
Released in 1984, Star Force sticks you in control of a space ship as you go through levels blasting a variety of enemy types. Yes, it’s yet another retro shmup on Switch, this time set across 25 levels and offering quite a stripped down shooting experience. In Arcade Archives Star Force your ship (the Final Star) has a cannon to shoot down foes, but there are no other weapons, charged attacks or bombs to help you out of dangerous situations. You don’t have multiple options to consider during the levels, survival is just a matter of avoiding the enemies, their fire and gunning down as many of them as possible.
The straightforward action is accompanied by the kind of simple visuals you’d expect from the game’s age, but there’s a surprising amount of variety, too. Multi-coloured speckles are seen against the black of space and you’ll fly over lots of different coloured terrain; some sandy, some rocky, usually with metal panels or other objects spread across the surface. The audio features basic sound effects and some adventurous, exploratory music. Initially working quite well, the repetitiveness of the audio means it does grate after a while.

The first 24 stages are named after the letters of the Greek alphabet and then after Omega you move on to 'Infinity'; a stage that repeats until your stock of lives is gone. Each stage ends with a letter that you must blast before you scroll past it. Should you fail, a portion of the level is replayed, but despite the fact it moves left and right with two cannons shooting at you, these end of level encounters aren't too tricky. Naturally, they get tougher as the game progresses, but failure never seems unfair.
Reaching those end of stage letters is not straightforward, however, as after a few levels the game becomes obnoxiously difficult. There’s the usual variety of bullet patterns to contend with, but they frequently combine, crossing into nets that require quick reflexes and careful movement to navigate. Some enemies hurtle on to screen just as you're avoiding fire from something else, others shoot behind them and some seem to be heading off-screen only to then make a horizontal charge in your direction. Getting to know enemy behaviour helps you out, but even as you start to shoot and move out of your current predicament you need to be thinking of how you are going to get out of the next one.

All of this happens on the default difficulty. This default difficulty is labelled 'Extremely Easy', with five tougher settings available and the only way to make things easier being the option to increase your number of lives from three to five. Success, be it a cleared stage or just successfully navigating a tricky section, can feel good, but there’s much that can go wrong during your battle, including the invisible barrier blocking you off from roughly the top quarter of the playfield. Like enemy patterns, knowing the limit of where you can travel can avoid an untimely demise, but it’s frustrating to have to a snake about the screen, when a straightforward loop would work if only the game would let you travel a few pixels further up.
There are some (relatively) easy levels peppered throughout that serve as a break from the chaos; you may still be constantly moving, but it will be less frantic. Extra lives are awarded at certain scores, but there are no continues. HAMSTER’s usual online leaderboards are available which provide some replay value as you aim to improve your score. The Hi-Score mode is essentially a less tweak-able version of the regular arcade one, but the Caravan mode works well as you focus on scoring highly with the five-minute time limit. In addition to simply shooting down enemies, items and some scenery can be blasted for extra points, giving you a number of ways to improve your scores. If you’d like to see how you compare with a friend rather than the leaderboards, alternating two-player is available.
Conclusion
Lacking the bells and whistles of other titles, Star Force provides basic shooting action. With a good variety of enemies (and their attacks) to contend with it can still provide some entertainment, but the difficulty mostly feels annoying, rather than providing an enjoyable challenge. The audio can prove to be a further irritant and although Arcade Archives Star Force can be fun at times, it's unlikely to offer long-term appeal especially with so many high-quality shooters already on Switch.
Comments 36
Oh hey, I recognize that game. It was included on the 168in1 cartridge for the Famicom knockoff I had as a kid. I remember enjoying it, especially the visuals. I missed the release, but I might get it now. Definitely something to play with the 8BitDo FC30.
Can't say I agree on this one. For me it's a solid 8 at the very least.
I'd personally give it a 9 even.
The screenshots made me think of Uridium. I haven't thought about that game in a longtime, but suddenly it was there on the tip of my tongue!
Got this one for the GBA (Famicom Mini collection). It sucks.
I could never put this game down. There is a purity to it that always mesmerized me even when I was young. I do hope we see the sequel down the line.
