Collection essentials #250: Space Megaforce (SNES)

Here we have a shoot ‘em up developed by a company called Compile, who are considered one of the best developers for the genre. Personally I don’t tend to love Compile shooters quite as much as a lot of their fans do, but boy do I love this one! It’s another shmup that was designed directly for a home console rather than for arcades first, which shows, and in a very good way in my opinion.

What’s really great about Space Megaforce and helps it stand out in a crowded genre is the power-ups. Almost every shmup has power-ups you can get, and there are often something like two or three different types that give you a different shot that has strengths and weaknesses. It’s not unheard of to see a strictly linear power-up progression too with no such choices to be made. Space Megaforce, on the other hand, has EIGHT different weapons you can choose from. And if that weren’t enough, each one has different attack patterns that you can switch between at the press of a button for even more variety! This makes for truly remarkable and very fun gameplay. There’s some creative stuff here, such as the “Circle” power-up, which involves a big ball (more than one when powered up further) that rotates around your ship, and you can let it rotate the whole time or hold down a button to freeze it in place. I don’t think I’ve seen a weapon in another shmup quite like it!

Space Megaforce is not a perfect game. The power-ups don’t seem especially balanced to me. The laser in particular seems overpowered, and when I really wanted to beat the game I just stuck with the laser the whole time because it just seemed like the obvious best choice. Another complaint I have about the game is the music, which is pretty dull. Ideally a shmup should feature catchy high-tempo music to get your adrenaline pumping, but Space Megaforce’s tunes just kinda fall flat and are pretty forgettable.

This game wasn’t all that popular, and I never knew about it as a kid. However, as a young teenager who finally had access to the internet at home, I started frequenting the SNES message boards on gamefaqs.com and found out about lesser-known titles like this from there. I grabbed Space Megaforce on eBay (the very copy in the photo with its box and manual) in 2006. 

The SNES is generally considered inferior to other consoles of its time when it comes to shmups. There are reasons for that, but I don’t think it’s a pushover in this area at all. Space Megaforce to me is a strong contender for best shmup of the console generation. A wonderful essential.