Space Megaforce

"Another space shooter "compiled" for your pleasure"

Graphics--The animation of various enemies (which look like other Compile bots,) weapons, and backgrounds are great. There are Mode 7 rotating areas, translucent clouds, rippling translucent galaxies, and lots of bright (if a little over-contrasting and pastel-ish) colors. Your ship even zooms off and leaves a repeating "blur" just like the other Compile games when you beat the levels. Bosses are as big as any other SNES shooter, and smaller minibosses are done just like any other Compile shooter. While it sometimes lacks the realism and gimmicks of other '91-'92 shooters like Gradius 3 or Axelay, it looks a bit better than other contemporaries like Super R-Type and Darius Twin--even before considering the special effects. 8.2/10

Sound--The melodies are usually pretty catchy and fit the relaxed, positive, upbeat, serious boss, or whatever other mood you're supposed to be in. But the instrumentation is not very good--even for an early SNES game, most of the samples are short and low-quality, and the channeling is unimpressive--you can frequently only hear a few short instruments in places that can and should use much more and longer ones, and key instruments are sometimes lost with multiple sound effects. It would have been nice to see Miyamo Shant help with the songs, as TGL and Zanac had even stronger melodies. There are some decent digitized voices, and the sound effects do what they have to. Some sounds, like pausing, are nicely remastered from other Compile games. Due to the weak instruments and execution, which again ruin some great potential and compare pretty poorly to the top shooters of the time, almost the lowest grade I can give a SNES game with this many catchy songs and voices: 7.5/10

Gameplay--Mostly excellent. Just like the other Compile shooters, there are similar fine weapons, like the power-up shot, various multiple-directions, and so on--and this is a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Sometimes it is a little tough to control the mode of fire to the one you want. There are similar enemies, bigger bosses with minimal sprite flicker or slowdown, and for a shooter more than enough plot. Again, the Mode 7 rotating areas provide for a lot of fun. The difficulty is reasonable, although it might be considered a negative if you're one of those people who dislikes how games have gotten easier; you can see how this trend started, as the game didn't have quite the unbeatable swarms of enemies and bullets that Compile's earlier shooters had. But it's as good as anything that the game doesn't have an unfair power-up/power-down system--the kind that in many games causes things to only get worse once someone loses a life because having basic power will only cause them to keep losing lives. This is because the game gradually strips your powerups with the first hits, and when you die you can easily power-up again. In addition to regular mode, a short mode allows you to shoot for high scores. 9/10

Overall--While I was a little surprised to see all but one reviewer give this game 9 or 10, this is a very good early SNES shooter, continuing the line of Compile's other shooters like Zanac, Guardic, TGL, Power Strike. I liked renting and playing it when I was younger. 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/12/07