Earth Defense Force

"A nice, arcade-style shooter for anyone to enjoy."

EDF is a great game. Even after so many years, even I enjoy playing it once in a while. EDF was once an arcade game(which I never played), but got imported to the SNES for people to enjoy it at home. If you like fighter jets, space technology, and arcade-style games, EDF is the game for you!

Graphics: 7/10
Graphics aren't bad for a SNES game, but there's better out there. Still, you can see everything clearly in the game. And that's always a good thing(unless you're heavily attracted to 8-bit-style graphics).

Music: 7/10
Music is nice, but sometimes a tad annoying. Personally, I like the 1st level, 3rd level, and 6th level music. The rest are okay. But they could have had a final boss music for the last boss, but they still had the old boss music. That's a slight negative.

Sound: 6/10
The sound isn't what it's cracked up to be. When a small enemy explodes, it sounds like a pop-gun firing. And when you hit an enemy with a weapon, it sounds like a punch landed on the face with a small explosion added to it. The sound could have been better, but hey, it could be worse!

Story: 3/10
There really isn't much of a story. I assume you're a soldier from the USA Air Force, protecting the nation from aliens/robots/machines. Yeah, kinda dull.

Gameplay: 7/10
The gameplay is nice. You get to select from 8 different weapons for your fighter-jet every time you're about to go into action, and when you score enough points, your weapons get upgraded to do more damage and look different. Also, as your weapons get upgraded, so do your satellites! As you gain levels, the satellites will do different stuff like follow your ship around, or move up to enemies to shoot their faces up! You go through 6 different levels, each with a boss, and 4 out of al of them have a mini boss(which is naturally weaker than a boss. In total, there are exactly 7 bosses, and 4 mini-bosses. You take 3 hits from an enemy, and you die. Die about 3 times, and it's game over. Yep, classic arcade gaming. Gotta love it.

Control: 8/10
The controls are great. You hold the B button to fire your weapon, push A to make the satellite things on your ship rotate around you, and push X to change your speed to either slow, normal, or fast. Also, you can change the controls to your comfort.

Overall: 7/10
The game is short, but fun. Always a good game to play if you have the spare time. It has it's pro's & con's. If you like 2-D shooting games, I recommend getting this game(but since they don't sell SNES games anymore, it could be hard). Thank you for reading.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/31/03