Reviewed: November 5, 2002
Reviewed by: Loki

Publisher
TDK Mediactive

Developer
Lucky Chicken

Released: October 16, 2002
Genre: Shooter
Players: 4
ESRB: Everyone

6
5
5
6
5.4

Supported Features:

Auto-cannon fire will light up the skies in this epic intergalactic war with the Zentraedi legions…and the best defense that Earth has is the Veritech Valkyrie, a transformable fighter that moves through the air with the grace of a dancer and packs the punch of an armored division.

Features:

• Four person multiplayer capabilities via the GBA competitive link cable
• Four playable characters – Rick, Roy, Max or Miryia with the option to unlock secret playable characters and Robots
Transform your Veritech robot into 3 modes; Fighter, Guardian, and Battloid
• The ability to upgrade and enhance weapons through accrued points and credits from destroying enemies
• Fast and fun gameplay that is true to the Robotech series

The GBA version of Robotech is not a bad game, yet it barely rises above mediocrity, both in gameplay and features. If you have seen the Robotech that the console owners are playing then you will be even more critical of this title. Granted, we can’t expect the splendor that the powerful console versions offer, but Macross Saga is an unimpressive game, even by GBA standards.

You get to pick your character from one of eleven cast members of the Robotech series. This choice is superfluous since the game doesn’t change based on the character chosen. You then hop into your mighty-morphin’ Veritech robot and proceed to blast endless swarms of invading Zentraedi. Webster’s defines Zentraedi as “incredibly stupid aliens with predictable attack patterns”. Even when the occasional boss rears his ugly head the most novice of gamers will blast through these battles with little effort.

I hate to make any comparisons to the console games, but one of the big selling points of those titles (aside from the cell-shaded graphics) was the ability to morph your robot to suit your mission objectives. Macross Saga allows you to change between the three combat modes but unlike the console games you simply are never required to do so.

I played the first half-dozen levels without ever switching out of Guardian mode. When I finally remembered that I could switch I realized I didn’t have to. In fact, the other two modes are more hazardous to your health. Playing as the slow Battloid results in you taking a severe beating while morphing into the fighter presents the opportunity to crash and burn. The Guardian is virtually crash proof, much faster than the Battloid, and only slightly slower than the Fighter.

There is a clever scoring system that makes use of experience points awarded with each enemy you blast from the sky. You can then spend these on a variety of robot upgrades such as Speed, Power, Strength, etc. You can power-up your craft even further by collecting the occasional power-up encountered during the various levels. These make an already-easy game even easier. There are so many health icons that you will never feel threatened and the weapon upgrades are totally unnecessary, as you can easily wipe out the entire Zentraedi fleet with your stock weapons.

Robotech’s claim to fame in both the series and the console games is the impressive amount of firepower these Veritech fighters can deliver. Swarm missiles, often numbering in the dozens swarm the skies with smoke trails and fiery explosions at the point of impact – at least that they way it is supposed to be.

Whether it is a limitation of the GBA or the lack of properly motivated programmers, these robots only spit out one measly missile at a time with an ugly vapor trail that rewards you with an even uglier low-tech explosion.

Whether you are fighting in space or over a crude city skyline, the graphics are simply unimpressive. At least the cell shading gave the console versions an authentic primitive look by design; here it is a result of lack of design.

Robotech supports up to four players and makes use of the game’s overhead mode of gameplay. Battling human opponents is far more challenging and fun than playing against the computer AI of the solo game.

The only other thing left to keep you playing longer than you will probably want to is the locked characters, but since these have no real bearing on the game there is little motivation to subject yourself to repeated gameplay.