also released in arcades outside of Japan as ''Mega Force'', is a vertical-scrolling shooter computer game released in 1984 by

Tehkan , was a Japanese video game corporation founded in 1967. It had its headquarters in Kudankita, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Its subsidiary, Tecmo Inc, was located in Torrance, California. Tecmo was formerly known as Tehkan. Tecmo is known for the ''Captain ...

Gameplay

In the game, the player pilots a starship called the ''Final Star'', while shooting various enemies and destroying enemy structures for points. Unlike later vertical scrolling shooters, like

Toaplan was a Japanese video game developer based in Tokyo responsible for the creation of a wide array of Shoot 'em up#Scrolling shooters, scrolling shooters and other arcade games. The company was founded in 1979 but its gaming division was establis ...

's ''

Twin Cobra ''Twin Cobra'', known as in Japan, is a vertically scrolling shooter developed by Toaplan and released for Arcade game, arcades in 1987 by Taito in Japan and Europe, then in North America by Romstar. It is a sequel to the 1985 arcade game ''Ti ...

'', the ''Final Star'' had only two levels of weapon power and no secondary weapons like missiles and/or bombs. Each stage in the game was named after a letter of the

Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as we ...

. In certain versions of the game, there is an additional level called "Infinity" (represented by the infinity symbol) which occurs after Omega, after which the game repeats indefinitely. In the

NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

version, after defeating the Omega target, the player can see a black screen with Tecmo's logo, announcing the future release of the sequel '' Super Star Force''. After that, the infinity target becomes available and the game repeats the same level and boss without increasing the difficulty.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Star Force'' on its December 1, 1984, issue as the fourteenth most-successful table arcade unit at the time.

Legacy

Sequels

*'' Super Star Force: Jikūreki no Himitsu'', released in 1986 for the Japanese Nintendo Famicom. *'' Final Star Force'', released for arcades in 1992.

Ports and related releases

''Star Force'' was ported and published in 1985 by

Hudson Soft was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo ...

to both the MSX home computer and the

Family Computer The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redes ...

(Famicom) in Japan. The North American version for the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

(NES) was published in 1987 by Tecmo. Although the NES version is the same Hudson port that had been released for the Famicom in Japan, Tecmo made alterations to the graphics, music, and control, and increased the difficulty of the game. ''Star Force'' was also ported to the

SG-1000 The is a home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business. Developed in response to a downturn in arcades starting in 1982, the SG-1000 was created on the advice of Hayao Nakay ...

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

X68000 The is a home computer created by Sharp Corporation. It was first released in 1987 and sold only in Japan. The initial model has a 10 Megahertz, MHz Motorola 68000 Central processing unit, CPU, 1 Megabytes, MB of Random Access Memory, RAM ...

by Dempa Shimbunsha and

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

s by Tecmo. In 1995, along with two other NES shooters, the Famicom version of ''Star Force'' was remade by Hudson Soft with minimal upgrades for the Super Famicom as part of the Japan-only release of the ''

Caravan Shooting Collection This is a list of video games developed or published by Hudson Soft. The following dates are based on the earliest release, typically in Japan. While Hudson Soft started releasing video games in 1978, it was not until 1983 that the company began ...

''. The same version was also included in Hudson's compilation of NES shooters in 2006 in ''Hudson Best Collection Vol. 5''. The original arcade version was later added to the compilation titled ''

Tecmo Classic Arcade ''Tecmo Classic Arcade'' is a collection of classic Tecmo arcade games for the Microsoft Xbox. This collection was released on September 13, 2005 in the U.S., October 21, 2005 in Europe and October 27, 2005 in Japan, and contains all of the games ...

'', which was released for the

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

. In 2009, the arcade version was made available for download on the

Wii Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Unix ...

for 500

Wii Points The Wii Shop Channel is a former digital distribution service for the Wii video game console. The service allowed users to purchase and play additional software for the Wii (called Channels), including exclusive games (branded WiiWare), and game ...

as one of the four initial offerings for the "Virtual Console Arcade" category of the

Wii Shop Channel The Wii Shop Channel is a former digital distribution service for the Wii video game console. The service allowed users to purchase and play additional software for the Wii (called Channels), including exclusive games (branded WiiWare), and game ...

(the other three being ''

Gaplus is a 1984 fixed shooter arcade game developed and released by Namco. It is the third game in the ''Galaxian'' series, serving as a direct sequel to ''Galaga'' (1981). In North America, a modification kit was later released to change the name to ' ...

'', ''

Mappy is an arcade game by Namco, introduced in 1983 and distributed in the United States by Bally Midway. A side-scrolling platform game featuring a mouse protagonist and cat antagonists, it runs on Namco Super Pac-Man hardware modified to suppo ...

'', and ''

The Tower of Druaga is a 1984 Arcade game, arcade action role-playing maze game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Controlling the golden-armored knight Gilgamesh, the player is tasked with scaling 60 floors of the titular tower in an effort to rescue the ...

'' from

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

). In 1986, Hudson Soft released the shoot 'em up game ''

Star Soldier A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

'', which is considered a spiritual successor to ''Star Force''. The game spawned numerous sequels.

Notes

References

External links

* {{KLOV game, id=9759
Star Force at arcade-history
1984 video games Arcade video games Mobile games MSX games Nintendo Entertainment System games Vertically scrolling shooters SG-1000 games Sharp X68000 games Tecmo games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games Vertically-oriented video games