 If you watched my Super Nintendo shoot-em-up video and managed to stick around all the way to the end You heard me mention Space Megaforce or Super Alest as the best shoot-em-up for the Super Nintendo And not only that it's got to be in the top 20 or top 25 list of the best Super Nintendo games ever made Okay, so why is that? What separates Space Megaforce from all the other shoot-em-ups? First of all if you didn't know this game is essentially gun-back for the NES Upgraded on the Super Nintendo and it's really no different from how Mario Zelda Castlevania or Contra Got Super Nintendo upgrades from their NES predecessors But the basic gist of what makes Space Megaforce so good is that the game achieves a near perfect harmony between size speed and spacing I can't imagine how tricky it must be as a programmer to get the proportion between those three aspects just right to make even a Decent game let alone a great one, but that's what makes Space Megaforce great at its core. There's the size of your ship enemy ships and projectiles There's the space they're all given and there's the speed at which everything moves all three of these aspects Compliment each other so well in this game next you need a place for these elements to exist in practice and again Space Megaforce nails This by having clever and interesting level design that not only complements the spacing and movement But the patterns of your weapons as well like the laser here I love how it follows the borders of the boundaries that makes it so satisfying to just clean house Speaking of lasers the power-up system is also well done There's eight weapons to choose from and you collect these egg things to boost your power Some lend themselves better to some levels and enemies better than others But not every power-up is that great in fact you do spend quite a bit of time dodging power-ups that you don't want it kind of Reminds me of super ghouls and ghosts in that way where some weapons like the bow and arrow the lance and the knife are fantastic But stay the hell away from some of the others like most shoot them up Space Megaforce can be pretty dang hard But it is fair and forgiving if you get hit first your weapon power goes back to zero if you get hit again Your toast the checkpoints are fair enough though But again The difficulty gives me a super ghouls and ghosts kind of a vibe and that you take a trial and error approach In other words, you have to die a lot to get far in this game and keep a good memory of what's coming up next There's nothing wrong with that in my opinion if this game has any flaws It's that the level layouts can be tad confusing at times as to what you can and can't fly through and also each level is long Very long So that might turn some people away the game does have a quote-unquote short mode though Which is indeed shorter, but that's not as satisfying in my opinion But yeah overall Space Megaforce kind of reminds me a bit of games like Turtles in Time and that you want to continue playing through Thick and thin just because you're eager to see what the next level looks like or what the next boss looks like or what power-ups You can get it's just super addicting and in the end That's how the game really hooks you if you're not into shoot them ups like I used to be you should check out Space Megaforce you might be surprised how much you'll play it