Macross -Shooting Insight- (PS5) Review

Since the 1980s, there have been many Macross titles, but none have been officially released in the West until now. Macross -Shooting Insight- is an odd starting point for American gamers as it mixes heroes and plot points of previous games. This wordy shooter probably isn’t the game to spark curiosity about past releases, but at least English speakers can officially partake in this long running series.

-Shooting Insight- can almost be seen as five games in one: a vertical shooter, a horizontal shooter, a twin-stick free roaming shooter, a behind the shoulder 3^rd person shooter, and a visual novel. There are multiple selectable characters each with their own ship that handle and shoot differently, and all follow their own narrative but ultimately align with similar story beats. For example, one pilot might start the quest as a horizontal shooter whereas another might be vertical, eventually going toe-to-toe with the same bosses and baddies. Unfortunately, it tries to be an everything shooter but doesn’t do any one element particularly well. 

For a shooter, there sure is a lot of dialog. Not only is the dialog unnecessarily long, but it is also difficult to understand since English speakers have no context from its heavily drawn history. Thankfully, these well-drawn visual novel scenes can be skipped so you can get on the shooty business.

This isn’t a fast paced, insane bullethell. Instead, the slower gameplay is more methodical, with rarely more than few enemies on screen simultaneously. However, a strong word of warning – this is a very difficult game. Outfitted with a single life, the player can take a few hits before exploding but stages are long, often between 5-10 minutes. Surviving, even through the first stage, is a triumph if you build your reflexes through memorization.  Almost everything about the difficulty is stacked against the player almost to comical heights. For example, if you manage to survive the first stage by the skin of your teeth, any other game will refill your health on the next. Not here. Which means you will get smoked immediately starting that following stage. It might not be R-Type hard but it definitely will test your tenacity.

The only way I was able to clear the lengthy campaign is from enabling all the player favoring settings in the options menu. Very easy setting. Boosting the health bar by an extra 100%. Turned on health regeneration. And I also found a ship that shoots a spread gun instead of individual lasers so you can actually kill the common enemy.  Unfortunately, scores do not get added to the leaderboard when such liberties are taken, leaving me feeling a bit defeated.

Whether flying vertically, horizontally, from behind the ship 3^rd person shooter-style, or in free range mode, the player has access to a basic shot, a super shot once a meter is filled, and can paint the screen using the right stick. Enemies caught in this tracking wave will then be locked-on and homing missiles can be unleashed. Until I found the pilot with the built-in spread shot, this analog stick waving attack was the only way to defeat the common bad guy as the basic peashooter only shoots directly in front of the slow moving ship; there isn’t a good way to kill enemies otherwise. The circle button dash move also becomes a mandatory skill to learn as bosses often unleash unavoidable waves. Making a single mistake will probably ruin your run.

Also, the 3^rd person behind-the-ship perspective initially looks cool but doesn’t play well. It is impossible to judge depth and shots are restricted to horizontal paths. Thankfully, this is the least used perspective and comes across as a weak Star Fox clone. Personally, I think these segments make the game worse even though it looks cool in screenshots.

This is a long running Japanese shooter and there are some very Japanese things in this game. For example, at certain points, an NPC will start singing and the border of the screen will be filled with color and flowers. It is a really weird WTF moment placed in a game about blasting things in the blackness of space. I’m sure there is a reason for space ladies singing during combat narratively but it is a horrible distraction from the steep difficulty space battles. It also makes the game more difficult as the glitter fills the perimeter of the screen restricting view.

Another annoyance is the inability to adjust options during gameplay. The only way to make a change to any setting is to revert to the main menu and start over. I mention this because the Japanese voice quips are more annoying than a clump of mosquito bites and wanted to shut them off by the second stage. It is also worth mentioning that spoken dialog is exclusively in Japanese with English subtitles. 

Macross -Shooting Insight- is a disappointing debut to Western audiences. The difficulty is brutally unfair, the lengthy narrative only gets in the way and doesn’t make sense if you take the time to read it, and the mixing of shooter types is interesting but doesn’t do any of them well.  This shooter tries to do too much and everything suffers because of it. It is cool than this series has officially made its way stateside but eager fans might want to wait for a ported compilation of the older games instead of being disappointed with this one.

Not As Good As: Natsuki Chronicles

Play It Instead: Z-Warp

Don’t Forget About: Feeble Light

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com

X/Twitter: @ZackGaz

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