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Earth Defense Force has always been niche game. Sure, it\u2019s a third person shooter, but it\u2019s just so, well, Japanese. This is no Gears of War; this is an arcade shooter expanded out and writ large with traditional depth and nuance replaced by excess and scale. It\u2019s always been a slightly shoddy, low-rent shooter, but one with charm in abundance. It\u2019s something equally true of it\u2019s scrappy, occasionally rubbish but still oddly compelling spin-off, the rather absurdly named, Earth Defense Force 4.1: Wing Diver The Shooter.<\/p>\n
This classic horizontal 2D-style schmup adheres rather stringently to the core tenets of the genre while applying a liberal dose of EDF bug-based madness on top to deliver a game that will feel immediately familiar to both fans of the series and the genre. The problem is, while it\u2019s a perfectly competent shooter, it fails to excel in any aspect of its design. It\u2019s not without fun by any stretch, but as it stands, Earth Defense Force 4.1: Wing Diver The Shooter is ultimately an interesting curio that falls a long way short of genre\u2019s finest offerings.<\/p>\n
That has always been fine when it came to the mainline entries, but here, that slight shoddiness that has always underpinned the series, lacks the charm that is inherent to its third person iteration. I think it\u2019s the genre itself \u2013 schmups have always been about precision and carefully crafted design. That has been replaced here by a grind-heavy design that puts spectacle above carefully crafted refinement.<\/p>\n
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Those with only a passing interest in bullet hell shooters might think I am being unfair, and yes, at a glance, many of these shooters appear to favour spectacle over refinement, but dig a little deeper, and the genre\u2019s best are always precision-based affairs that carefully hide their subtleties behind a blizzard of multi-coloured bullets. That kind of subtlety and refinement appears to be missing here. It\u2019s mostly the little things \u2013 for all of the enemies on-screen, bullets appear to have little impact with enemies often feeling like they are sitting on a different plane from your Wing Diver. There are a huge number of weapons, but few are genuinely useful and the bosses, so often a high point of the series, fail to make much in the way of impact.<\/p>\n
Then there are the visuals \u2013 yes, they are certainly charming enough, and seeing hundreds of giant bugs on-screen remains a strangely unique selling point, but underneath the spectacle, Earth Defense Force 4.1: Wing Diver The Shooter is actually a somewhat ugly video game. Ok, in the traditional sense, all EDF games are actually quite ugly, but more worryingly here is how bland much of it is. The bosses are particularly forgettable with each of the games\u2019 6 relatively short stages also tending to fly by with little in the way of genuinely memorable scenery.<\/p>\n
That all sounds very negative, but in the games\u2019 defence, I am comparing it to the genre\u2019s finest. Judged on its own merits, this is still a fun little shooter than can be enjoyed for it\u2019s absurd levels of excess alone. Yes, there are only 6 relatively short stages, but the ones here are packed full of truly absurd spectacle, and like the mainline releases, the emphasis is very much on grinding your way through increasing absurd difficulty levels until you\u2019re ready to take on the near masochistic Inferno difficulty.<\/p>\n
It won\u2019t be for everyone, but it\u2019s something EDF fans will be accustomed to, and something that will invariably add a he amount of longevity for those willing to commit to its surprisingly addictive grind. Much of that comes, not only from the draw of its increasing difficulty levels, but also its outrageous selection of absurdly powerful weaponry. Many of them aren\u2019t really up to much, but part of the fun is the trial and error process of finding out what works for you, and as you\u2019re able to take a close range and long-range weapon on every outing, the possibilities for experimentation between the six categories of weaponry (short-range, homing, particle cannons, electroshock, ranged and laser) is vast.<\/p>\n
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Still, as fun as the game can be, for many, it will prove a short and somewhat disappointing affair. Unless you\u2019re willing to commit to the grind, this can feel like a short and somewhat shallow experience. The huge number of enemies isn\u2019t as effective as I would have hoped, and the game, despite a somewhat cool \u2018shoot up time\u2019 section that sees things escalate to all new levels of madness, lacks much in the way of genuinely new ideas.<\/p>\n
It might lack the refinement of the finest shooters on the market and some of the charm inherent to the mainline releases has certainly been lost in translation, but this will still prove an enjoyably bonkers 2D shooter for those willing to commit to its grind-heavy gameplay loop. More likely to appeal to fans of the series than fans of the genre, Earth Defense Force 4.1: Wing Diver The Shooter proves an odd beast, one that ultimately misses the mark while somehow retaining a sense of fun.<\/p>\n
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