Comments on: Reviews: Macross Ultimate Frontier (8/10)

By: Marc McKenzie

Marc McKenzie — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:19:42 +0000

To Tollmaster: This is a bit late in coming, but I do like what you said about the VF-0. In fact, it is one of, if not my favorite, variable fighter. It did in fact function as the “stopgap” installment, and while it did not have the fusion turbofans of the later VFs, it did work.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend the VF-1 MASTER FILE book, because it does go into great detail about the VF series, including the history of the VF-0. It is in Japanese, but there are charts and diagrams that one can follow and see that the Zero was much larger than the VF-1–closer in size to the actual F-14 Tomcat, whereas the VF-1 had a shorter airframe.

By: Eyeforthings

Eyeforthings — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:36:46 +0000

I just got this game, but I can’t read Japanese. Do you happen to know all the controls for this game? Basically, I’d like to understand what pages 4-13 of the manual say.

By: Tollmaster

Tollmaster — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:20:50 +0000

It’s good to hear the Zero series has a bit more content in this installment. I’ve always liked the idea behind the VF-0: a stopgap installment of the variable fighter, but based on old human technology, while the “real” variable fighters were still being worked on. Their fuel limits probably aren’t in this installment, I’d imagine, for game balance and functional reasons, but in the series it always felt the combat a lot more tense, knowing they didn’t have near-infinite fusion reactors (or protoculture, depending on what fanbase you grew up with!) powering them.

By: Cacophanus

Cacophanus — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:17:26 +0000

I didn’t find the climactic Zero boss fight that tough actually. As the HUD feedback on missile usage made the whole process quite straightforward.

Basara still works in the same way as in Ace Frontier; so you shoot enemies with the speaker pod rounds to make them flee. You don’t damage them obviously but it’s still not what he does in the series. Though in a shooter context it’s the best approach to have taken really, as it keeps the game functionally consistent across its multiple units.

By: Tolarin

Tolarin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:27:28 +0000

Your comment on the AFOS battle: truer words have never been said.

By: Red Shoulder

Red Shoulder — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:04:53 +0000

To Tolarin: Thanks for the heads-up on the multiplayer glitch. I haven’t played the game in that mode yet, but at least I’m aware of it.

Still, I am very impressed with the game. I’ve only completed the Zero campaign and am about halfway through Macross, but just the improvements in graphics, gameplay, and a whole host of other things make this game a must-get for any PSP owner. True, the difficulty in some missions is insane (like the AFOS battle), yet that is balanced by the fact that you can purchase upgrades and new mecha and characters without having to unlock everything via letter rank.

Awesome game–a definite improvement over Ace Frontier, which was a pretty solid game to begin with.

By: Tolarin

Tolarin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:22:56 +0000

I feel that something that needs to be pointed out is that lag is certainly an issue in multiplayer mode. Just doing the two-player co-op missions (Which you can either tackle the Core Campaign missions together with your friend taking over your partner or special unlockable missions), my friend and I saw a great deal of lag and framerate issues in multiplayer. It doesn’t make the game unplayable… but it seems odd when our copies of the Gundam handheld games don’t show any of the same problems.

All in all, I’m pretty impressed with the game. I’ve only got the Dynamite 7 campaign to finish up, and from what I understand, then the extra missions unlock with the Macross II, VF-X2, and etc content.

I don’t know how Basara plays in multiplayer (Where I think they have him shooting “speaker pods” from his Vulcan), but in the single player campaign… he’s pretty much just a buff/debuff unit that flies around singing Totsugeki Love Heart alot while you try to fight off the Protodevlin.

Been ten years since I’ve watched Macross 7… I think this game and that Revival of Fire Bomber CD that just came out has me wanting to watch it agian pretty hardcore.

By: SignOfZeta

SignOfZeta — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:30:15 +0000

The question is, this they do a decent job of implementing Macross 7 this time? During the entire Macross 7 franchise Basara uses an actual military weapon perhaps two or three times since he is a pacifist. In Ace Frontier he’s spraying vulcan fire and missiles all over the place.

I’m not saying integrating the Sound Force is an easy thing to do, but they did a much better job of it in Super Robot Wars D.