Games that rip off other games are usually average at best since they take a great game and strip it down to its basics. But what about a game that rips off an already average game? Could the result be anything more than mediocre? Such is the case with “Mega Force,” which is extremely derivative of the Atari 2600 port of “Defender.” It took a lame shooter and made it even lamer.

PRESS FIRE TO START

“Mega Force” is based on a virtually unknown sci-fi movie of the same name. It’s of the standard “Buck Rogers” and “Star Wars” style of protecting the good guys and fighting the bad guys while piloting spaceships and the like. The premise involves protecting the city of Sardoun from the incoming alien fighters while also making your way to the enemy’s headquarters and destroying it.

You pilot the “Moto-Fighter,” which is a spaceship that can fly quickly through the air or land and drive just as quickly around the ground. The only strategy is to blast everything in sight except for the city you’re trying to protect, while at the same time avoiding enemy fighters. Everything you blast rewards you points, unless the city is destroyed, in which case you cannot score any more points and lose a life even after you destroy the enemy’s headquarters. Additionally, you must re-fuel by blasting fuel tanks along the ground which may reward you with a bonus.

PLAYER 1 – READY!

Considering the premise, “Mega Force” seems like it would be an easy and fun shoot-em-up, but nothing could be further from the truth. The game is severely flawed for two reasons: the gameplay and the delayed controls.

You cannot control the speed of your fighter so in order to advance in the game you must tap the joystick to inch along on the field of play, or fly as fast as possible. However, both methods are illogical. Enemy fighters fly across the screen at a ridiculously fast pace so there is very little time to react. Even on the easiest setting it will take a tremendous amount of practice to get used to the game’s pacing and fairly large field of play.

Trying to play it safe by slithering along might enable you more time to react to the baddies, but since the game is played on a timer (under the guise of “fuel”), you can’t afford to dawdle. You could try to go as fast as possible and hold down the fire button for automatic fire and hope to reach enemy headquarters before they reach Sardoun, but this is dangerous and pointless.

In fact, the entire game is pointless because there’s only one objective and it can be accomplished within minutes. The game claims to have different “rounds,” but in order to advance to the next round you simply reset the game and use the game select switch to move to a higher level of difficulty. But they’re not truly different stages if you have to reset the game in order to play them. The field of play never changes, so it’s the same game repeatedly indefinitely. And unlike the classic Sisyphus-style arcade games of the era, you don’t get to carry over your score, either. Also, there are no 1-Ups to be earned so what’s the point of keeping score to begin with?

JOYSTICKING

An extremely fast pace to a game does not automatically make it challenging, nor could it be considered a flaw in and of itself. Play control is what ultimate makes or breaks such games, and in the case of “Mega Force,” it’s what breaks it.

The controls to this game can be summed up in one word: slippery. When you’re flying or driving you move quite fast, but your reaction time is delayed beyond belief. If you attempt to make a 180-degree turn your ship will coast to a stop and then start over again. This is how a lot of platform games are played in “ice worlds,” but for a shoot-em-up it’s not fun and challenging, just very annoying. Had this particular cart had a much slower pace it could be forgiven. But because it’s so quickly-paced, having anything other than tight controls makes it virtually unplayable.

SPRITES & PIXELS

I wouldn’t say the graphics to “Mega Force” are impressive, as much as its overall color scheme is. So many games in the pre-crash era of the Atari VCS library had blocky graphics and hideous colors, but this game was one of the few that were genuinely aesthetically-pleasing.

The background is a cool shade of blue and the foreground is a dark-orange/light-brown mix which is surprisingly complimentary. Most of the graphics are fairly standard for the time, although the Russian architecture style of Sardoun and the enemy headquarters are quite impressive. The actual spaceships, enemies and fuel tanks are run-of-the-mill, though.

CHIPPED TUNES

Recycling sounds from other 2600 games is forgivable, but what makes the sonic aspect to “Mega Force” truly flawed is the frequent warning alert sound, which is an annoying high-pitched siren. It’s another problem that keeps the game from being simply average.

INSERT COIN TO CONTINUE

As is the case with most mediocre games, “Mega Force” is tolerable and maybe even fun to play through once. However, considering the problems with the gameplay and play control combined with the pointless overall objective, the replay value here is nil.

GAME OVER

It’s a shame “Mega Force” is such a bad game because it clearly has a lot of potential. Better controls and a more challenging gameplay would have made it an original and fun shooter instead of the blatant clone of “Defender” that it clearly is.


Recommended: No