Alex_The_Hedgehog

User Score
8.5

Presentation - 9.0
Gameplay - 8.5
Value - 8.5

The 16-bits era had a lot of very popular shoot'em ups. On SNES, you probably remember Gradius, R-Type or Axelay. But have you ever heard of Earth Defense Force, or E.D.F.?

Well, this is a classic game where you must protect your homeland from aliens. But gameplay-wise, we have a couple of very interesting features.

Before each stage, you can select what kind of weapon you want to use. Each one of those weapons have their own status. For example, the Homing shot is very fast and doesn't require aiming, but it's weak. The Photon allows you to charge your shoots, and it's very powerful. But really slow.

Also, the weapons have different kind of uses. You can press the A button to change it. For example, the Photon shot can be used as rapid fire, or as a chargeable blast.

That's not all. When defeating enemies, you earn points. After collecting enough points, you can level up your weapon. It's possible to reach up to level 5 power. If you're already on level 5, you will receive a shield instead.

I would recommend you to try every weapon before attempting to beat the game. You can use the first level for that, since it's not very hard.

About the graphics... Well, while not on Axelay levels, E.D.F. has some very cool use of pseudo-3D environments. It has levels where you see things on the background approaching the screen or rotating. Very cool.

Unfortunately, I can'r say this game is for anyone. The difficulty is very high. I beated it using the Homing shot, and I had a lot of trouble. Some bosses took almost 10 minutes to beat. Yeah, I think I really should've tried other weapons. But I was enjoying it anyway.

Bosses have a lot of health, multiple phases, and lots of different attacks. You have 3 shields, but if your weapon is at level 5, there's a chance you can reach up to 5 shields. The hard part is keeping them all the way.

By the way, have I mentioned that if you lose a life you must restart the stage? Yeah, it was not fun for me, but if you want a challenge, go ahead.

I don't think I can say this is the ultimate shooter for the SNES, but it's certainly one of the bests. Visuals are really nice, a lot of different weapons to expand the gameplay, and even replay value.

My biggest complain is that the ending... Well, it was kind of a disappointment. No, it's not a bad ending, but after all those challenges, I was expecting something more exciting to finish the game.

Earth Defense Force is a great shooter. It certainly deserves more recognition. And if you enjoy dying over and over again, think no more: Go play it.