Star Force (released in North America as Mega Force), is a vertically scrolling Shoot 'Em Up game developed by Tecmo when it was still known as Tehkan. It was released in 1984.
The player pilots a starship called "Final Star" and must destroy enemy ships and structures to progress through the levels.
Tropes associated with Star Force:
- Alphabetical Theme Naming: The levels are named after greek letters.
- Bullet Hell: Sometimes, the high number of enemies turns the game into this, especially in later levels.
- Cores-and-Turrets Boss: The boss of each level is a square with letter that glows. Two turrets at the side also take a potshot at the player.
- Endless Game: In some versions of the game, there is an additional level called "Infinity", which occurs after Omega (the final level), after which the game repeats indefinitely. In the NES version, after the game's completion, the infinity target becomes available, and the game repeats the same level and boss without increasing the difficulty.
- Gratuitous Greek: The names of the levels.
- Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: Some levels may be almost impossible but at the end the player just needs to shoot up a target that does not attack the player's ship.
- No Plot? No Problem!: It's never elaborated why the player must destroy the enemies' ships.
- Palette Swap: All levels are similar in design, but with different colors.
- Shoot 'Em Up
- Timed Mission: The Arcade Archives release by Hamster Corporation includes a "Caravan Mode", where you play through the game on a five-minute timer trying to score as many points as possible. This mode is made in homage to the game's inclusion (specifically the Famicom port) in the very first "Hudson All-Japan Caravan Festival", and is in fact a standard feature in every game in the Arcade Archives line.
