Clash Force
- October 25, 2017
- Kevin Dressel
- 4h median play time
Get on Steam"Clash Force" is a retro-style run-and-gun shooter game featuring the heroic trio of Voom, Scorpido, and Echid. Your mission is to stop the Evil Crackman and his minions across various stages, from forest bases to the Flying Fortress. With multiple weapon upgrades, difficulty levels, and an auto-save feature, this game offers a challenging and enjoyable experience for both beginners and 80s game experts.
Nintendo Switch
PC
Playstation 4
Playstation 5
Windows
Xbox One
PlayStation
Xbox
Reviews
- The game captures the nostalgic feel of classic NES titles, providing a straightforward and enjoyable platforming experience.
- Controls are tight and responsive, allowing for smooth gameplay and a satisfying challenge, especially on higher difficulty levels.
- The graphics and music are colorful and catchy, enhancing the overall retro vibe and making it a fun experience for fans of the genre.
- The game lacks variety in level design, often feeling repetitive and linear with limited enemy types and no significant upgrades or power-ups.
- There is no auto-fire feature, requiring players to mash the shoot button, which can lead to discomfort during longer play sessions.
- The difficulty spikes in later levels can feel unfair, particularly in stages like 'Missile Ride,' where the gameplay becomes frustrating due to cheap hits and unclear enemy patterns.
- gameplay49 mentions
- 22 % positive mentions
- 71 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The gameplay is a mix of retro 2D platforming and shooting mechanics, heavily inspired by classic titles like Contra, featuring tight controls and a satisfying challenge. However, many reviewers find the gameplay to be simplistic and uninspired, with little differentiation between characters and a reliance on outdated mechanics. While some appreciate the nostalgic feel and arcade-style experience, others criticize it for lacking innovation and depth.
“Quality of life retro shooter platformer with tight controls, satisfying gameplay, and a bumpin soundtrack.”
“Clash Force offers pretty much the kind of quick, arcade-style gameplay experience you'd expect from a 'no-bullshit' shooting platformer.”
“The gameplay works for the most part, with everything feeling challenging but fair.”
“Gameplay itself is tired and dead 2D platforming with an emphasis on shooting/bullet hell gameplay aspects.”
“This game tries to mix the gameplay and characters of Bucky O'Hare with the level design and difficulty of Contra to horrible effect.”
“Your character has no difference in gameplay that I noticed.”
- music38 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 42 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally well-received, described as catchy and enjoyable, with a nostalgic vibe that complements the retro aesthetic. While some tracks are noted for being forgettable or poorly looped, many players appreciate the soundtrack's quality and its ability to enhance the overall gaming experience. Overall, the music is considered a strong aspect of the game, contributing positively to its atmosphere and gameplay.
“Quality of life retro shooter platformer with tight controls, satisfying gameplay, and a bumpin soundtrack.”
“The music is spot-on house-game-trance... hours will slip by as you flip, shoot, jump, bounce your way down nostalgia lane!”
“Fantastic soundtrack, too.”
“You are stuck with your pea shooter that does barely any damage making boss fights drag on longer than they should and the music is forgettable.”
“It's decent, but I didn't get the 80s charms that it attempts to replicate; the music is forgettable, and the only time you might have is putting the game in its highest difficulty, but even so, the simplicity makes this game too tedious.”
“Until that point my biggest complaint was 'some of the music tracks loop a bit sloppily'.”
- graphics37 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 54 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by a vibrant retro pixel art style reminiscent of 8-bit NES and Game Gear visuals, which some players find appealing while others see it as outdated. The colorful and smooth animations, along with effective use of parallax scrolling and lighting effects, enhance the overall aesthetic, making it enjoyable for fans of retro platformers. However, the lack of resolution options and limited graphical variety in enemies may detract from the experience for some players.
“The visuals are very colorful and nice to look at; they are like a mixture of NES and Game Gear.”
“The visuals actually look really good in motion, thanks to a combination of strong palette choices, parallax scrolling, and stylistic lighting effects.”
“I will say, the graphics look great (which is why I initially wanted to try this), and the music is pretty good.”
“A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel 'art' as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics.”
“There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks.”
“It would probably have been a lot cooler to actually come up with different foes, and push it a little bit more graphically.”
- story6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The story emphasizes resilience and the unpredictability of life, conveying a moral about perseverance in the face of adversity. While the gameplay and narrative are described as simple, some players appreciate the notion that the plot's ambiguity can be a positive aspect, allowing for a more open interpretation. Overall, the story serves as a motivational backdrop rather than a complex narrative.
“The plot of the game is that you don't need to know the plot, and that's good enough for me.”
“Simple gameplay and story.”
“Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today.”
- grinding3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious and challenging, primarily due to limited airtime that restricts the number of shots fired at bosses. This design choice contributes to a frustrating experience, as it makes the process of reducing boss health feel laborious and simplistic, detracting from the overall enjoyment.
“The standard mapping limits your airtime and therefore the number of shots you can fire at the boss during each jump, making the process of chipping away the boss's health bar a more tedious and difficult task.”
“It's decent, but I didn't get the '80s charms that it attempts to replicate; the music is forgettable, and the only time you might have fun is putting the game in its highest difficulty, but even so, the simplicity makes this game too tedious.”
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game has not been explicitly addressed in the provided texts, which focus more on personal preferences for neo-retro hardware and software rather than discussing any financial models or in-game purchases.
- replayability1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Clash Force offers limited replayability due to its focus on a single-player mode and a few difficulty levels, resulting in minimal incentive for players to revisit the game after completion.
“Clash Force only includes a single-player mode and several difficulties; that being said, the game has very little replay value.”
“Once you complete the game, there’s not much incentive to play it again.”
“The lack of varied content means that replaying the game feels more like a chore than an enjoyable experience.”
