Macross M3

"Another macross game disapointment."

As a long time Macross fan, i had noticed this game in the dreamcast line up for a while and finally had a chance to pick it up. Whilst i missed out on the playstation VF-X games, i did manage to get hold of Macross Plus, and was sorely disapointed with it. Unfortunately i'm sorry to say macross M3 isn't much better. I think there was some hope that, free from the limitating shackles of the PSX hardware, a macross game on a more powerful console such as the dreamcast, could be a lot better than those before. This game realises none of those hopes.

It's another seemingly rushed made for the japanese fan market title that rests on the popularity of the series it's based on.

The game focuses on Max and Milia from the original Macross series, as well as a captured Zentradi girl called Moa who they adopt as their daughter (it's not Mylene the daughter they have in the macross series). Together they form the M3 of the title, and form a squadron that deals with hotspots on earth and the colonies.

The game features long cutscenes that are mostly static manga and text in the style of obscure japanese game novels that haven't taken off in the west (in part because they are usually awful). Because all the dialog is given in japanese, it makes it hard or impossible to follow. If you watch a lot of anime you'll pick bits up, but basically this element is cut off to you unless you speak japanese. This is a shame because for macross fans keen for some new macross narrative, this game can't offer much, and it's probably only those people who would tollerate the rest of the games shortcomings.

The rest of the game revolves around pretty rudementry air combat game style. you fly a variety of variable form fighters (jets that transform into robots) from the various macross series, as well as a few designed solely for the game. To the games credit these new mecha are designed by the original mecha designer from macross, Shôji Kawamori. Most of this is sub-afterburner game mechanics, and is locked firmly in the arcade side of the gameplay scale.

The gameplay is seemingly divided into 3 seperate styles, Air/space combat, Canyon runs and ground attacks,
unfortunately none of these really take advantage of the ability to transform into three different modes and often you don't really need to transform at all, usually one form is best for each of the game play styles. On top of this the missions are timed, forcing you to play the game in mad dash style and not really appreciate the controls of the fighter or engage in any tactics.
In fact At first these time limits seem a bit strict, but a bit of digging around on gamefaqs reveals there are some special 'action' moves that launch a volley missiles (x,y,x,y,a) or destroys incoming missiles (x,y,a).
once you discover these, the missions actually become quite easy to complete in the time limit.

Graphically the whole thing is just mediocre. The models and textures especially aren't particularly detailed or convincing and it's rare it ever looks anything but functional, There are also long periods of slow down, even when theres not much happening on screen. The air missions don't really give you any feeling of speed, or look realistic in anyway. Those in the atmospheres of planets seem to lack any ground or cloud base at all. The enemy is either blown away before they are visable or moves to quickly to ever properly dogfight with.
When things move down to the ground things look a bit more convincing, but still extremely sparse. These sorts of things would barely be forgivable in a playstation launch title, let alone a later dreamcast game.

The anime intro sequence is nice however.

The Sound is another pretty disapointing element, the sound effects are pretty limited. There are a few satisfying sounds, like the clank on mech feet, but there are just as many really awful ones like the gunpod sound, which is exceptionally weak. The music is mixed, there are a few macross minmei tunes in there later on (which work as culteral weapons weakening the enemies will to fight) but beyond that nothing stands out.

It's a shame how unpolished the actual gameplay is. The controls of the mecha making any detailed avoidence a bit haphazard, and the simplistic AI combined with extremely quick and unrealistic enemy movements means it's just a panicky hold the button and hope affair.

In terms of longevity, there are 2 different endings, although they are both almost non-existent in themselves.
I doubt many people would bother to see it through to conclusion once, let alone twice.

In short, it's just not very good. Not even for macross fans. It probably has some value to macross fans who understand japanese, but to everyone else should look for their variable form aircraft/mecha combat in either Robotech: Battlecry or the non-macross related Xbox game Gun Metal.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/16/02, Updated 12/16/02