Collection essentials #173: Choujikuu Yousai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie / Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie (SNES)

Here we have our first Japanese game for the console that I’ll be covering. As the NES was the counterpart to the original Japanese Famicom console, the SNES was known as the Super Famicom in its home country. The console and cartridges were redesigned for the American market, as you’ll see this cartridge looks quite a bit different than the ones I’ve shown for the past week. The nice thing about American cartridges is that the label extends to the top of the cartridge with the game’s name, so you can look at a stack of those cartridges and easily see which games they are, something not possible with Super Famicom cartridges unless you make your own label. Curiously, in Europe and Australia, Nintendo opted to revert to this Super Famicom design of the console and cartridges, though the system was still called “Super Nintendo”.

Scrambled Valkyrie is a shoot ‘em up, i.e., one of those arcade-style games where you control a small flying thing on the screen (usually a ship), moving around trying to dodge enemies and their bullets while constantly firing back yourself. It happens to be a rare example of a shoot ‘em up that is also a licensed game; Macross is a sci-fi giant-robot anime franchise that debuted in the early ‘80s, and despite being a big name, I know diddly squat about it. But that’s okay, because you don’t need to know anything about Macross to play this game.

Scrambled Valkyrie does things a little differently than the average shoot ‘em up, and pretty much all of it is to my liking. You choose from three different characters who all play differently. Each one has three different forms that their ship/giant robot can freely change into at any time. Each form has its own unique weapon and speed, making for a good variety. The three forms all start at level 1, and you can grab a power-up to raise the level of whatever form you’re currently in, up to 3. Another thing I really like is that you have an actual health bar rather than straight-up dying to one hit. When you get hit and lose some life, whatever form you're in will also decrease in level by 1, which is a fair punishment compared to how harsh other shoot ‘em ups can be sometimes. The trade-off is that you don’t get multiple lives in this game like you do in other shoot ‘em ups (though you do get “continues”), so it’s not as though this game is made easy due to being more forgiving in certain ways.

And not only do I like the basics of the gameplay, but I think the game itself is designed extremely well too. There’s good variety in level design, and it manages to be sometimes very challenging without crossing over into “overly unfair” territory. And the soundtrack is excellent, with beats that set the right tone for the action while also sometimes being a little atmospheric.

This game is also notable for having “Engrish” text at times, in other words, poorly-written English words written by Japanese people who don’t know the language very well but want to use it because they think it’s cool. 

Shoot ‘em up fans often consider the Super Nintendo to be a lesser console for the genre compared to its contemporaries, but I think it’s a little underrated in that regard. If worldwide releases count (which they should in my opinion), you get this stellar exclusive game. A real essential.