Worth mentioning are of course the several secrets that only super dedicated high score chasers will be aware of:
https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Star_Force#Tips_.26_Tricks
Guess even some odd three decades later games like this will always be divisive like this: Beloved in Japan, shunned in the West.
@Curlynob Boy, do I have some news for you in the future...
This is the only arcade shoot-em-up I haven't bought yet but I will as I know I'll like it. I'll probably buy it in the next few days. I'll be playing it with default lives, no continues, arcade level difficulty and having a blast.
Bought Tengai last night and it's incredible. Can't recommend it enough. It's probably my new favourite arcade shoot-em-up.
@Shiryu Oh you've got my interest now! (I just gave you a subscribe)
@meppi64 Considering the amount of arcade shmups we have on the Switch eShop now giving it a score this high would be very confusing. Star Force is very old and very basic. It's fun, but it's hard to argue that everything else on the eShop that was originally released after it is simply better and this one is for those with nostalgia for it (like me) or hardcore collectors.
If one were to make a shmup recommendations list or even a top 10, Star Force wouldn't be anywhere near it. But it's still going to be the one I buy.
@Shiryu You say the same for every shoot'em up ! Could you give me only one that you don't like ?
@gurtifus Sure, there are a ton of kusoge shmups out there! Fortunately not on the Switch (for now). It is all rather subjective. I was raised on Euro shmups until I learned they were all trying more or less to copy Japanese shmups and as such I have developed quite a taste for Japan made shmups and find Euro shmups very tame nowadays. There are always exceptions of course (hello there Aqua Kitty UDX) but if make me chose between Danmaku Unlimited 3 and SkyForce Reloaded , I will pick the former every single time.
@SmaggTheSmug
Funny you should say that as someone just asked me for a top 5 of Switch shoot em ups in the SHMUP high-score thread and I put it right in there as mu second mention.
I understands where you're coming from, but then again, many of the shoot em ups on Switch are from different generations, and thus created with various design philosophies. So I agree, comparing them directly to all the other games out there can be really tough. Then again, this also means that games from the original era are very unique as well.
I know it's not the exact same, but the closest I can compare this to is saying Zelda 1 on NES is a 5/10 game since Breath of the Wild is a 10/10.
Each one is a 10 as long as you know how to place the games.
@meppi64 Ah, but did you play it as a kid, like I have? Because those rose-tinted glasses do affect perception. I wouldn't recommend the first Zelda to someone looking to get into action/adventure with an open world nowadays, as the game doesn't really represent the genre anymore. Same with Star Force, it's really, really easy and basic, without charged attacks or bombs that are now instrumental to the genre. So it's not really something for someone looking for the best stuff and I'm really surprised you'd put it as number 2.
I'm sure all those Psyiko games (or however you spell that) are much, much better than this, but this is the one I know, which means I'm biased towards it.
The score says the game is average and I'd agree. Graphics and music were average for its time and it wasn't very innovative. But I really enjoy this because its pure, tough, and for score chasing. Sometimes shooters over complicate themselves and its nice to scale down sometimes.
@SmaggTheSmug
Just had a quick look at when I bought my first copy of Star Force on my xls sheet:
Star Force Famicom Japan 42 € Thu 21 June 2007 Videogameimports
Is 10 years enough for it to be a rose tinted nostalgia game?
It depends on the person really.
Naturally I'll recommend Dragon Blaze, Sengoku Blade and Strikers 1945 I&II at first. But when someone goes looking for something different from the norm and wants to expand their library, it's good to take games from al generations into consideration.
Sure for the modern day gamers, it might not be a good recommendation, but then again, these people are most likely looking down upon these games as throwaway entertainment to be played for 30 minutes, finish them with 15 credits and never touch them again.
And I kinda have to disagree with Star Force being called easy.
Quite strongly so actually.
@meppi64 All good suggestions on Psikyo shooters. I also agree that Star Force could still be a great suggestion! I think once someone is drawn into the shooter genre they will seek out all the sub genres of it and be curious about all titles. I don't think age of a game would deter them. At least ideally it wouldn't.
@Shiryu
"This page is in another castle."
