Cleared on April 29th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 9/160)

Ok, I'll say the base game itself would get a 3 stars. It's really hard in an arcade fashion that requires near perfection in order to pull through. It makes sense since arcades are a business that aims to frustrate the player as much as possible for coins, but the port is just... oh god.

It's impressive that they even got it working on the Sega Genesis at all, but when you're put on a platform that's nowhere near as powerful as what an arcade machine is capable of, you have a lot of problems.

The projectiles and enemies are not as clear which makes you prone to surprise attacks and in this game, every damage you take will lead to your downfall. See, the game has an Energy meter which depletes as you move along. You are rewarded with energy by shooting foes which then refills by crossing a threshold or finishing a level. While you might think you have a chance as long as you keep racking up energy, it's only a matter of time before the damage you took and the enemies you missed start catching up to you.

Heck, this game is so disgustingly hard that I used not only save states, but the rewind feature on the Sega Genesis Classics Collection, and I still felt like I wasn't going make it to the enemy core on time to blow it up.

If you can get your hands on the Arcade version and be able to play it with a gamepad, just play that instead.

I normally hate the "Space-Harrier" subgenre of shoot-em-ups but this one hit different. The grind to getting good at it felt right, and I was able to clear it on hard difficulty with just enough struggle for it to have felt like a real accomplishment.

The music is good, but has some repetitive notes, the designs make good use of the Mega Drive's abilities, but by the same coin feel like they want to burst free from those limitations, making this version feel like it's missing that special something visually.

The primary reason it isn't rated higher is the lack of variety and impact in enemy design and placement. The most interesting levels have two enemy designs unique to them in function and appearance, but the remainder are flooded with the same turrets and ships that you've been dodging since planet one, and you can feel the drag created by that repetition. Once combined with the nothing of a final level / enemy encounter, the game wastes it's otherwise high stakes and frenetic pacing.

It has some perspective jank, some drawbacks, but outside of Star Fox, this has been my favorite shmup in this style thus far. I'd still recommend it, especially to folks who want to love the subgenre but haven't found their fit yet.

Arcade: 8.5/10
Genesis: 5/10
Master System: 0.5/10

Potentially the most technically-impressive game ever, at least relative to its launch year. Sega's mastery of scaler technology and cabinet schematics suck you into a high-speed burst through an infinite stratosphere. Less a shooter and more a racer in the way enemies are simply fodder for increasing your time, and masterful play comes from going full-throttle every opportunity you can.

The Genesis version is how most people experience this game though, and it's a terrible first impression. Doesn't feel like a completed product, with how many environmental tiles got replaced with linedraw canvases. It's a lot more fun to play once you already 'know' the ins-and-outs of GFII Arcade though; the systems and visuals don't feel as vague. It gave me the same feeling as playing 2600 versions of Atari's arcade titles. Hell, even if it doesn't 'look' good, the amount of objects it pushes on-screen is pretty sweet for 1991, and the OST is marginally beefier than arcade. A 'bad' port, but a nifty complement to the main attraction.

Stay the fuck away from that Master System port lmaooooooooooooo what were they thinking

I had no idea before dipping into the genre this year there were so many shoot 'em ups. Hundreds of them in fact and with that kind of knowledge comes the conclusion that many of these simply won't be very good and this is definitely the case of Galaxy Force II. Judging a very old game in the modern era always feels awkward for me unless I played it at the time as it feels unfair to judge it by modern standards. I simply don't think I'd have liked this even at the time of release however.

I played the Sega Mega Drive version for what it's worth but this just has nothing redeeming about it at all. Really disappointing considering the front cover is such 80s/90s peak sci-fi anime, it's gorgeous. The actual game though is hideous to look at. Sprites are ugly, backgrounds are uninspired, enemies are static and generic. It's a weirdly ugly game considering some of the beautiful titles available on the system.

The game plays like Super Thunder Blade, Space Harrier, Burning Force etc. Where you are flying forward away from the screen. (I never used to like Space Harrier much but have a new found respect for it the more these sort of titles I play in how much better it is than it's competition.) Each level has two parts, a part on a planet, and a part in a 'Fortress'. These sections use these fake squares to give the impression of 3D like you're going through a tunnel in a mixture of two colours. Perhaps it was impressive at the time but it just comes across as bland and ugly 34 years later for the genre it's in.

You only get one life and an energy bar that steadily ticks down like fuel until it runs out. Killing enemies in between level sections builds up an energy store you gain at section finish so to keep going you need to kill enemies is the arcade nature of it's design. The issue is your ship can fire homing rockets with an inconsistent lock on that sometimes does and sometimes doesn't making enemies hard to actually kill. Your ship does auto fire little bullets but as it's straight ahead and the ship handles like a snow plough modified with wings and a rocket booster I don't think I ever hit anything with them. All they did was make a grating 'pew, pew, pew' noise over and over. Speaking of sound, the music is equally bland really. A little irritating and forgettable.

Honestly, this game was awful. Additional half star for the cool cover. Otherwise just play Space Harrier.

+ Cool cover art.

- Ugly visuals.
- Annoying sound design.
- Plays terribly.