Chō Jikū Yōsai Macross: Ai Oboete Imasu ka

The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? is a 2D shooter adaptation of the 1984 anime film of the same title, released exclusively in Japan on the Sega Saturn in 1997^[1] and the Sony PlayStation in 1999.^[2] The Saturn version was released to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the Macross franchise. Packaged in two CDs, the game features video footage of the original film plus all-new animated sequences.

Overview

In the game, the player takes the control of main protagonist Hikaru Ichijyo, as he battles Zentradi units on each stage. The format of the game is a 2D side-scrolling shooter (much like the original Macross game for the Nintendo Family Computer). The player has two basic attacks: Gun Pod and missiles. In addition, the VF-1 Valkyrie unit controlled by the player can transform into Fighter, Gerwalk and Battroid modes during battle.

Differences from the film

While the game is a close adaptation of the film, it has a number of differences:

• Unlike the film, the game begins off the coast of South Ataria Island, where Skull Squadron (led by Roy Focker) prepares to battle the invading Zentradi fleet. Just seconds after Skull Squadron takes off, the aircraft carrier Prometheus is sliced in half by a Zentradi laser fired from Earth's orbit. After the player finishes the first stage, all surviving Skull Squadron units fly toward the Macross, which executes a space fold out of Earth. The actual beginning of the film starts the second stage.

• A sortie where the Macross initiates an ARMD attack (an updated version of the Daedalus attack from the original series) on a Zentradi ship is added to the storyline.

• In the film, the VT-1D Super Ostrich flown by Hikaru and Minmay is unarmed when it is captured and taken to a Zentradi ship. In the game, during the stage where Hikaru and Misa make their escape from the ship, Hikaru is given a Gun Pod by Focker.

• During the final battle where Minmay sings "Do You Remember Love?", the broadcast of her song is disrupted by a jamming satellite deployed by Boddole Zer's fleet. The player must destroy the satellite in order to resume the song's broadcast.

Production notes

Because voice actor Arihiro Hase died on July 30, 1996 - a year before this game was released, old recordings of his dialogue as Hikaru Ichijyo were reused in the intro scene.

Extras

There was a mail-in gift only for the first releases of the PlayStation version of the video game that offered one "what-if?" scenario. The gift was a music-playing card in the design of the crucial Protoculture music plate that Misa Hayase found in the movie. On this card was the purported last message from Lynn Minmay aboard the SDF-2 Megaroad-01 colonization ship before it disappeared, according to the official Macross continuity.

The new audio dialogue was recorded for the video game by singer/songwriter Mari Iijima, who played Minmay in both the Macross animated TV series and the movie adaptation. The message said that the ship was about to investigate a black hole at the center of the galaxy. However, given that this story comes from a not-for-sale extra for a game based on what is considered a "historical" dramatization within Macross, it is not the final word on Hikaru, Misa and Minmay fates according to series creator Shoji Kawamori.

References

External links

• EX Game Review