
Now that Star Fox Zero has made transforming space fighters cool again (as if they could be anything but cool, we hear you cry) we take a break from the relentless war raging in the Lylat system and go back to the classic shmup formula on a console that is not all that well known for the genre. Produced by Winky Soft – a studio responsible for a plethora of SD Gundam Wars titles on Nintendo's 16-bit powerhouse – Choujikuu Yousai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie is one of the Super Famicom's most esteemed blasters, and still plays incredibly well even by today's standards.
Should you be unfamiliar with the anime that began all the way back in 1982 (which was subsequently westernized as Robotech by the late Carl Macek), here's the basics: it depicts an alternate 1999 Earth where an empty, giant, ancient alien spaceship (the Super Dimension Fortress Macross) crash lands on our beloved planet. A decade later – and after much reverse engineering – activating the Macross accidently sends out a location beacon to the enemies of said ancient alien civilization, bringing the war-hardened Zentradi to our Solar System. After the first engagement, a desperate move by the U.N. Spacy (Army, Navy... Spacy!) attempts to fold space and time to allow the Macross to escape the Zentradi, a move that transports the ship, most of the defending fleet and a big chunk of the island along to the outskirts of the Solar System. The crew and civilians then prepare for the long journey back to Earth with danger lurking every step of the way from the superior numbers of the Zentradi battle fleet, bent on the destruction of all mankind along with the Macross.

The game takes place during this arduous journey. You are presented with a choice of three pilots who are major characters from the series: reluctant ace pilot and series poster boy Hikaru Ichijyo. Maximilian Jenius (simply "Max" to his friends) is yet another ace pilot that proves that you can join the air force despite needing glasses. Last but not least is the original bad girl Milia Fallyna, a Zentradi that falls in love with Max's abilities in the cockpit and defects to mankind's side of the conflict (after shrinking to regular human size, of course).
Oh, did we forget to mention the Zentradi are genetically engineered to be on average about ten times larger than normal humans? That is an important fact to consider when you spot Zentradi soldier corpses floating around on level 1 that are the size of your ship. In fact, it was when the U.N. Spacy realized that the Macross had to be built and operated by giants that they used alien tech to develop the Variable Fighters, the ships you pilot in the game. At first they appear no different than a regular human military airplane, but they are able transform into GERWALK mode (Ground Effective Reinforcement of Winged Armament with Locomotive Knee-Joint – try saying that twice as fast) to gain VTOL abilities. Even better, they can also change into Battroid mode where they become full-on Gundam-style humanoid mechanized infantry units in order to go head to head with Zentradi foot soldiers. Switching modes in this game will change your weapon and your ship speed, while each pilot has three unique weapons which will offer you quite a lot of replay ability since every weapon will change the way you tackle your enemies.

Every weapon can be powered up to three levels, and getting hit will downgrade your current weapon and take a chunk of your shield energy. Even if you don't get killed, tackling the regular mid-level and end of level bosses with unpowered weapons becomes incredibly challenging so you will have to practice and gradually memorize the stage layouts and enemy patterns before you get to complete all seven of them. They all look gorgeous; from the debris-filled space battle opening to fighting out inside the Macross on stage four and the nearly derelict Zentradi battleship in the last stage. How Winky Soft managed to maintain so much detail on both backgrounds and the enemies zipping around the screen without any noticeable slowdown is an amazing feat and (sadly) a rarity among SNES shmups.
But let's go back to the Macross plot to explain the distinctive mechanic of the game. The Zentradi know only war, they are built for it. As such they don't even have mixed crews among their fleet and as such, human behavior like love is foreign to them and it is soon discovered that waking up emotions is the most effective weapon humanity has against them. Lynn Minmay's voice becomes a powerful weapon in the anime's plot, with her songs capable of turning entire Zentradi platoons into pacifists or – even better – encouraging them to fight for the human side. This is also explains why Milia switched sides for the love of Max. The game emulates this mechanic by allowing you to hijack any of the regular enemies to fight alongside your Variable Fighter. When not shooting, you will start to glow. When fully charged, just touch an enemy and they will start attacking their former colleagues. It is rather fun to experiment with the different type of enemies until you find your favourite on each stage. It's a very clever mechanic and one which makes the game feel fresh and different.

