Super FamiComplete #37: Earth Defense Force (Redux)

 

Title: Super Earth Defense Force (JP) Earth Defense Force (NA)

Release Date: October 25th, 1991 (JP) January 1992 (NA)

Developer: Jaleco

Publisher: Jaleco

The second in my unofficial "Childhood Easter Trilogy;" SEDF is a schmup plain and simple. While I have fond memories of this title, I often remember it for its difficulty. Now I won't make the proclamation that it is a hard game in general, as I will be the first to admit that I am terrible at shoot-em-ups. I will say, though, that every time I play this game, it ends up being hard for me, and I DID manage to beat Gradius III as a neophyte to that game. For this second go round, I am playing on the SNES Online with the Nintendo Switch. 

Background

I want to start with the fact that this game has no relation whatsoever to the charming Earth Defense Force series developed for modern consoles. Those are the largescale, sandbox style games where you defend the Earth from giant bugs with big guns, vehicles, and crazy explosions. I wanted to begin with that fact as I actually thought this was a predecessor up until I did my research for this blog post. 

This incarnation was originally an arcade title, but was ported to the SNES. This game was the first game developed by Jaleco for the Super NES/Famicom (Jaleco published two other titles on this blog). Jaleco was known as a company for either its sports titles or its shoot-em-ups. Specifically, this game is a horizontal schmup.

Now the story for this game is rather simplistic. According to the manual for the game (no in game text is featured), the evil Azyma Empire has started its invasion of Earth, and have established a base on the dark side of the moon. This alien menace, who seem to be a bio-mechanical race, are building a super weapon on the moon that will soon wipe out all life on Earth. It is up to your fighter to lead the offensive against the invasion, push the enemy back to the moon, and then destroy their base before the super weapon can fire. Pretty standard fare (in fact wasn't this the plot to Darius Twin and Raiden Trad?)

Gameplay

As a schmup, this game has some unique features. For one, it rarely focuses on a space aesthetic, but instead settles on some really neat background/locales for its levels. The first level is a beautiful flight across the clouds near sunset, the second level is across a city-scape at night, and the third level is a strange petrified forest/swamp/cavern. Very neat settings for a level. 

Unlike Gradius III, which featured that reward based upgrade system, this game lets you continually level up your fighter. You have a choice of eight weapon types at the beginning of each level, and as your ship levels up, these weapons get more and more powerful. Some weapons are rather impractical, as they limit the direction and the speed of your shots, and others, like the S-Laser, are rather broken as they turn parts of the game into a cakewalk. Overall, though, the mechanic is quite nice, and it provides a built in difficulty curve for players seeking more of a challenge.

Your ship is also rather large, with a big ol' hitbox that will happily soak up damage if your play is not up to snuff. It makes avoiding damage in this game really difficult, especially when enemies and their bullets are much more mobile and quicker than you are. There are no boosts to speed or an ability to shrink your plane like in Gradius. The size of your ship can feel like a very punitive handicap. Enemies, as well, are rather large, so they eat up a lot of screen space too. The screen can sometimes be just a bit too busy, which is disconcerting for a shoot-em-up. I feel a good shoot-em-up should have intricate but clear patterns which allow for the player to adjust accordingly. This game just feels too random sometimes, which forces the player to play via rote memorization.  Not as much fun, in my opinion.

Now instead of lives, your fighter has "shields." You can set the number of shields at the beginning of the game, allowing you to set your own difficulty, in a way. If you get hit at all, one of your shields is taken away. Lose all of your shields and your ship explodes. This is where the game gets punishing. The levels are very, very long, and a death sends you back to the beginning of the level. Die three times and it is a permanent "game over," and you have to start the entire journey over again.

The game has a tendency to through tons of different enemy types at you all at once, and the enemies aggressively get in your face and try to collide with you. Their sprites, too, are very large, and many will soak up tons of damage before being destroyed. Even with constant bombardment, some enemies won't be able to be killed, and they will just fly away. Bosses, as well, turn into a bullet-hell endurance match. 

I will say, the enemy designs are quite leery, but in a good way. As I said before, the bad guys seem to be these bio-mechanical monstrosities, and their ships seem to be alive in a way that is really quite off putting.  The final boss, in particular, looks like a crazy mechanical version of Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

What about that EDF music son?
This games music is pretty darn good! Check it out.

Ads, Art, Commercials
I found some art from the old arcade game, plus a few print pieces.

Final Verdict

I still have a soft spot for this game, but there are better shooters available on the SNES. Stick with Gradius III and U.N. Squadron. This game is just too punishing and frustrating to sit down to learn.
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