North American Box Art for Vertical Force.
Vertical Force is a 2-d vertical shooter for the Virtual Boy .
Plot[]
The year is 210 SE (Space Era). Humankind has propered the wildest imagination of the the earliest space explorers. Waves of human colonists have advanced to thousands of planets all over the universe. Each colony is built with a caretaker computer and equipped with Android Industrial (AI) Drones to control the planet and mine resources. The materials collected are sent back to Earth.
Now, something has gone terribly wrong and the caretaker computer of Odin, (plantet #0326) has spontaneously reprogrammed itself. Instead of serving humans and sending minerals to Earth, it seems its new missionis to slaughter humans and make minerals of Earth.
The corrupted caretaker, calling itself "Mittgard," has declared war on all humanity. His mechanical army of "AI Drones" is headed towards Earth, and he has equipped them with a ray that will render the strategic computers and weapons of the United Earth Army inoperative. As a result, wherever the army has tried to intercept the AI Drones they have suffered total defeat.
As luckwould have it, a xeno-archealogy team working on Ragnarok (planet #1562) has just made a most fortuitous find. Among the ruins of an alien civilization, a battle machine has been unearthed. Because of its alien design and construction, this battle machine is not affeccted by the Mittgard rays. The most fortunate stroke is that it is equipped with a device that allows it to reprogram some AI drones and use them against Mittgard's forces.
After taking possession of the Ragnarok battle machine, The United Earth Army has called on its number one flying ace to rid the universe of the meance posed by Mittgard.
Gameplay[]
Vertical Force is a 2-d vertical shooter that plays in two different levels of depth (altitude). The Left Control pad moves the ship, the Right Control pad switches between the AI Drone equipped. The A button changes altitude. The B button destroys the AI drone that is being currently used. The Left and Right Triggers fire the weapons.
Enemies[]
- Snell- a highly maneuverable light fighter
- Storer- heavily armored, this mid-size attacker is highly maneuverable
- Phest- this heavily amored fighter is equipped with high powered weapons
- Rufbolt- this fighter is capable of taking off from water
- Vena- a high speed fighter
- Raytzer- this agile fighter attacks while circling
- Biphel- this berserker attacks by ramming
- Claya- this lightweight attacker is capable of swift altitube changes
- Altafax- fires missiles whenever it spots an intruder
- Lazeray- this attacker is capable of free movement over water
- Bratt - mid-level boss