TGS 2003: Super Dimension Fortress Macross Impressions

Bandai is creating a new action game for the PlayStation 2 based on the classic anime franchise starring giant robots and pop singers, Macross. Super Dimension Fortress Macross was on display at the company's TGS booth, and we played a brief mission to see how the game is shaping up.

First, we were allowed to pick from two different Valkyrie mechs, and the selection screen had slots for a lot more vehicles; presumably there will be a lot more in the final game. The mission started off with us on approach to an island city in jet mode, fighting a large number of aerial enemies. While in jet form, your Valkyrie can paint several targets in quick succession, lock onto them all, and dispatch a flurry of missiles to deal with each target automatically. This ability is quite similar to that seen in the Panzer Dragoon games and works just as effectively as in those games. Of course, you also have a standard machine gun to back up your unlimited hail of missiles.

Once we arrived at the city, we transformed our Valkyrie into mech form and took on some rampaging robots among the buildings. After a while, a boss character entered the fray, and we had to switch between the robot and jet forms to neutralize it. We didn't see any actual between-mission cinematics in the brief demo of the game, but during both of the demo mission's segments, we received regular radio transmissions from Macross series characters. Hopefully the final game will have enough ties to the actual series to float fans' geek boats.

Super Dimension Fortress Macross is currently slated for release on October 23rd in Japan, but no American release date has been confirmed.

See more of GameSpot's coverage of the 2003 Tokyo Game Show.