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Robotech: Battlecry

by Jonathan Metts - May 23, 2002, 5:28 pm EDT
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See the new Robotech game through the eyes of someone who's never seen the show even once.

I was looking forward to playing Robotech: Battlecry at TDK's booth today, if only because EGM's preview of it a couple months ago looked so promising. Well, the game is truly beautiful in person. The so-called "cel-shading" is really more along the lines of the new Zelda game, so there aren't any thick black lines around polygon models but rather pastel colors and clever lighting that make it look more like a real cartoon. Except this cartoon has lots of guns and missiles and explosions.

You control a mech that can transform among three shapes. One is the typical robot form and in the game's current version, both of his attacks are just guns. Apparently one of the guns is specially made for taking out oncoming missiles though. The robot form can jump/fly to some extent with his jetpack, but overall he is the slowest form.

The Guardian form is halfway between a robot and a jet. He can fly around more easily than the robot form, but he isn't as fast as the jet. However, he can shoot missiles...tons of them. You can even hold down the missile button over multiple targets and you'll shoot out dozens and dozens of them at all the targets.

The jet form seems to have the most potential, but it was heavily crippled in this E3 demo by artificially small environments. When you fly into any object, including invisible stage borders and ceilings, you'll just automatically turn back into the robot form and start falling; the TDK rep assured us that the final game will have much larger environments to let you use the jet all you want. The jet naturally moves forward automatically and at a very high speed, and it too can shoot missiles.

It seems that utilizing the three different transformations is a major part of the gameplay, and developer Vicious Cycle seems to be doing a good job of balancing the forms so that you really need to use them all. For instance, the Guardian form can shoot many more missiles than the jet, but they aren't as powerful. The jet is extremely fast but also harder to control, and its use is limited in cramped environments. The robot form is slow but very proficient at taking out enemies on the ground, which can be tough for the other two forms.

TDK says the final Robotech: Battlecry will have over 40 missions, and some can be completed in different ways for added replay value. The GameCube version is due out a little later than the PS2 and Xbox versions, but it should still be out this year. So far I'm intrigued by the transformation aspect, and I love the graphics and especially the awesome missiles.

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Genre Action
Developer Vicious Cycle
Players1 - 2

Worldwide Releases

na: Robotech: Battlecry
Release Oct 27, 2002
PublisherTDK Mediactive
RatingTeen
eu: Robotech: Battlecry
Release Mar 21, 2003
PublisherTDK Mediactive
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