Star Force

Timed Sega exclusive

In the game, the player pilots a starship called the Final Star, while shooting various enemies and destroying enemy structures for points.

Released: 1 September 1984
Platforms: Arcade Game Boy Advance MSX NES Nintendo Switch SG-1000 Sharp X68000 Wii Zilog Z80
Genres: Arcade Shoot 'em up Shooter
Developers: Koei Tecmo Holdings
Publishers: Tecmo Koei Tecmo Games
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Action Science fiction
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB E
Languages: English

About

Star Force, released in North America as Mega Force, is a 1984 vertically scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Tehkan for arcades. It was ported to the Famicom by Hudson Soft, with Tehkan's successor Tecmo releasing a different version for the Nintendo Entertainment System outside of Japan.

Keywords

shoot 'em up
virtual console
vertical scrolling
wii virtual console

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In the game, the player pilots a starship called the Final Star, while shooting various enemies and destroying enemy structures for points.

Unlike later vertical scrolling shooters, like Toaplan's Twin Cobra, the Final Star had only two levels of weapon power and no secondary weapons like missiles and/or bombs. Each stage in the game was named after a letter of the Greek alphabet. In certain versions of the game, there is an additional level called "Infinity" (represented by the infinity symbol) which occurs after Omega, after which the game repeats indefinitely.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Star Force as the fourteenth most successful table arcade unit of November 1984. In a retrospective assessment, Christopher Michael Baker of AllGame gave the NES version 1.5 out of 5 stars.

Reviewing the Arcade Archives release on the Nintendo Switch, Dave Frear of Nintendo Life gave the game a 5/10 score, noting it to be mediocre and unoriginal for its time.

Legacy

Super Star Force: Jikūreki no Himitsu, released in 1986 for the Famicom.

Final Star Force, released for arcades in 1992.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

Platform	Released	Regions
Arcade	1 September 1984	Japan · North America 1 January 1986
MSX	31 December 1985	Japan
SG-1000	31 December 1985	Japan
Sharp X68000	26 March 1993	Japan
Wii	23 March 2009	North America · Europe 23 March 2009 · Japan 26 March 2009

Editions and related releases

Included in: Hudson Best Collection Vol. 5: Shooting CollectionTecmo Classic ArcadeTecmo Hit Parade
Ported as: Arcade Archives: Star ForceStar Force
Built on it: Star Force