Arcade Archives Terra Force

Genre: Shmup

Players: 1-2 Alternating (Local), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

Terra Force is a Shmup released in 1987 in Japanese arcades, but never brought to the West until this modern release, which sees the game coming to Nintendo Switch in 2019. This game isn’t really a part of the Cresta series, initially going by the name 23XX Cosmo Ranger, but received the name Terra Force in hopes that the popularity of the Cresta series might transfer to this game.

That said, don’t expect any of the Cresta series’ multi-part ship mechanics to show up here, this is mostly a by-the-books Shmup, with its signature mechanic being the ability at some points to transition from above ground to underground or underwater, sometimes optionally, and sometimes required by the game. Doing so changes the game from a top-down view to a side-scrolling view, but mostly the gameplay remains similar. Overall, this isn’t an especially noteworthy Shmup, and in fact it seems a bit high in its difficulty, making this a bad choice for those who aren’t already skilled at the genre.

This release of the game includes a new “Hi-Score Mode” that challenges players to score as much as they can in one run before seeing a game over screen. There is also a new “Caravan Mode” that does much the same, but with the limit being five minutes. In addition, this release of the game includes various display options, sound options, challenge modifiers, button mapping, and online leaderboards.

Overall, while I appreciate Westerners finally getting access to a previously Japan-only title, but as Shmups go, this isn’t a particularly great or influential game within the genre. It’s not bad, but you have an abundance of better options on Nintendo Switch. Play something else instead.

tl;dr – Terra Force is a Shmup that has players swapping between overworld top-down gameplay and underground side-scrolling stages, but otherwise this is a fairly by-the-books entry in the genre, and a particularly tough one at that. Unless you’re a collector or a Shmup fanatic I don’t see this game being of much interest to you.

Grade: C

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