Robotech: Crystal Dreams (Prototype)

PAL release: N/A
NA release: N/A
JP release: N/A
Developer: GameTek
Publisher: N/A
N64 Magazine Score: N/A

Based on an American/Japanese sci-fi animated series, Robotech: Crystal Dreams was an extremely ambitious flight simulator game that ultimately went over budget and was cancelled when it needed another six months of development.

The prototype for the game features a demo area you can fly around, there’s a large ship and you can find some of the logos from the very nifty-looking opening. You can see your character’s reflection in the cockpit window and can even look around the cockpit. It controls really well and seems like a good starting point to build a game from. The ship also has a few different transformations. You can also turn on random dialogue, and there’s a surprising amount of it in the prototype.

The plans for the game was that this would be fairly open-ended. You’ll collect missions from bases that you can walk around then go out into space to complete them. A simple “crystal” enemy was designed for the console in as the specs of the N64 weren’t well known. On top of this, over 40 minutes of dialogue was already done at this point.

With only three programmers, the game proved too ambitious for the company and they were unable to get the funding and publisher needed to finish.

The end result is likely to be an entertaining, if graphically uninspiring, take on the Japanese animated series Macross. Lots of combat-orientated spaceship action is promised, in a simulation-style environment
N64 Magazine #4

Should it be finished?

With the script and many design aspects finished, it would be great to see what this could have been like.