MACROSS -Shooting Insight- review

Although creator Shōji Kawamori’s mecha designs inspired both the Transformer franchise and become the basis for one of Robotech’s storylines, Macross seldom shows up across the Pacific without alteration. Joining the property’s 1992 arcade appearance, MACROSS -Shooting Insight- is the second official Western game localization. As such, that might seem like a reason for celebration for Variable Fighter fans.

But delve into Insight’s mishmash of shoot ‘em styles and the excitement could waver. Undoubtedly, the game starts off promising by providing players with a selection of five pilots who each have a distinct combination of a main weapon and lock-on missile behaviors. From Shin Kudo of Zero, Plus’ Isamu Dyson, to Delta’s Hayata Immelmann, there’s a respectable starting roster culled from Macross history.

But once you take flight, you’ll soon realize that some main weapons are more useful than others. Interestingly, your ship selection also changes level order and some of the storytelling across the game’s ten-stage story campaign.

Unharmonious Gold

Pleasingly, Shooting Insight adapts to several skill levels. Not only are there four difficulty settings, but also two different options for regenerative HP. Story mode lets you turn off the game’s visual novel-style cutscenes. Given the occasionally dry localization and scarcity of animation, you’d be forgiven for hopping right into the action.

Like most crossovers, the interactions between characters from different story arcs are aimed at the franchise’s hardcore fans. But unless you understand Japanese, expect to miss out on the subtitled dialog that plays out during battle on the bottom of the screen. Then there’s the irksome issue of not having access to the DLC that was offered with the Japanese release of Insight. Harmony Gold’s IP stranglehold means Western players won’t see any mention of the original series.

Four Kinds of Action; Three Are Competent

Tackling the progression of stages, Insight delivers four different styles of combat. The first two provide serviceable shoot ‘em up action, with both horizontally- and vertically-scrolling segments. There’s also a free-scrolling divergence that provides a top-down view as you fly around taking down marked targets and pesky enemies. The weakest approach appears during the game’s three-dimensional encounters, which feel like Space Harrier, albeit without any forward movement. Luckily, there are only about four instances of these confrontations and they’re all relatively brief.

Interestingly, there are two, freely interchangeable approaches to battle. By holding down the right trigger, your pilot can fire their main gun, with your selected Variable Fighter selection dispensing firepower that ranges from a rapid-fire spread shot to a series of laser blasts. I preferred to rely on missiles that locked onto any enemy who was unlucky enough to fly through my aiming cone. Since these can hit foes behind you, it’s an easier way to approach Shooting Insight, potentially leading to a spot game’s leaderboards.

A Verse for Augmented Weaponry

Collecting crystals dropped by defeated foes or maintaining an opponent-killing combo will augment the power of your weapons and increase your scoring, respectively. But MACROSS’s real reward happens once you shoot down the jammers scattered across each stage. Once all these are destroyed, the songstresses let loose with melody, the edges of the screen get starry like an old purikura print, and you’ll benefit from a stat buff. Given the placement of jammers, expect this to mostly influence the game’s mysteriously bland boss encounters.

But a lack of weapon balance and disappointing showdowns aren’t the only flaws. Shooting Insight’s enemy attack patterns and variety are lackluster. And while performance outside the end-of-stage explosions is fairly solid, collision detection is dubious. On the upside, that means the occasional graze isn’t penalized. Finally, if you’re really trying to justify the game’s $39.99 digital/$49.99 physical price, MACROSS unlocks Arcade, Ace Battle, and Boss Rush modes once you beat the story mode. However, it feels like another serving of serviceable, rather than the kind of digression the game needs.

MACROSS -Shooting Insight- was played on Switch with review code provided by the publisher.