I wanted to like this one a lot, but right out of the gate I just notice these dumb issues with the game. Sometimes that radar warning thing doesn't always kick on right. Some enemy attacks are not able to be defended from at all hardly and it doesn't help that the game wont let you re-select the same special attack weapon each stage unless you die and continue. THAT FORWARD LASER FIRING THING THAT CANT SHOOT STRAIGHT IS USELESS!!! I WANT MY f*ckING TRACKING MISSILES EACH STAGE GODDAMMIT!!!. There is these spots in the game were it just slows down for what seems like no reason, the game just bogs down to a grinding halt almost and it doesn't seem like justified slowdown because other spots with more going on were smoother. Some enemies look cheap and low detail too which was really annoying considering how detailed others are, and the background graphics in many areas could be much better.
The one round orb enemy thing that zooms in and out right in the one stage where your ship rams the other, that orb was one of the worst looking enemies in the game in fact. And that one dumb enemy with the "magic blue orb buttons" that splits apart had the worst attack pattern going on. It didn't even make sense enemy wise to keep popping the orb back out. Its like they thought "hey Konami gradius/salamander bosses have orbs that need to be destroyed, so can we". But the thing is the Gradius/Lifefoce ones don't just leave them automatically exposed so the boss doesn't get left there hung out to dry. Oh, and f*cking being inside the enemy ship, with enemies dropping out of the ceilings which don't have access panels opening or anything, so it gives no warning, was f*cking weak and looked retarded.
As is I don't think I will bother to finish this one. The developer took a great franchise and really just took way way too many shortcuts and liberties on the games development preventing it from shining like it should have, so the game feels more like average fare. It would be understandable if the game was just some new property and all, but this is Macross, and other Macross titles released do a much better job of representing the series.
