The Mega Drive port of arcade rail shooter Galaxy Force II, ambitious but held back by the hardware. Lovely for Sega fans, below the arcade.
Your verdict
Category
Rail Shooter1 player7+
Description
A Galaxy Force spaceship pilot battles enemy armies in this Sega Mega Drive rail shooter. Published by Sega, released in the United States in September 1990. Rail shooter with Galaxy Force II in third-person view, varied planet missions and imposing bosses.
Galaxy Force II review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
The conversion keeps the sprite-scaling effect that was the arcade board's hallmark: enemies swelling as they rush the player, tunnels whose rings roll toward the front, a solar surface filling the whole screen. Saturated colours and red gradients give these flights an immediately identifiable heat.
The themes take up the spirit of the studio's racing and flying soundtracks: broad melodies carried by held chords, steady rhythms, gradual build-ups across a mission. The conversion favours the clarity of the main line, even at the cost of lightening the accompaniment compared with the original version.
Gameplay
"Solid"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
Diving behind a fighter at full throttle, slaloming between gigantic structures and spraying the screen with locked-on fire: this rail shooter bets everything on the sense of speed and depth. The spectacular staging and the frantic pace leave no respite. Exhilarating and immersive, it conveys the scale of the original arcade machine.
An adaptation of Sega's space rail shooter, Galaxy Force II propels the player aboard a ship to cross tunnels and planetary surfaces at high speed, dodging and blasting swarms of enemies. The sense of speed and the spectacular pseudo 3D of the cabinet are inevitably reduced on Mega Drive, but the intensity and snappiness survive. For a fan of retro rail shooters or someone curious about Sega's super scalers, the title keeps a raw arcade pleasure, to enjoy as an ambitious conversion.
