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CHŌJIKŪ YŌSAI MACROSS 2036
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超時空要塞マクロス2036
©Big West
©NCS 1992
Release : 1992-04-03 (¥7200)
SuperCDRom² NSCD2007
Shooter / Horizontal
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Chōjikū Yōsai Macross 2036 is an horizontal shooter by Masaya and published by
NCS. The game is based on the popular and long-running Japanese animation series of
the same name and first aired in 1982. In the future, humanity is engaged in a war against
giant humanoid aliens called the Zentraedi. The game seems to chronologically takes
place after the events of the original Macross movie. Macross 2036 features
seven stages, from devastated cities on Earth to strikes in space, deep into enemy territory.
The story is told through a series of fully voiced animated cutscenes very similar in style
to the anime. The player takes control of Mylene Jenius, a Veritech fighter pilot.
Her mecha, in the Macross tradition, can transform into three attack
mode - the fighter jet, the intermediate Gerwalk and the humanoid
Battroid. However the player can't transform at will and the game decides of which
mode to use for a particular situation. For that reason, each level is split into two distinct
sections - the first one is a traditional side scrolling shooter where only the fighter jet
configuration is available, then the Veritech switches to its Battroid mode
during boss encounters. In that mode, the player continuously fires at the enemy and controls
are simply used to change the firing direction. The fighter is equipped with a front Vulcan
gun and side missiles. Fourteen secondary weapons are also available and can only be
purchased from the second level on. Experience points are awarded to the player throughout
the game and used between stages to obtain such weapons - however they can only be equipped
once and are discarded after use.
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Chōjikū Yōsai Macross animation series was first produced in 1982. Shōji Kawamori wrote the original
story, Ken'ichi Matsuzaki and Kazutake Miyatake designed the fantastic mechas and Haruhiko Mikimoto
designed the characters. In 1999, a huge alien spaceship crashed on Earth and the Zentraedi, race of giant
humanoid aliens, arrive ten years later to take it back. They believe that it may contain answers to their own origins.
But the spaceship is
now in the hands of the humans - they named it the SDF-1 (the Super Dimension Fortress) and it became
humanity's last line of defense against the Zentraedi. The story is, of course, not so simple and complex relationships
link all the main characters together (Ichijo Hikaru, Lynn Mingmei, Hayase Misa) and the aliens
themselves. Macross was exported in 1985 to north American and Europe and was renamed Robotech. However,
the original series counts 36 episodes but American network televisions asked for more. They simply used
totally unrelated Japanese series (Southern Cross and Mospeada) to artificially extend it
to 85 episodes... The story was also heavily altered and the character names completely changed. Finally, Macross has always been
a profitable video game franchise - it appeared on many console and, surprisingly enough, several Japanese arcade games
were also produced. Here is a non exhaustive list:
Chōjikū Yōsai Macross (MSX, 1984),
Chōjikū Yōsai Macross (Famicom, 1985),
Chōjikū Yōsai Macross (arcade, 1992),
Chōjikū Yōsai Macross 2036 (PCE-CDRom, 1992),
Chōjikū Yōsaii Macross: Eien no Love Song (PCE-CDRom, 1992),
Chōjikū Yōsai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie (Super Famicom, 1993),
Chōjikū Yōsai Macross II (arcade, 1993),
Macross Plus Game Edition (arcade, 1996),
Macross Digital Mission VF-X (Playstation, 1997),
Chōjikū Yōsai Macross: Ai Oboete Imasu ka (Sega Saturn, 1997),
Macross Do You Remember Love ? (Playstation, 1999),
Macross VF-X 2 (Playstation, 1999),
Macross 7 - Ginga no Heart o Furuwasero (Game Boy Color, 2000),
Chōjikū Yōsai Macross: True Love Song (WonderSwan, 2000),
Macross Plus (Playstation, 2000),
Macross M3 (Dreamcast, 2001),
Chōjikū Yōsai Macross (Playstation 2, 2003),
Macross Ace Frontier (Playstation Portable, 2008)
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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Some people are probably going to shout at me in response to what I am about to say...
but I think that Macross 2036, as a "shooter", is a bit bland and
monotonous. The soundtrack and the graphics are great, they are very faithful to the
animated series and get even better as the game progresses. The same remark applies to
the fully voiced animated cut scenes. Some of the stage backgrounds are stunning and
the game features an incredible parallax scrolling. So where's the catch ? Well, not
much really happens during the game. Waves of enemies just look alike and are not very
tough overall. So here you have it, as a "Macross shooter" this game is a success
(and probably one of the best) but as a "shooter" it just feels a bit average
and sub-standard. I don't know, maybe I'm biased by the price this game usually goes for,
but my heart still goes in favor of the excellent Scramble Valkyrie for the
Super Famicom system.
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