Macross Plus Arcade Video Game

MACROSS PLUS ARCADE VIDEO GAME
Coin-op Console Game
Banpresto
¥100 per credit

Copyright © Big West / Macross Project

— by Kenneth Jin-ho Cho

Due to its recent fifteenth anniversary, a recent resurgence in MACROSS-themed home video games are due to hit the market in 1997 for all the current major consoles (Sony Playstation, Sega Saturn, and Nintendo 64). Until then, there is little in the way of software, except for vintage games, to tie over the eagerly awaiting MACROSS fans. In December 1996, Banpresto, in a limited release throughout Japan, has given the fans what they may have been wanting since the first OVA hit the streets: MACROSS PLUS, the video game.

Banpresto is the company responsible for the first MACROSS-related coin-op game, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross. In this classic vertical-scrolling action game, players controlled Valkyrie pilot Ichijo Hikaru through the course of the MACROSS Movie's plot, using his VF-1 to shoot down Zentradi battlegear in an effort to reach Bodolza and defeat him. Keeping to a tried and true formula, Banpresto has kept the blueprint and applied it to the MACROSS PLUS saga.

Players have the choice between three Valkyries to play: the VF-11 Thunderbolt, Shinsei Industry's prototype YF-19, and General Galaxy's YF-21 model. Like the original coin-op game, Macross Plus assaults the player with a wide variety of weaponry, ranging from the Zentradi-like powersuits from the beginning of OVA 1 to original designs from MACROSS PLUS that were never implemented in the series or movie. Players start off in Fighter Mode but by gaining special power-ups, the fighters change to Gerwalk or Battroid Mode. Two players can join forces for even more MACROSS PLUS mayhem. Throughout the course of the game, other power-ups include missiles, guided missiles, bombs and little side buddies that chip in with the shooting -- all pretty much standard fare for a vertical shooter.

There are seven stages, each ending with a big boss, through the story of MACROSS PLUS. The ultimate goal is to reach the Macross in Macross City, where Sharon Apple awaits you. The game begins at New Edwards Base, with the player attempting to escape with one of the three Valkyries to get to Earth. The other stages quickly follow, taking the player on a whirlwind tour of the Planet Eden, through hyperspace and into Earth's orbital defense forces. The sixth stage, which features fighting over the skies of Macross City, is rather spectacular, as players follow the channel of water and highways into Macross while Ghost X-9 fighters zip around, trying to take them out.

In the MACROSS PLUS video game, the player not only controls the fighter but also the pilot. With the YF-19 and the YF-21, obviously the pilots are Isamu Dyson and Guld Bowman, respectively. Interestingly, the pilot of the VF-11 is a woman, yet nameless to all available sources. It is the author's sneaking suspicion that this is actually an updated Komilia Jenius, first daughter of Max and Milia Jenius and star of the PC-Engine game SUPER DIMENSIONAL FORTRESS MACROSS 2036. There are cut scenes throughout the game and with each character, upon completion of the game, there is a different ending. Isamu's ending is the movie edition ending, standing on the Macross with Myung looking at a new sunrise. Guld's is more cheerful than his original ending, a drive through Macross City. And the anonymous female pilot provides the fan service, taking a shower after a hard won battle and sunbathing on top of the Macross.

One of the few video arcades lucky enough to get this vertical scrolling action game, Game Fantasia in the Shibuya District, has put the title through its paces and the game receives a healthy amount of interest. Overall, the game is a standard vertical shooter but because of the MACROSS PLUS theme, the play is seemingly more enhanced. With hope, American fans of MACROSS PLUS may be seeing this title in their own arcades sometime in the near future.