shooter and instead of a person, you control a Veritech fighter. A veritech is a robotech fighter jet that can transform into one of 3 modes. The fighter jet, the Guardian or gerwalk (a jet that has sprouted arms and legs), and the Battloid (a giant, humanoid robot). To change into any of the 3 modes you push a corresponding direction on the digital pad of the Dualshock controller.
Unlike ALL the Macross games to date, you can actually move around and have actual missions and Macross related business at hand. To compare I've got Macross VFX2, a sort of fantasy Mecha blitz taking various Macross related Valkyries (AKA Veritechs) from the original Macross movie Do you Remember Love to the fighters from Macross 7... where they... uh... fly their Valkyries using guitars...
Anyway! Let's do this!
Why it sucks: This puppy lack so much variety... The missions for the most part are just frustrating. Dog fight, hostage rescue, destroy munitions, save destroids, repeat. I was also dissappointed by the lack of SDF-1 related missions! That was the hook that got me, I couldn't resist the fight over Macross Island and snatched it up without a second thought. It's a pretty cool dogfight, but it's painfully average. After that it's wasteland hell! Mostly this whole game focuses on the Malcontent Zentraedei uprisings, a depressing chapter in the Robotech history where the survivors of the now scorched earth and the now (mostly) peaceful zentraedei try to make the planet liveable again. Malcontents keep the RDF in business, and business unfortunately is good. So Jack is constantly on call with his Veritech. CONSTANTLY. And while I understand it's a one player game, even on it's easiest setting the game is a major headache with the amount of enemies that spawn all over the place. Typically the worst missions involve protecting something such as the stupidly defenseless Cat's Eye solo or defending some Civic Center or my least favorite, guarding trucks filled with civilians as they move through ridiculously hostile territory! The dogfights are honestly ho-hum, you'd probably be better off with ANY of the Ace Combat games as opposed to this or even the Star Wars Starfighter series Like Jedi Starfighter, Rogue Leader, Rebel Assault, etc. Plenty of better dogfight titles compared to this.
The story moves at an annoying pace, we jump from the launch of the SDF-1 straight into its return to earth and THEN to the final battle of the first Robotech war. THEN we go to the Malcontent uprisings which lasts through the entirety of the rest of the game. You get about 4-5 missions based in the SDF-1 related missions, then you get like 25 (probably a lot more) freakin' Malcontent/wasteland missions!!! Then there's the unlockable stuff... It's neat that you can get an Armored veritech or Super Veritech, not to mention the enemy Battle armors. But since you can't use the Armored Veritech or Male/Female Zentraedi Power Armors outside of Versus mode, it kills the enjoyment a little. Then there's the Super Veritechs, who's the jackass who decided to keep them in space only?!?!? What the hell??? You can trick the computer into letting you keep the armor on, but you have to perform a space mission before a earth-based mission WITH the armor on in order to do so. The game as a general rule feels awfully sloppy in design, the attack contact points are accurate enough and visuals are great but I noticed that the music was skipping quite often for no apparent reason. I left the main screen up for a few minutes and noticed that the tempo had gotten extremely fast in the music, again for no apparent reason. It also made strange screeching sounds during some of the fights. I wish they'd thought about including some clips from the actual show, would've been nice. The painting-ish pictures are very well done, but actual clips from the show would have worked better for telling the first half of the story and it'd be a great way to show the accuracy of the in-game models. While I wasn't hindered by this, I'm sure some wished that the training mode covered transforming from various modes as opposed to simply HOW to use them. They merely point out the basics of each mode and what that mode is capable of (IE: Sniping, picking things up, dropping chaff, etc.) as opposed to rounding out the training with some lessons in serious combat situations where you have to use multiple modes.
Why it rules: For any fan of the TV show this is like a dream come true! Er, sort of. The visuals are incredible and attention to mecha detail is exquisite, look like they just wandered off the show! The Veritechs are extremely well animated at doing everything from transforming to walking around. The controls are great and once you get a hang on how the transformations work, you'll be RDF material in no time! Versus battles are great! You can unlock extra veritechs as you progress and you can also gain extra paint jobs. Like Rick's VF-1J, Roy's VF-1S Skull leader, Max & Miriya's VF-1Js, Ben's VF-1A, the "Stealth" Paint job and the coolest thing is that you can apply each paint job to the Veritech of your choosing!!! Like making the new YF-1R Skull leader, or painting the VF-1D up like Miriya's Veritech. This also applies to the Super Veritechs when you can use them ^_^
The voice acting is great and as a special treat they gathered up the original voice actors from the series to return for their original roles as well as perform some news ones! As another added treat, you get to see interviews with the voice actors about them, their roles, and their thoughts about their characters. I'm kind of shocked they didn't drag Carl Macek out for this as well!
All in all, this is something no Robotech fan should be missing out on, it's a good and actually a really fun game despite its faults and is just dripping with waves of nostalgia for any longtime fan.
I smell TIE-IN: Well besides the show (duh), there's the 2nd and 3rd installments of the series. All 3 parts are available from ADV Films on DVD in boxed sets capturing all their RObotechy glory! If that's a little cheesy for ya, Check with Animeigo! They've got the ORIGINAL Super Dimensional Fortress Macross TV series subtitled and given it a visual upgrade from that of what we saw in Robotech! There's also the various series that spawned from the Macross Movie: 'Do you Remember Love?', such as Macross II, Macross Plus and the horrifyingly lame Macross 7.
If swag is more your game, try Toynami's various Robotech offerings ranging from Busts, keychains and cute little morphers, to the super poseable veritechs and the hard to find Masterpiece figures! And if Macross is still your honey, try Yamato's super detailed scale Veritech figures like the Super VF-1S Strike Valkyrie, Bandai's Reissue Valkyries like the Super VF-1S or the Hikaru VF-1A or ARII's model kits and 1/6 scale PVC figurines. Poke around on eBay and you'll find a host of model kits and other things to feed your cravings, or give a quick trip to Bigbadtoystore and poke around there in their Macross/Robotech section. Or do so at about any other anime/import stores online.
For more games there's the awful Macross related titles from Japan (there's a GOOD reason you have never seen them in the USA), and then there's the Robotech game on the Gameboy Advance.
Overall: As anime mecha games go, Zone of the Enders can't be beat. This game however, could have done so much better had they used more variety and ironed out the bizarre sound glitches. Sadly it performs no better than an average shooter, but even as average shooters go this thing gets high marks even for people new to the series. It's a fun game worth at least a rental or two, but if you're a big fan of the series (or Macross in general) then snatch this up, if you're a hardcore fan I suggest you hunt down the "boxed set" that working designs helped to put out for all three console versions of the game for the gamecube, PS2 and X-box Each of which contain a t-shirt, dog tags, soundtrack and a RDF decal all in a handsome collector's box.
To narrow it down, if you're big on the Robotech Macross Saga you NEED to get this, if however you're just testing the waters you should rent it first.