Galaxy Force II

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Galaxy Force II

System(s): Sega Y Board, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, FM Towns Marty, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Virtual Console
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega AM2, CRI (MD port)
Sega

Galaxy Force II is a 1988 arcade game developed by Sega AM2. It is a sequel to Galaxy Force, though the differences between them are minimal. It is a third person shoot 'em up, where the player controls a spaceship traveling across various planets destroying enemies. Like all Sega Y Board games, there is an impressive amount of sprite scaling and rotations, putting the game ahead of traditional 2D shoot 'em ups.

Galaxy Force II was ported to the Sega Mega Drive in 1989, and a selection of computers including the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. Due to the inferior hardware of these systems, large cutbacks were made regarding detail and the reception has hence been mixed. There was a more respectable port to the FM Towns Marty in Japan however, which kept the sprite scaling, and there was a re-release for the Sega Saturn under the Sega Ages label. Many of the computer releases mis-label the packaging as "Galaxy Force" rather than "Galaxy Force II", but the in-game title screens retain the numbering. A port to NEC's SuperGrafx was also in development and shown in magazines, but never completed.

The arcade game has since been re-released in Japan as part of the PlayStation 2's Sega Ages 2500 series. More recently, the Mega Drive version of the game was brought to the Wii's Virtual Console service.