Some minor annoyances do surface, however. There is a single button assigned for transforming
your Variable fighter, so you will always have to go through the cycle of Fighter > GERWALK > Battleroid, which might just cause you to get hit while trying to locate your desired weapon or speed setting. Winky Soft could have easily remedied this by assigning the "L" and "R" shoulder buttons to switch back and forth between all forms, but the developer sadly overlooked the button options the SNES pad provided. We also noticed that it is quite possible to finish the whole game just using Hikaru's fighter form and his fully-powered lasers, making the other characters somewhat redundant unless you welcome the challenge. We would also love a two player co-op mode but we assume the SNES CPU is already working overtime handling just the one.
Conclusion
Choujikuu Yousai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie is a stellar shmup that deserves to be remembered as the fourth name after the holy trinity of Axelay, Super Aleste (Space Megaforce in the US) and R-Type 3. Despite not having been localized to the west, most of the text is in perfectly functional "Engrish" so the language barrier won't stop you from enjoying the action. You do get a lot of extra value out of this if you are familiar with the wider Macross universe, but if you just happen to like horizontal scrolling shmups make sure you give this a go; it will grip you right from the start with intense music (including a few selected renditions from the anime) and non-stop action that refuses to let go until you blast your way to the ending. A worthy title to add to your Super Famicom import collection.
Comments 26
Damm never heard of this.
I'm a big fan of Macross but I'm embarrassed to say I'd never heard of this either. Sounds good. One to add to the wishlist!
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"
This looks amazing.
@XyVoX Love that gif.
One of my favorite games in my Super Famicom collection. The Soundtrack is amazing...
Not the biggest shoot 'email up fan, but I do love me some Macross.
I think I played it once in an arcade... Definitely want.
@SheerCold Beware this is not a coin-op conversion, this one is original.
The Super Nintendo had nowhere near the wealth of excellent shoot 'em ups that it's competitors, the Mega Drive and PC Engine had, and it could even be argued that the NES (in it's heyday) was a far better system for the genre.
But, in fact there are several good and great shmups on the system, more than the system seem to get credit for.
In addition to the already mentioned Axelay, Super Aleste, R-Type 3 and Scrambled Valkyrie I think the two AAA shooting games from the SNES early days should be mentioned. Gradius 3 and Super R-Type. Excellent graphics, excellent gameplay and excellent music by Irem and Konami, masters of the genre. There are only two things that both these games could be criticized for and that is that they are really difficult as well as the slowdown both games suffer from. This slowdown was do doubt one of the mains reasons that both developers and game players came to regard the SNES as a bad system for shoot 'em ups. But as we would see with many later releases, good coders if given time and experience could make impressing games in the genre without any slowdown. Gradius 3 and Super R-Type are emblematic of the SNES troubled relationship with shooters and that may be (in addition to their great challenge) why these two games are often forgotten when people reminiscence of the great games on the system, for they are both truly great games.
Compared to the arcade games they are based on, there are both things that are missing and worse and things that have been added or improved so I would say that those are different, but not necessarily better.
And really difficult games like many shoot 'em ups are, aren't necessarily made to be completed, but they offer really intense, rewarding and quick playthroughs, where you have great opportunity to get farther ahead than last time, or perhaps a higher score.
But there are other great shmups on the system as well! There are three different Parodius releases, and while all of them are about equally excellent, the first one Parodius-da! (or "Parodius - Non-Sense Fantasy" as it is known as in PAL territories) is the most classic, while the other two, Gokujou Parodius and Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius have much more ships to choose from. If you have ever played a Gradius game (and liked it) you owe it to yourself to play one of the Parodius games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flf3lQSuB5E
Pop'n Twin Bee is a surrealistic and colorful shooter of great Konami quality. It was released in Europe as well as in Japan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9vh3nTdMhw
UN Squadron is fairly well known today so there is nothing more I need to say other than that it is a Capcom quality game!
