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.
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.
2 Comments
My favourite part about that is the fact the screen turns for you so you don't even have to move the ship.
Jenny
1 year ago