About
Space Megaforce, known in Japan and Europe as Super Aleste is a vertically scrolling shoot ’em up video game developed by Compile. It was published by Toho in 1992 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as part of the Aleste series. In a traditional fashion, the player pilots a spaceship through a variety of locales crawling with enemy squadrons to shoot down, though the story in the Japanese version is different from the American and European one.Additional Information
The story differs slightly depending on which version is played, though the opening premise is always the same. In the year 2048, a large mechanical sphere falls from space and starts attacking major cities around the world. After much destruction, the sphere hovers over the jungles of South America, drawing lines into the ground similar to the Nazca Line drawings as it expands itself and draws energy from the jungle foliage. Equipped with its own defense system, The Sphere destroys all attacks made on it by Earth’s military.The original Aleste fighter ship’s failure to stop the sphere’s growth prompts the construction of a space fighter capable of wielding amazing weaponry, that fighter being the Super Aleste. Tasked with flying into and destroying the sphere, the Super Aleste must also destroy any reinforcements the sphere calls for which come from the deepest depths of space. There are eight types of weapons to use, and each can be powered up by collecting chips (small egg-shaped items). Picking up chips causes the player’s current weapon to level-up, to a maximum of six.
There are two types of chips to find; Orange chips contribute to a level-up, but at higher levels, more chips are required to reach the next level. Green chips make the weapon level up instantly. Each weapon has a function that can be manipulated with the Shot-Control button, changing around the weapon’s abilities to suit different situations. Switching to another weapon is done by picking up a numbered item, with initials representing one of the eight weapons.
