Robotech. One of the landmark anime franchises that influenced the mech genre for its time and went toe to toe with Mobile Suit Gundam. It had a long running story that spawned multiple sequels, spin-offs, side stories, continuations and reboots to this day. At least that's what would be great to say, were it not for the fact that "Robotech" is a chopped and butchered amalgamation of various Macross series that Harmony Gold USA Inc., who has owned the rights for Macross since 1985, has distributed in one of the more controversial localizations in anime history, taking three different anime series and attempting to write a canonical plot. It's a long and pretty frustrating story, Retro Reboot is not the place for my weeb ramblings. Not yet, anyway... 

Developed by Vicious Cycle Software and published by TDK Mediactive, Robotech Battlecry was released in 2002 in North America and the U.K. for the GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2. Despite being a pseudo-spinoff based on a beloved franchise, it never saw a Japanese release. Probably for good reason. 

Battlecry follows a random mercenary pilot, "ace pilot" Jack Archer (sounds like a character Tom Cruise would play) as he does what I assume is a great deal of grunt work during the TV series and he’s recapping it as it happens in a rather dry and monotone voice. Jack is played by Cam Clarke, the voice of the 1987 TMNT 's Leonardo, and it sounds like he drank a quart of Robitussin and is halfway dozing off. Roy Focker officially recruits him to join the RDF. 

Robotech is one of the first games I remember that used cel-shading effectively. While most closeups look like mech models were outlined in a 0.7 Sharpee permanent marker, its impressive. City and metropolis layouts are richly detailed and a treat to stare at, with civilians walking about in some stages (you can’t step on them, not for a lack of trying, mind you).

Robotech is one of the first games from this generation I remember that used cel-shading effectively to emulate anime style. While most closeups look like mech models were outlined in a 0.7 Sharpie permanent marker, it doesn't look bad. City and metropolis layouts have a lot of solid colors, a little short on detail, but it's pretty interesting and a treat to look at, with civilians walking about in some stages (you can’t step on them, not for a lack of trying, mind you). Maybe a little runny, but the Cube and Xbox versions look cleaner than the PS2 port. 

The animation is fluid, explosions are beautiful, the enemy’s trail smoke when they are badly damaged, so if a target strays out of sight, tracking them down is easy as pie. Action can get really heated and the screen will often become cluttered with missiles, bullets, and explosions. throughout all of this, I witnessed, no slow-down, mangled sprites, or lag time. For such an action packed game, I was expecting this to be a massive issue, since Armored Core 2 had some of these problems. 

The audio is pretty well done. Sleepy Cam-o-nardo aside, the voice actors from Robotech reprise their roles. Rebecca Forstadt as Lynn Minmei, Tony Oliver as Rick Hunter, Melora Harte as Helen Chase, and Dan Waren as Roy Focker. The Robotech fanfare music is back, or at least a modified version of the theme, and based off that, gives it probably the best BGM in an anime game I’ve played up to that point. Explosions are rich and off-screen enemy fire is easy to hear to evade, yet with all the fire that will be coming at you, its most wise to just keep moving regardless.

While the controls aren’t the worst I’ve ever played, given the medium, they fall a tad flat in execution. Granted, it’s a nice touch that each of the three modes are ready at your disposal, the Veritech handles a little on the sluggish side, and that becomes very clear during certain missions. Battliod mode is simple enough, its special weapon is a sniper rifle with chargeable shot. Agility-wise, Battliod is the only form that can move in all directions and move backwards.

Guardian mode moves faster and has the most agile missiles, but this form pisses me off the most of the three. You can’t move backwards, strafing speed is slow as all hell, and instead of pressing forward to move, X, the boost for battliod, propels you. I hate this form, but you’ll wind up using it so much just to be able to move faster and for the missiles to take out larger foes, but not being able to reverse is just bullocks!! Jet fighter mode is the only one of the three that seems virtually flawless and the jet handles much better. It's quite frustrating and has little fluidity overall, despite being a good idea.

Battlecry is a game with inconsistent difficulty levels, it varies from what kind of mission you are saddled with. (First, I recommend unlocking and completing the various side missions as well as acing qualifications to get newer Veritech models. The extra boost to attributes and missile stockpiles will come in great assistance in later missions) Destroy all Zentraedi objectives are easy enough, but then the game starts getting cute with protect missions and rendezvous points that are unclear and poorly explained. I had to replay certain stages and die on purpose just to find out where I had to go and how much time needed to get there before Mission Failed popped up on the screen.

Control flaws aside, Robotech Battlecry is pretty fun experience and one of the better looking cel-shaded games at the time. There are a great deal of extras to unlock, including brief Q & As with soe of the voice actors who worked on the original(?) Robotech series like Steve Kramer, Melora Harte, and Dan Woren. As far as anime games go, Battlecry falls in the “good” category, but is killed by some avoidable mistakes.