Re: And the winner is...
Hear Hear!
I can only second this recommendation. If you're any sort of Robotech fan, you ought to try it out.
Kai Lord said:Thanks for the feedback everyone, I went ahead and picked up the console I was leaning toward from the beginning: the PS2.
It simply had the games I wanted to play.
I bought the console, two memory packs, S-video cable, and four games:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Ratchett and Clank
Robotech: Battlecry (on sale for $29.95)
Metal Gear Solid 2 ($19.95)
And now I'm going to take the time to utterly gush about one of the games. And that game is Robotech.
Freaking phenomenal! I assumed my time with the first batch of games would be predominantly consumed by GTA, but no, its been almost all Battlecry.
A couple of things first. In junior high and high school, I was pretty much a closet Robotech geek. I watched all the cartoons, read the novelizations of the cartoons, bought the art books, and played the Robotech rpg on a regular basis with my gaming buds.
After high school we pretty much quit playing the rpg but in 1995 both myself and one friend in particular began salivating at the news that a state-of-the-art new game was coming out for the Nintendo 64 called Robotech: Crystal Dreams. My friend and I promptly went out and bought N64's and waited for Crystal Dreams. And waited. And waited and waited and waited. And the damn thing never came out.
Since then I became more interested in the Macross (original Japanese version of the series) side of things and bought the Macross: Do You Remember Love import laserdisc and the Macross: DYRL Sega Saturn side-scrolling game. Finally, I was playing my favorite transformable fighters in a kick-ass video game.
Years pass, and now, here I am, feverishly playing Robotech: Battlecry. And its awesome. First off I can't believe how nostalgic I am for plain old Robotech! I'd seen so much Macross since the old days I'd forgotten how sweet it was just to hear the old Robotech title theme. And they open the game with a montage of in-game action scenes just like the old cartoon! They use footage from the game's missions, I just wish they'd constructed a final pose shot for the end of the montage like they did with the cartoon.
As for the game itself, choosing the cel-shaded look is a stroke of genius that pays off big. It really does look like you're playing the cartoon, from veritechs that transform with the exact same animations to those familiar yellow spherical explosions.
You get to have fun blasting away at Fighter and Battle Pods up in space but my favorite missions are those that take place in cities. Nothing's more satisfying than strafing at a dodging battle pod, watching him flee past the other side of a building, keeping your bead on him as you unload into the building itself, then continuing to blast him with gunfire as he emerges on the other side as the entire building collapses to the ground.
Then there's other little touches like having free reign to transform as you choose, having secondary fire options (like being able to autotarget incoming missiles) and a gun prone to overheating.
One review I read said the game has all the excitement of the battles from the cartoons, with none of the sappy soap opera elements. TDK did such a good job of bringing the cartoon to life (complete with the original voice actors and streaking missiles that sound just like the ones from the cartoon) that I wish they did include the sappy soap opera elements. I want to see Rick's angst and hear Khyron's ridiculous speeches, dammit! Oh well, can't have everything. All in all, a damn fine game. And since its available on all consoles, I recommend that anyone with a game system who has ever been a fan of Robotech to go out and get this game now.
Hear Hear!
I can only second this recommendation. If you're any sort of Robotech fan, you ought to try it out.