Review: Macross - Shooting Insight
Macross makes its way west, but does this shoot’em up survive the journey?
Fresh from watching a bootleg copy of Akira that was kindly provided by a friend's older brother, I had my mind blown by these Japanese “cartoons” that were cooler, and a lot more action-packed than the ones that were shown on UK television. On a weekend trip to my local video rental store I happened to come across Macross: Do You Remember Love? Sitting on the shelf. While I wouldn’t learn until years later that it’s just a small part in quite a large series, this adventure of Hikaru Ichijyo took me on the grand sci-fi adventure I had always dreamed of.
Macross - Shooting Insight is a shmup that has players battle their way across a unique story that’s set within the Macross universe. Featuring a cast of characters who are all pulled tighter from the various sides of the intellectual property, on paper Macross - Shooting Insight should be the one game Macross fans have been waiting for. However in reality is a bang-average shmup that does leave a lot to desire.
The main bulk of the game rotates around its story mode. Here players can select one of five available pilots, each with their own fighter craft, stats and weapons, to then play through the ten stages that make up their side of the wider narrative. Each arena also offers support from one of the franchise’s songstress characters who’ll once react with augment your abilities through some excellent musical performances that are pulled straight from the anime series. Admittedly the bulk of the stories beats did go way over my head (more on that later), but from what I did gather it’s about saving the kidnapped songstresses, to then ultimately save the day. It’s ultimately quite forgettable, but for die-hard fans of Macross, it’ll no doubt resonate a lot further.
While the story and the order in how it plays out slightly differ with each pilot, the basic gameplay remains the same. Between missions, the narrative is drip-fed to us via static images and an impressive Japanese voiceover. Sadly there’s no English dub and as such main story beats and in-mission chat are presented via m subtitles, naturally this isn’t an issue, but with the chaotic action going on the tiny subtitles can be missed which does break immersion on what your character is fighting.
At its heart Macross - Shooting Insight is a shmup that doesn’t offer much that differs from the established shmup experience. You’ll often be blasting enemies that appear from the opposite end of the screen whilst manoeuvring around the many lasers and missiles that’ll be streaking towards you. To keep things in line with the anime series, at certain points, your fighter craft will transform into either a full-blown mech or a half-transformation between fighter and mech. Sadly the game doesn’t allow you to transform at will and uses predetermined and scripted events to do so. While this is serviceable, it would have added a whole different layer to combat if left to the player to decide how they battle.
As mentioned above, Macross - Shooting Insight is a shmup through and through. Each area consists of a multi-stage path that always ends with a boss battle. To keep gameplay fresh each time your fighter transforms you’ll also be presented with a variation on the shmup genre. These range from side-scrolling, 360° twin shooter, and third-person. While each mode is pretty fun to play the variations aren’t used enough. For instance, twin-stick combat is mostly left for boss battles, while the Space Harrier-inspired third-person sections are few and far between. Each character’s Valkyrie is a nifty little fighter with each sporting an upgradable primary weapon and an impressive array of lock-on missiles. These follow traditional shmup values, however you can’t fire the primary weapon whilst aiming your missiles to lock on. You also have access to a Support Strike which fills the screen with friendly projectiles that are probably fired off-screen from your supporting battleship - but this is up for interpretation.
In true shmup style Macross - Shooting Insight has a punishing difficulty setting that’ll test the limits of the strongest shmup veterans. If you do want an easier time the story mode does allow you to tone down its difficulty level, and gives you passive health regeneration. These do make the game somewhat more accessible to shmup newbies, but the game still throws a lot of enemies at you. In further keeping with tradition, you’ll also be able to increase your damage and weapon fire rate by collecting items within the levels.
On the surface, the presentation is pretty well done. The crisp, neon graphics capture the intensity of the anime series, and the vibrant backgrounds give each stage the sense that you’re part of a much larger battle. The downside to this is that aside from blasting the enemy fighters there’s not a great deal more to do. Stages are devoid of any meaningful obstacles to dodge, and for most, you’ll simply be outshooting your opponent. While boss battles do offer some variation they too become a cat and dog tale of who can destroy who first. Likewise, with the game retaining its native language voice-over, any in-game conversation between the characters is reduced to small subtitles. With the sheer volume of content that’s going on it’s quite easy to miss these smaller moments which does impact your wider understanding of the narrative.
Once story mode has been completed the game doesn’t offer a few more game modes to tempt you back onto the battlefield. Again, these extra modes fall into established shmup territory with modes such as arcade, and boss rush. More interestingly there’s one addition called Area Survey which allows you to reply to any stranger with the bonus of hunting for collectibles - handy for those who want to 100% the game. Each pilot also offers some replayability with their variations in skills, but once you’ve experienced story mode, you’ll already have your favourite.
Overall, while I enjoyed Macross - Shooting Insight it’s a game that doesn’t bring anything new - or does anything different from other shmups on the market. It’s a basic shoot ’em-up experience that caters for players who are already fans of Macross or those who have some underlying interest in the anime’s intricate plot. While Macross - Shooting Insight looks graphically pleasing and has an excellent musical score, it is just another run-of-the-mill shoot’em up.
Rating 7/10
A code was kindly provided by the publisher for this review.
I reviewed Macross - Shooting Insight on the PlayStation 5 and the game can be purchased on the PS Store by clicking here.
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