Super Earth Defense Force for SNES

Review #152

Super Earth Defense Force

Use the Homing laser

SNES 1992 Jaleco Shooter Shooter › Horizontal
Super Earth Defense Force screenshot for SNES
Screenshot used for review/reference purposes.
4 / 5

Gameplay

Stupid difficult game...unless you use the Homing Laser which makes it doable since you just have to hold down on B and avoid incoming bullets. There aren't any environmental hazards so again, just zoom around avoiding projectiles.
There are no weapons or powerups - speed can be toggled at any time with a button press and the weapon is chosen prior to the level. The gimmick is that you toggle between three different modes for your option/force drones to either be circling you, facing forward, locked in place, or they zoom to the nearest enemy. Kinda weird, and again it reinforces that you don't have to do much of the attacking. You just have to avoid enemy fire.
Toooooons of slowdown.

3 / 5

Level Design

Again, there are no environmental hazards. Only waves of enemies and their projectiles can damage you. This makes the levels seem empty and a bit boring, especially on a second playthrough. Level 4 is pretty cool, with the background zooming toward you as you approach a massive space colony, but in general the levels are defined exclusively by the background artwork.

3 / 5

Theme

Generic space shmup. There's a slow opening cutscene but otherwise no personality.

4 / 5

Art Style

The backgrounds have a lot of nice details, including parallax scrolling, lightning, and mode 7 effects. Enemy sprites are ok if forgettable. Great use of color anyway.

2 / 5

Audio

Elevator music. Most of the tracks would be right at home in a chill game like Pilotwings. Lord of Thunder, this is not.

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