Macross Plus : Game Edition

Macross Plus: Game Edition is a Japan-exclusive PlayStation action shooter released on June 29, 2000. Published by Shoeisha as SLPS-02791, it brings the 1994 Macross Plus original video animation into a 3D game built around its high-speed aerial confrontations. The game’s credits identify Art Co. as the development studio, with Shoji Kawamori serving as general supervisor and contributing the game’s mechanical designs. It is a distinct PlayStation adaptation rather than the 1996 Macross Plus arcade shooter, and its Japanese-language presentation makes it primarily an import release for the original Sony console.

The story follows the central conflict of Macross Plus, set in 2040 after the original Macross. Test pilots Isamu Dyson and Guld Goa Bowman are former friends whose rivalry resurfaces during Project Super Nova, a competition between the YF-19 and YF-21 variable-fighter prototypes. Their shared past also involves Myung Fang Lone, now connected to the virtual idol Sharon Apple. As the situation escalates, the game carries players through confrontations involving the rival pilots, unmanned X-9 Ghost, the Macross fortress, and the threat posed by Sharon Apple.

Its missions are presented as third-person 3D action and shooting stages. Players control mecha associated with the OVA, beginning with Guld’s YF-21 before taking on Isamu’s YF-19 campaign. Eight stages lead through the adaptation’s major conflicts, mixing dogfight-style encounters with field-battle sequences. The available roster reaches beyond the two prototypes to include familiar Macross units, while hidden selections include the game-original Neo Glaug, a transformable reinterpretation of the Zentradi battle pod, and a VF-1J.

Game Edition deliberately handles its transforming machines differently from many Macross games. A unit’s form is fixed for each stage rather than being changed freely in the middle of a battle, so the mission design determines whether a fighter is encountered in flight-oriented or humanoid combat form. This keeps the focus on positioning, targeting, missiles, gun-pod fire, and close-range fighting. It also distinguishes the release from the PlayStation Macross VF-X games, whose variable fighters offer in-play transformation.

A key combat feature is the Dynamic Situation System, or DSS. When an enemy closes in or launches missiles, the game signals an opportunity for a context-sensitive response. Using the DSS command can trigger maneuvers such as rapid missile locking, evasive movement, kicks, or concentrated missile and gun-pod attacks. The system aims to make the duels feel more immediate, particularly when the YF-19 and YF-21 meet at close range, while preserving the arcade-like action structure of the PlayStation release.

Story Mode integrates animation material to retell the OVA’s plot, including footage associated with Macross Plus: Movie Edition. The production also reunites much of the Japanese voice cast, including Takumi Yamazaki as Isamu, Unsho Ishizuka as Guld, Rica Fukami as Myung, Mako Hyodo as Sharon Apple, Megumi Hayashibara as Lucy, and Tomohiro Nishimura as Yang. Those returning performances make the game an audiovisual companion to the animated work rather than a wholly separate continuity.

Music is another important link to the source. The credits draw on Yoko Kanno’s Macross Plus soundtrack material, and the opening uses After, in the Dark while the ending uses Voices, performed by Akino Arai. Alongside the single-player narrative, the disc offers versus battle for up to two players, with dogfight and field-battle options. For Macross collectors, Game Edition remains a focused period adaptation: a PlayStation interpretation of the YF-19 and YF-21 rivalry that combines licensed animation, original music, 3D mecha combat, and a small collection of game-specific additions.