MACROSS -Shooting Insight- (Switch)

Macross or if you’re a little British lad like I was you’ll know it as Robotech has been around since the dawn of time, as such is the way there are a fair few games available though fewer outside of Japan, Macross -Shooting Insight- being the first original one in sometime ignoring the recent HD release of Robotech: The Macross saga. Brought to us by Red Art Games let’s have a look and see what we over the water have been missing out on.

So I’ll be upfront and say I have zero idea about the franchise, I remember Robotech as a vague memory from childhood but it’s not been something I have ever followed. What I do follow is the Shmup genre, I love it and when I saw this game announced and it was touted as a Shmup I had to have a look and gratefully Red Art Games were more than happy to let me cast my weathered eye over this one. 

The game initially only allows you to play through its story mode which is a totally original story with characters from the various series of MACROSS , the story beats are all done through visual novel-style scenes with a lot of dialogue and Japanese voice acting, again don’t take this section as gospel from me, I’m not a Robotecher by any stretch of the imagination but there is a lot of dialogue but you can skip it if, like me, you’re not here for the reason you’re here for the action. 

Locking the Arcade mode behind a Story mode completion wasn’t the best move, the pacing is all over the place and the game is really adamant on telling you what’s going on at all times but not being able to understand Japanese meant a lot of the in-game chat was completely lost on me as my attention was elsewhere instead of the subtitles that littered the bottom of the screen 90% of the time. 

There is quite a robust Gallery mode featuring items, artwork, and other tidbits from the various Macross series that are represented here, it has that feeling of a real celebration title for fans and I can’t knock it for that, plenty of unlockables and even a mode where you can fight other “ace pilots” allowing you to reenact battles from the source material, it’s certainly a title for the fans but as a Shmup, I have my reservations which I’ll go into now. 

Before I go into the nitty-gritty of the game I will say graphically it’s a beauty to look at when it wants to be, the models are fantastic and the in-game cutscenes really nail the look of space combat, it has moments of bright vibrant battles and vicious asteroid fields with you flying between debris while taking on the enemy forces, artwork litters the menus and loading screens with some fantastic drawings, really can’t fault the visuals from a purely visual aspect. 

What was the first major downfall for the game for me was how busy the screens can get and this will absolutely spell disaster for your health bar. There were many times when I got hit by an enemy bullet and hadn’t seen where it had come from because the screen was full of explosions and asteroids everywhere.

You also have to contend with subtitles all over, character portraits and random full screen visuals before the game starts playing some J-pop style music. It’s disorientating and messy which is absolutely what you do not want in a Shmup, especially one that hits as hard as this one.

Macross -Shooting Insight- has several difficulty modes and even the option to slowly regain health but it only gives you one credit in the story mode, that means you’ll end up having to replay stages over and over again if you fall victim to the visual vomit that appears on screen and you absolutely need to finish Story mode before you can unlock the slightly cleaner and better paced Arcade mode. 

A unique aspect of the game is how often it changes the playing field, you can start a stage as a vertical shmup before you switch into a free movement twin-stick shooter, and then top it off with a horizontal shooter, sometimes you’ll be in a plane mode and other times the slightly bulkier mech mode which gives you a slightly bigger hitbox as your whole ship is a hitbox rather than a smaller sprite of a hitbox, another misstep by the developer on that. 

I enjoyed the fact the game mixed playstyles up but I could have really missed the free range modes, they dragged the most and felt really barren, something this game has a real problem with as most of the stages are just set in space and feel drab in terms of environments. 

The controls are responsive though I feel the ships all control a little too slow, there is a dodge button that gives you a few frames of invulnerability that you’ll absolutely need if not to dodge but to move you up the screen a little quicker. You have a screen-clearing bomb and your basic shot, naturally, the controls change to a twin-stick shooter style aiming when you hit those sections, I did love the dodge mechanic and think more Shmups should look into something along those lines. 

There is a special place in hell for some of the enemy ships who very quickly move left/right, up/down and fire straight ahead, these are a nightmare to deal with and when they drop the jewels you need to power up your very weak shots you’ll get quite the headache as the dodge doesn’t push you forward or back meaning making your ship powerful when these turn up an absolute nightmare. 

MACROSS -Shooting Insight- is an awkward title for me, I can appreciate how much of a celebratory title this is and would imagine any fan of the source material being in heaven with what is on offer, possibly enough to overlook the failings as a Shmup it has but coming in without that familiarity of the source and only looking at it as a Shmup, it’s pretty to its detriment, has some quirky and fun ideas but overall hits the bare minimum of the genre and forcing players through a story mode to get to the meat of the game is a real misstep. 

If you’re a fan of MACROSS you’ll find alot to love here but if you’re just after your next Shmup fix there are plenty more of them out there, credit to Red Art Games for taking a chance on this niche title but without that familiarity this isn’t a title I’ll be coming back to anytime soon.