In the early days of the SNES Space Megaforce was a masterpiece of a game . Today it still stands tall .

User Rating: 9.3 | Super Aleste SNES
By zekere | Review Date:
Space Megaforce is great . If you consider yourself a shooter fan, you MUST play this game . Graphically, it showcased all the SNES' powers and was truly amazing when it was first released . But what made it even more incredible, was the fact that there was absolutely NO SLOWDOWN in the entire game , a technical achievement that no other shooter game in those days could achieve . And the screen was many times completely filled with enemies, bullets (your own and the enemies'), rotating backgrounds and other animations combined with the last rescue mega bomb . Gameplay wise no other shooter came near in terms of powerups : your craft had access to 8 different weapons with a normal and alternate firemode , and each weapon had 6 power levels . When fully powered up, it was almost ridiculous how many fire came out of your spacecraft . Another neat gameplay element was the fact that respawning after you were destroyed was a profit you had to earn . By destroying certain power capsules, you could immediately respawn when your ship blowed up . Of course, you couldn't collect the power up anymore, so choices, choices... anyway, respawning this way was an incredible advantage , otherwise, you reappeared a while back in the level .
Also, this game was not a one-hit, you die game . As said, your current weapon had 6 power levels , and when you had enough power, an encounter with a bullet or ship resulted not in a destroyed ship, but a decrease in power . Many shooters have issues with the lifespan of the game , not Space Megaforce . The game has 12 verically scrolling levels , some longer than others, but the most are really intense and long enough before you reach a nasty endboss . These are traditionally BIG and NASTY and can take a lot of punishment before giving up . The game has 6 difficulty settings, and instead of just being more difficult, they vary in other ways too . There's the usual easy, normal and hard setting , but also the wild and hyper settings , which add nasty little things to the game, like enemies exploding into bullets . Sound effects and music are very good , which each level having it's own catchy tune . Every three levels, there's a kind of bonus stage (without the bonus however), which is a little shorter than the normal stages . Each of these stages has the same music .
So in the end, Space Megaforce is in my opinion the best shooter game on the market . It stomped other great franchises like R-type and Gradius into the ground in its days of glory , by being technically more advanced and having a lifespan many times greater than those other shooters . It's a shame this game is so little known in the games community, because of everyone I know that played Space Megaforce , it received a special spot in their hearts .

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