'Super Spacefortress Macross' Arrives On Switch & PS4 This December

This is so exciting! I used to play this in an arcade in the suburbs of New Orleans back in the early 90s. It's the only shmup I could ever 1cc.

Really cool that Hamster was able to get another licensed titles for the ACA line. Would be cool what other series they could tap potentially for the line as well

Yes, awesome news! I was tuned in to the Hamster Arcade Archiver livestream this morning and they brought in frequent guest Udetsu-san from Bandai-Namco to make a announcement commemorating Ake-Aka's 400th game release (Metamorphic Force) in 400 weeks. He revealed the celebratory title as this Macross arcade game just as I was punching the time clock to start work!

Dec 26th I will be on Japanese eshop and buy this without hesitation. I bet it will be a 1500 yen release like the Mazinger-Z game. Hamster is doing god-tier work with their publisher partners. Here's to 400 more - ganbare!!

Will this be only a digital download on Japanese psn or will it be released in North America do we know?

@LowDefAl i don't think HG owns the gaming rights. It's so convoluted though, I'm sure they don't even know. Glad to hear a lot of that has gotten untangled recently. Hopefully we can see most stuff released in the US. Eventually.

Haven never played this, but looking at some YT videos, I think this is an impulse purchase for sure. Love these old style shoot 'em ups that aren't pure bullet hell. I've just never gravitated to the Cave style where the genre ended up at. I want the old style mass destruction games. This seems to fit that.

Always down for shmups

@Daggot I don't know if this decision will change, but in the upcoming Macross Shooting Insight, Hikaru and Minmay are removed from the English version. It's really frustrating, and I'm probably going to assume that we may not get this one either. Fortunately, we can always get it from the Japanese eShop. I'm planning on it!

@Servbot_EJ Oh that would totally suck if that's true. I hadn't really felt the need to do the region shop thing, but that might be the first one to get me to do it. Is that confirmed for the western release, or still speculation? Also, why would they remove the characters? Stupid licensing tomfoolery is to blame I assume.

@Daggot at the official website for Shooting Insight, there is a toggle between English and Japanese. On the Japanese side, you will see Hikaru and Minmay in the list of characters, but they are removed on the English side. They are DLC in the Japanese version of the game, and the website says that the DLC is only available in Japan, so it doesn't look very hopeful.

A few years back, I had heard that the licensing issues were resolved, but I guess that was just for releasing the other Macross series. Harmony Gold still seems to have a tight grip on Robotech.

The entire Macross arcade series is great. The second game was also developed by NMK but changed into a horizontal shooter. The third game was developed by Moss, which also made the current Raiden games, and is a vertical shooter again with the Macross Plus license.

@LowDefAl Ya, it's been several years since I dug into all that mess. I may need to re-watch the Secret Galaxy episodes that cover the whole thing.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCYSDJQezavKQNm6zCRKJ6Lur9cE-sfCY

@Daggot I know what you mean regarding older shooters vs. bullet hell. A while back, I gave some bullet hell games a try. I was actually impressed with some of the ways they levelled the playing field a bit that I was not previously aware of, such as the tiny hitbox, respawning in place, and maybe one or two other things. In the end, I came away with more appreciation for them than before from the design standpoint, but I didn't enjoy them much. I think that comes down to a few things. First, while the tiny hitbox is nice, my eyes and brain are trained to only care about the ship as a whole. I could never get a good grasp on where the actual hitbox was. Even though many retro shooters can be more difficult than bullet hell, I don't like being so confined by those giant bullet hell patterns to dodge. I like having the space to move. To me, they feel less like shooters and more like rhythm games.

I'm positive it will be double priced too, as Mazinger Z, meaning very few people will get it, after complaining about the usual price since the ACA / Arcade Archives series began.

I will use gold points or region swapping to get it, though.

@sdelfin You put that very well. And ya, comparing them to more like a rhythm game makes sense to me too. I just want a game where you're an ultimate machine of destruction off to blowup the bad guys, aliens, whatever. It's cathartic.

@Daggot To be honest their coverage of the situation isn't all that great. The basics is they own the international distribution rights for Super Dimension Fortress Macross Anime
(and DYRL) outside of Japan and all merchandising rights that accompany it. They can't make new animation/film but they can makes games/toys/comic books. In theory if they wanted to work with HG, add an extra splash page to the intro and share profits they could technically release it in the US with HG's blessing but basically nobody wants to because HG are disreputable.