There are entire universes that we don’t even know exist. Take MACROSS, for instance. Before this week, I’d never heard of it – not even its US incarnation Robotech. Considering I was tasked with reviewing a new MACROSS shoot’em up, it only felt right to do some research. It turns out this Japanese series has seen seven movies, four runs of TV shows, and over forty(!) video games. Entire universes indeed.
Where to even start? MACROSS seems to primarily involve mech-fighters transforming into spaceships and battling. Some of it was chopped up and spliced with two other shows to create Robotech. There’s also a human element, though. The first film was called ‘Super Dimension Fortress MACROSS: Do You Remember Love?’ So, MACROSS isn’t just about the mechs, but the people that pilot them. At least I assume so. The entire thing seems almost impenetrable, and official translations of some series seem to have only recently been made available. Very few games have also made it to the West before this. Quite possibly even zero.
I’ll be honest, Shooting Insight didn’t help me understand any more. You choose a pilot from a choice of five, all of whom are famous characters from the series, then battle across ten stages, all whilst completing a story that I’m sure makes sense to someone. That person isn’t me.
The battling aspect is quite interesting. It uses the transforming nature of the Valkyries (the spaceships our protagonist’s pilot) to switch up the action. You could be in a traditional vertical scroller before your craft switches to a mech for some horizontal scrolling. You could be firing into the screen, or destroying targets in an area, twin-stick style. It’s a welcome amount of variety. However, it’s a feature completely out of the player’s hands. Being able to choose how to switch things up would’ve been amazing. Instead, you’re scripted into changing styles.
Unfortunately, these switch ups are only really presentational. Even if you’re scrolling in a different direction, you’re still doing the same thing.
The aim in each stage is to destroy as much as possible. This can be achieved in several ways. Pressing or holding R1 will fire your weapons. But it’s far more effective to not shoot as you can aim missiles with the right stick when you’re not firing. Sweep the aiming reticule over the enemy and it will lock on; lock on to a couple of enemies and then watch the missiles flow. If you go to the online leaderboards, and download the replays of the players who rack up the best scores, this is the tactic they’re using. Missiles, not bullets.
You can also press ‘Y’ once you’ve saved up enough energy for a screen-filling missile barrage, killing everything in sight. It’s a good way to get yourself out of a pickle, and useful when taking on the bosses at the end of each stage.
Perform well enough and you’ll enter Songstress mode. I didn’t really notice what effect this had on high scores, but the music that plays and the glittery filter that it adds makes everything a lot more awesome. The Songstress tunes and silliness were the things that made me most keen to check out MACROSS. The songs were catchy and fun, and the entire thing is completely tonally incongruous with the rest of the game. It’s great stuff.
Equally great is the number of options presented. I am terrible at shoot ‘em ups. I don’t have the reflexes for them anymore. Luckily MACROSS has some flexible accessibility options. You can activate a mode to recover your health as you play. You can’t get on the leaderboards with it engaged, but then again, I wouldn’t have got on the leaderboards with it switched off. There’s no way I could have managed to complete more than a few stages without it.
These stages come in different orders depending on which character you play. It’s another example of the game trying to inject a bit of variety. Problem is, that variety is often only surface deep. Sure, you’re playing the stages in a different order, but they’re still the same as before. Unfortunately, the stages themselves also don’t stand apart from each other very much. Whilst the transforming vehicle you pilot means that each stage should feel different, the lack of enemy variety and reuse of background assets (black star-spangled backdrops) means that each feels similar to the next.
Not even the boss battles stand out. They’re pretty run-of-the-mill stuff, although they can become very challenging indeed as the screen fills with projectiles and gunfire.
All in all, this is a strange package. I’m sure long-time MACROSS fans will love it as it celebrates the franchise, packed with art from the series, dialogue, characters and music. Together with its boss rush mode, and arcade/story modes, there’s a lot to get involved with.
But none of it really hooked, and if you’re new to the series you might find it equally baffling. It’s all…fine. But I think Shooting Insight is best summarised by its very name. I had to look it up every time as it sounds like a million other things and doesn’t quite have enough uniqueness to make it stick in the brain. I kept calling it Fighting Instinct while writing this review. The correct name never stuck. Like the game itself, it’s competent, but no one will remember it.
RED ART GAMES’ MACROSS – Shooting Insight – is out now on PS5, Switch and PC.