Spriggan Powered by Naxat (Japan only unfortunately) is merely average in shoot 'em up gameplay (which means that it is great fun) but it has cool music and some very cool graphics. Take a look at this video from level 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeJAV3PIOxc
The mode 7 effect used there reminds me of Axelay. If I had played this game back in the day when the Super Nintendo was new, I think I would have been really impressed by it. (Even though it looks totally unrealistic.)
The theme of the game is robot-anime and while that is something I don't normally like I have found that I do enjoy it in 16-bit games! Especially shooters.
Marchen Adventure Cotton 100% and Choplifter III are supposed to be good as well, but I haven't played those. Thunder Spirits is good, but the Mega Drive version (Thunderforce III) has better music and no slowdown.
There are some games you should stay away from as well. The Raiden port (Raiden Trad) is horrible, the PlayStation and Mega Drive versions should be chosen instead. Phalanx is not a bad game, but it feels so generic and uninspired. You would think it would be really something by the cover art:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/snes/phalanx/cover-art/gameCoverId,194083/
But no.
Darius Twin is the most boring and uninspired Darius I've played. All the other Darius games are much more fun than this. You would think diving into the sea and fighting robotic fish and sealife would be fun, and it even has a two player simultaneous option! But no.
All in all, the SNES was a much better system for other types of action games like Run and Gun and platform games. But while the above mentioned shooters are not many, all of them are worth playing.
@Kilroy cheers Darth Vader on a Hover-Board falling over gotta love that.
This was a great game, being a massive Macross fan (note the avatar of mine) I only wish I was able to get an original copy but I never knew about it until I stumbled across the mane ROM websites in the early 2000's.
@BlueAndGold Thanks for that compilation. Glad that I know all of them and hope to bring some of those to the reviews here.
Another one added to my list! Wan't there a good, cute little rpg on snes named Robotech? I remember the battles being with robots you would customize and send fighting very much like pokemons.
Edit: Never mind, it was Robotrek!
It would be cool if this came to what West.
It's a good game but I prefer UN Squadron. Also Biometal is cool but very hard.
I would suggest Galak Z now on ps4 and steam for am amazing roguelike 2d space shooter...
This game is excellent, and even better than that if you're a big Macross/Robotech fan like i am. I have had my eye on getting a cart of this for a while; it usually fetches a moderately high price in the usual places, but it's just a matter of time before i finally grab it regardless.
This looks really amazing. Had no idea it even existed. Thanks for this man.
I found it accidentally while reading the SFC roms library and instantly loved it.
I think I managed to see the end of it, but I never understood what the glow meant. I have to replay it now that I know you can even subjugate ennemies, thanks @Shiryu !
@Smokingspoon Tep, I was gonna guess "Robotrek" but you go there before I could answer. One of the most leftfield entries from one of my favourite producer at the time Quintet, responsible for "ActRaiser" and the "Soul" trilogy.
@Rei Yep, most people wont even know it's there without watching the demo or reading the instructions manual. It is not needed to finish the game, but the extra fire power certainly wont do any harm.
@KIREEK My pleasure.
I've heard of Macross before, but I was never quite sure what it meant.
Well, now I know, and I want to play it. Thanks for introducing me to the U.N. "Spacy," I laughed harder than I should've at that.
Is this game single player only?
@TheWPCTraveler If you wish to really know what Macross is, I invite you to watch the magnificent movie "Do you remember Love?", a very high quality level alternate retelling of the original story (the TV show has a better developed story but most young people would not watch it today due to the "poor" drawings and animation).
Another thing if you like the "Spacy", Gundam had some nice misspellings too: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m11ew2URf61qgx70ro1_500.jpg
@Hy8ogen Yes.
I always like Jaleco's Super E.D.F. I think is a great shooter. There's Bio Metal, Flying Hero, Acrobat Mission, Blazeon, Super S.T.G. But for me Macross S.V. is a impresive Super Famicom game. A very solid game by Winky Soft.
This looks great, when is it coming to North America?
Absolutely fantastic shooter!!!
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