Sir... you are unspeakably cruel and dispicable! lol Is Uridium coming to the Switch? Make it Uridium 2, and I will faint!!!
@Ooyah Lol, fixed, no clue what happened there. Hyper Sentinel is Switch bound indeed.
@youkoaoshi I'd perhaps question the notion that STAR FORCE wasn't innovative in its day. I may well be misinformed but I was under the impression STAR FORCE alongside XEVIOUS were pretty much the key innovators of their time in that both came to define the vertical shooter genre? E.g. Much of what followed in the form for the years to come owe both these games a not insubstantial debt of influence.
I personally regard this game as a classic. Probably more for fans of the genre. The attack patterns are varied and keep you on your toes and plenty of bonus points to be had.
@Shiryu And what do you think of Thunder Force series as I don't remember you mentioning them.
That's the shooters I liked the most when I was a child, particularly the third entry !
@Lroy Good point. I guess I was thinking how Xevious was released 2 years prior. This didn't seem like much of a leap to me but I still enjoy it.
8$?
this should be like 1.99 or something like that.
@gurtifus Technosoft was an amazing game developer. Not only do I love Thunder Force I - V i even onw a CIB Megadrive copy of Herzog Zwei. Good times!
@youkoaoshi Yeah, hard to imagine now just what a game-changer XEVIOUS was in its day. All the work of one developer working for NAMCO. Really forward thinking stuff in terms of the enemy attack behaviour and how the game changes up what enemy types you see more of dependent on how the player performs. Hard to go back to and see with fresh eyes perhaps but XEVIOUS really deserves a place on Switch. Come on NAMCO!
Yep I sure did buy it. Great for pickup n play moments like a short bus ride
Loved it as a kid, used to play it during my Summers at White Cross Bay caravan park in the Lake District. They had the volume up loud on the cabinet so it used to really get the blood pumping. Excitedly downloaded it on the Wii a few years ago but it aged badly
Definitely a basic shooter, and definitely a hard one. I might get it, if only because that "Caravan Mode" that Hamster slaps onto every single game they put out was specifically made for games like this. (Unlike Neo Turf Masters... why?)
@SmaggTheSmug NL wouldn't be able to score it below a 5, according to their scoring policy, since there's nothing technically wrong with it. It's just basic and old, so people's mileage with it will vary. Which is fine as some folks here still find it fun. I'll give it a go when I finally get my arcade stick or Mayflash adapter. I need those arcade buttons to mash, lol!
This review came a bit late, but better late than never. I am just surprised it took so long to review such a simple old game.
Not surprised at the score either. It is basically just a good example of where the shoot-em-up genre came from. It stands out as being very dated compared to most of what the genre has to offer these days.
@FinalFrog Old and simple doesn't have to be a bad thing. I mean look at the original Super Mario Bros, it is a very simple and dated game but it is still one of my all time favorite platformers to play.
Old arcade games are always going to standout to the kind of people who enjoy score challenges, but we still need to be honest about it.
No mention of how the minibosses can be fired down before they can actually form if the player can mash the button fast enough, for an extra bonus on the score? Awww...
still sitting here waiting for my nostalgia to come to Switch
I don't understand rating classic games by today's standards. It may be a "5" to a reviewer, but what about to a person who wants a faithful arcade port of a title they once enjoyed? Perhaps a single score is unfair and almost unnecessary for titles like this? You can't expect a modern audience, for example, to enjoy Pac Man's simplistic graphics and gameplay in an age with leaderboards, online competition, and HD graphics so why hold this one to that standard?
It looks quite right for what it is.
@Darlinfan I always view the number not so much a quantifiable measure of how good a game is (I mean what on Earth would that be based on??) but more of a recommendation to buy. 5/10 is an accurate score for most readers. The text of a review explain whether it's broken, boring or niche. I think it's safe to say, the shmup fans championing it is worthwhile for budding shmup enthusiasts, and they likely know who they are. So not umbrage, more like validity from a certain point of view. I think semantics can sometimes make it appear as offence.
Pretty tough game, but i enjoy it's purity.
Maybe Nintendo should revive Solar Striker.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...