Super Dimension Fortress Macross II Is Coming To Arcade Archives On Switch And PS4

Looks fantastic, can't wait to get this on Switch.

I was already elated that Hamster gave us the Xmas gift of the first-ever home port for the SDF Macross arcade game, so I couldn’t stifle a happy shout during the livestream this morning when Hamada-shachō announced this sequel, too!

I fell in love with Robotech as a kid in the eighties, and grew to love the source Macross series of anime even more after I learned Japanese as a young adult. I’ll be buying these arcade ports for Switch/Switch Deux without hesitation. Hopefully by the time Macross II comes out, I’ll have beaten the first game (I heard you have to clear all stages twice to do so - no easy feat when its difficulty ramps up proportionate to how well you play).

The SDF Macross arcade game is based directly on the “Macross: Do You Remember Love?” feature film, but I was a little disappointed to hear it uses so little of that film’s excellent music. Nor can you switch between fighter/gerwalk/battroid modes freely (you have to collect power-ups to change modes). But the game’s original BGM is really catchy, the pixel art is top-notch, and players in Japan really like the game for its high quality and its fairness compared to many of the more punishing schmups of the early-mid 90’s. I’ll give this game a fair shot, for sure.

Maybe Hamster and Bandai-Namco can even bring us the Macross Plus arcade game someday!

The annoying thing is that you have to create a Japanese eshop account or switch your region to Japan to get the games, as they're currently exclusive to Japan. I assume it was due to the legal minefield thanks to Harmony Gold and Robotech.

@PKDuckman
It was a bit of work to navigate Japanese websites and create a Jpn eShop account, and then actually purchasing eShop funds is a bit of an adventure since you can’t use non-Japanese credit cards (you have to buy and redeem eShop point card codes from sellers like Playasia). But for me the effort was eminently worth it, for access to Japan-exclusive games like this, the Japan NSO offerings, and deals during their eShop sales.

FWIW, Nintendo Life published a very helpful walkthrough for Jpn account creation here:

https://www.nintendolife.com/guides/how-to-buy-nintendo-switch-games-from-any-region-eshop-create-a-japanese-north-american-european-and-australian-nintendo-account

Such a shame that you need a Japanese account for them. Which is something I am not willing to do.

What’s with the giant dancing ladies?? 😆

Looks fun! Reminds me of a wacked out snes game, like if the cd-rom had ever come out. But then I guess it would have redbook audio

Hamster just dropped an English trailer complete with ESRB ratings. I assume since Macross 2 is not canon, it's not affected by the licensing issues.

https://youtu.be/1_ImfWmr-3s

I also hope to see Macross Plus later. It's MOSS's first shmup and laid lots of groundwork for the newer Raiden games.

https://www.arcadearchives.com/en/title/aca-368/

Macross 2 is listed with USA price tag in the coming soon so looks like this will come to the USA. Not sure about europe