Super FamiComplete #51: D-Force (Redux)

  

Title: Dimension Force (JP) D-Force (NA)

Release Date: 12/20/1991

Developer: Asmik

Publisher: Asmik

When I first started to journey through the SNES catalog, I wasn't expecting a schmup like this. this game is a journey. It is janky, poorly made, poorly designed...but I really kind of love it. The game starts terrible and generic, goes off the deep end, and then ends up being a hot mess at the end. It is the weirdest bell-curve I have seen in an older game. 

Background

This game was made by Asmik, a little known company that was eventually responsible for the some Japanese only gems (a standout is Lennus II). The game is a typical vertical schmup, but with the main vehicle of destruction being an Apache Helicopter. That is pretty neat! Other than that, there is not too much more of interest about the background.

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The Game

Oh man where to begin. First of all this game looks like hot garbage. The animation is really stilted and static, and the backgrounds and colors are drab. The ocean you sail over in the first level has this weird surf style gradient that gets really disorienting and headache inducing after a few minutes.

The game as well is terribly difficult. Your sprite is already large, and your hitbox extends in a rectangular box past your sprite. If you so much as brush with an enemy or their projectile, it is an instant loss of life. Once you burn through your lives you are in a Game Over, no continues. Where there game is forgiving, though, is that it is generous in power-ups, and if you die you only lose one level of power-ups. Since you can get a total of 12 levels, this isn't too punishing a set-back.

This is where the shame of it is, though, because if you can beat the first level, this game cranks it up in terms of fun and craziness. You see, every other level is where the D in D-Force comes from; this stands for "dimension." For example the second level takes place in prehistoric times, while the fourth level takes place in a fantasy castle. The other neat thing is that, on these levels, you can change your altitude to go a couple different routes or take out enemies who are on the ground. For example, during the dinosaur level, there are triceratops dragons who can shoot fireballs into the air at your helicopter, and your little Apache must go to ground level to attack them. The only drawback to the ground level is suddenly you have objects that you must avoid, such as walls, blocks, or trees. These levels are where this game shines. Plus, it is really cool when you kill the T-Rex boss and all that's left is his body sans head and tail (actually this was really weird and disturbing).

Now this game, after about the third level, goes off the rails completely. The levels become ridiculously long, and the boss battles can take a ridiculously long time. The boss of the snow level (level 5) took about 25 minutes to kill. He wasn't even that difficult, but the boss had a teeny-tiny hit box that made it drag on. Another boss which, design wise, was pretty cool (it is like a futuristic war train), was borderline broken if you didn't have powered-up items and couldn't shoot beyond right in front of you. I got stuck on this boss until I decided to just restart the game and try again with a better power-up. The game is just too darn hard and punishing in the later levels to recommend. 

Plus the graphics and the action are butt ugly and slow respectively. There are just some goofy design choices. Some bosses attack patterns and weak points mix so that it is almost impossible to do consistent damage to the boss without losing a life, which is really cheap and stupid.

Does this have any good music?

The game has mediocre tunes overall. 

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Final Verdict
I would play this game for the curiosity of it and the fact that parts of it are just bananas. I think this game is best enjoyed with cheats, though, as otherwise I imagine this game is just infuriating.