As my regular readers know, I’m not across a lot of anime but have recently managed to get my hands on the likes of “One Piece” and “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime” which both proved to be a great time despite a lot of the subject matter being lost to me. Macross is another Anime I have no idea about, although I swear we had something over here in Australia called Robotech that looks very similar, so when the opportunity arose to check out MACROSS Shooting Insight by Kaminari Games Inc., promising giant mechs and bullet hell action, I jumped at the chance. What’s it Like? Calibrate your flight controls, turn up your headphones, and lock and load as we review MACROSS Shooting Insight on Nintendo Switch.
MACROSS Shooting Insight is a bullet hell shoot ’em up that follows the story of the Macross Frontier fleet who are battling Zentradi’s relentless invasion. You are tasked with rescuing songstresses in a story mode that changes depending on what pilot you choose and covers 5 different Macross series. You pilot a Valkyrie, a fighter jet that can transform into a robot and will shoot, dodge, and missile lock your way through each pilot’s story, obtaining collectables and coming face to face with iconic characters from the series. On paper, there’s a lot of story and levels here, but in execution, it’s clunky and repetitive, and playing it feels like a chore…
Gameplay mainly focuses on side scrolling or top down shooting, giving you a special roll or dodge mechanic as well as the ability to use your right stick to lock on and fire missiles, but it all feels rather slow. The gameplay does change it up at times, putting you in a half transformed mode which allows you to move around a top down area to take out specific targets, and also a third person mode, which doesn’t really work as you can only target the top half of the screen, forcing you to lock targets with your missiles should they fly out of your targeting range. It baffles me that the 3rd person mode only allows you to really interact with 50% of the screen, and the excitement with the change in gameplay style is immediately lost due to the clunky controls and combat. Your ability to maneuver is almost set at a snail’s pace, so instead of being able to dodge bullets and counter-attack, you mainly have to slowly move from one side of the screen to the other trying your best to blast enemies away. Most of the levels see you flying through space with minor environment detail, blasting through enemies to power up your resonance, which then plays a pop idol type track and grants you certain abilities while trying to dazzle the player with flashing lights and a pink haze. While I get that it’s lore appropriate for the Macross series, it’s a rather jolting experience going from sombre and serious tones to full on pop music, especially when encountering what is meant to be a serious boss encounter, the tone of the game is all over the place.
Once you have managed to get through the several story modes (which change depending on character choice) you then unlock a myriad of gameplay modes to try to keep you engaged. Ace Battle puts you in a one-on-one dogfight with another character from the series. It’s usually set in a side-scrolling mode and your opponent can outmaneuver you at a ridiculous pace, making it an incredibly frustrating experience. There’s also a level select mode and a lot of collectables to find and view, which are fairly easy to hunt down for completionists, removing some of the frustrations of completing your collection.
Graphically, the game does have some decent visuals for the cutscenes and collectables, but the details in gameplay are rather bland. There are not too many enemy types nor is there much diversity in the environments, meaning that the game rarely has moments that excite or surprise. The good thing though is that the game runs at a smooth framerate for the most part, and I experienced no bugs, crashes, or issues during my play time.
For my Valkyrie Pilots looking into accessibility options, there aren’t many to speak of unfortunately. You can change difficulty options, including regenerating health, which allows for a more story-based experience, and the game is quite difficult and unforgiving without said options, which I feel are largely due to the pace at which your aircraft can move. At $60 AUD, MACROSS Shooting Insight is fairly hefty considering what’s on offer. Sure, there’s a fair amount of fan service for the diehard Macross fans, but other than that specific demographic, there’s not a lot on offer here. It’s a Macross game, and a bullet hell shooter, but it doesn’t really succeed at being either. Definitely one for the die-hard fans.
So, What’s it Like? MACROSS Shooting Insight is like 1944 crossed with Giant Robots.
I award it 58/100
In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by the publisher, but this doesn’t influence my score.
