"Star Force" - NES/Famicom

Star Force is another arcade game port, this time from 1984. It was developed by a company called Tehkan, but you probably know them better as Tecmo, from after their rename (I literally JUST learned this). Yes, that's the Tecmo from the now operating Koei Tecmo (at the time of this post).

This Famicom port was developed by Hudson Soft though, whom you know well by now if you've been following the PC Engine reviews. They actually made an arcade stick to release with this game, which was simply called the 'Hudson Stick' in Japan:

This thing actually looks pretty cool and I secretly want one. (Source: Japanspel Blog)

This game was developed by Shinichi Nakamoto (中本伸一) for Hudson, who I'm just finding out also did our Lode Runner Famicom port.

Interestingly enough, the Famicom and NES versions of Star Force are actually different for once. Because of the increased memory capacity of the NES cart, the game was able to get closer to the arcade specs. It was also handled in-house by Tecmo themselves instead of by Hudson. Weird. I'll play both just for comparison's sake.

So let's do that.

The Famicom logo (left) looks more interesting but also more made-by-a-sixth-grader.

----- Playthrough -----

Star Force is the first modern-ish shmup we've bumped up against. We have the scrolling levels from Xevious, complete with unique enemy types that come in waves, and even the boss fights. Wow! In just a year (between arcade releases, 1983 -> 1984) the shmup has made great strides!

Now, the Japanese Wikipedia tells us that the Famicom port, because of it was limited to a 16 KiB ROM, only reproduces some of the arcade game, but that the difficulty is significantly lower because enemies fire less bullets and in less complex patterns.

Armed with that knowledge, I decided to give the Famicom port a go first to check it out:

"Danger - but on easy mode first" is my middle name.

Star Force is pretty recognizable even in 2019 (even if the shmup is a dying art form...). There's not much here that should surprise you in this fledgling example of a budding genre. On top of the waves of enemies that shoot bullets, you have things in the background that you can destroy for points, as well as occasional bonus icons (I assume that's what the 'b' and 'B' stand for on them).

It's unclear to me when exactly the boss is supposed to come in the stage. There were times when I was approaching the boss, died, and didn't really seem to be set back, but just pushed forwards in the stage facing new enemies, when suddenly the boss would appear again. The game doesn't really seem to loop in the way that one would expect.

... haven't I seen this trench before? I no longer have any idea where I am.

At any rate, once you play a sufficient amount of each level without dying and Star Force deems you worthy, you'll be dumped into a boss fight with one of the targets (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc). These fights seem to just consist of a flying base detaching from a port with two turrets that you can't destroy. The base gets closer and closer to you, so you have to get up to it and shoot it before it crushes you or goes offscreen, presumably (I never waited to see what it would do).

I thought they couldn't afford the memory to put the Greek letters on here-- they did it for this one...

Anyway, once I played the Famicom port through to Gamma target, I deemed myself worthy to take on the NES port. Guess what? It is indeed quite a bit harder.

Where do you store this many bullets on your ship!?

There's not a ton to say about it that hasn't already been said, but the main differences are:

- Enemies fly in different patterns in some cases, and on average fire more bullets (maybe 3x more).
- Target base turrets seem to fire about twice as quickly
- Some sprites have changed
- Sound and music differences

That was about all I could tell was different to be honest.

----- Review -----

Innovation:

Does the game show anything not yet seen on this system/ever before?

Well, Xevious has already set our standard when it comes to the scrolling shooter thing, but Star Force does it significantly better. It's more fun, less annoying, and in general just a much better game, to be honest. It really isn't that innovative though as a concept on the Famicom, when Xevious was already on the Famicom before it.

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Intuitive Design: 

How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?

You fly and shoot. There are some hidden items and secrets, and it's not intuitive exactly how the boss facing thing works, like when the game loops...? But it doesn't really matter, because if you stay alive and shoot things long enough it will just happen without any input from you.

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Gameplay / Difficulty: 

How rewarding does playing the game feel?

This game is pretty tough! Honestly, the amount of bullets in the NES version make it seem like a real precursor to the bullet-hell/danmaku genre. We're not quite there yet, but there are enough bullets to start to make basic patterns on the screen at times.

You can tell it's art because there's recognizable repetition!

As far as the gameplay being satisfying, I've said this half a dozen times now but I think shooters are inherently satisfying. Dodging, shooting, and hitting the enemies is a fun loop, even when it's done fairly badly. And it's done well enough here.

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Depth: 

How deep/long is the game?

I honestly don't know. I read online that the game acknowledges your victory in the Famicom version after 25 stages, which I assume means 25 target destructions. I got through 3, and I'm pretty sure the 'level' in the background looped, but I don't think the game did. I think you'd be hard-pressed to call it 25 levels of content though when it's mostly just a color-scheme change.

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Design: 

How's the sound? How are the graphics?

I like the sound in the Famicom version a little better. There's not a ton here by way of music, but what there is is pretty serviceable if not exactly amazing. In the NES version, the shot sound strikes me as just a little too high-pitched/annoying... it's not anything as bad as Xevious' infuriating background 'music' though (it just sounds like an alarm clock).

One problem I have with the graphics in this game is that the ship color is way too close to the background color. This is really crap for your visual acuity when you're trying to track bullets on the screen and also watch your ship, but it seems like the ideal situation in this game anyway is to just shoot everything before it fires bullets, instead of to dodge the patterns like in danmaku. Some common danmaku tricks work well without being able to see your ship perfectly though, such as strafing side to side when targeted bullets are shot.

They honestly could have made this a lot better by just making the ship some different color... how about blue, or red, with white highlights, instead of the other way around...?

Or maybe just an outline or something, like this? ... I'm not much of a sprite artist.

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Personal Chord: 

Does the game have that undefinable "something" for me?

*Waves hands around in the air while making confused expressions*

I like shmups, and I like how this game is sort of like an early danmaku in some ways (I'm a big lover of Touhou and Cave games (shouts out to LoveKnife for introducing me, again! HIS STREAM IS IN THE SIDE BAR!)) so in that sense I think the game is fun and interesting. I don't really think it's exactly the pinnacle of the genre and the style of it isn't really appealing to me...

Sorry Star Force, but I don't think you have t-shirt appeal.

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Should You Play: 

Is there a reason to even bother with this one?

Prrrrrrrrrrrobably not? I think there are probably better shmups to play out there, and Star Force is definitely unlikely to impress anyone now. It's a fun diversion for 1985 though, and it finally feels like we're getting closer to the truly good Famicom stuff... but we're not quite there yet. It's still just a so-so arcade port.

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