SUPER ALESTE

Under construction

Front cover 476x540 (72k)

SUPER ALESTE or SPACE MEGAFORCE in USA is the only shooting game of company of MOO NIITANI on SUPER FAMICOM, released by TOHO in 1992.

Whatever you may object, the SUPER NES never gained my respect as a good shooting game machine ; in horizontal scrolling, we have some KONAMI games which are good (others can be found in better version as PHALANX that I prefer on X68000) and in vertical scrolling domain, the TWIN BEE (available too on X68000), the hybrid and amazing AXELAY and that SUPER ALESTE are the most important part of that kind on the machine, all the others can't match the usual production of PC-Engine or MEGADRIVE.
And one more time, I must admit this SUPER ALESTE get at the top of its category as the best vertical scrolling shoot. We have plenty of visuals effects indeed less unusual than AXELAY, but varied and numerous, zooms, deformations, really speedy scrolling..., the game used the capacities of SUPER FAMICOM but may be not at its maximum (at last, there was no slow-down in scrolling, that was so usual for SNES games). In its form, this SUPER ALESTE has an ancestry with GUNHED, there the same kind of bonus stages and we find that same COMPILE touch, a rather good difficulty level, varied action and good music.
Nevertheless, I think this ROM cartridge could have been better, seing the full capacities of SUPER FAMICOM.

640x480 (61k)

For scenario, it seems to vary from US version to Japanese one, the pilot is being helped by a co-pilot, and she seems to have strange role in the plot at the end of game (I don't reallly get the Japanese ending, one more mystery to solve)

TIPS

There is a lot of hidden bonus in this game, as the hidden RANDARs, really useful since so many years as everyone knows.

Bonus CG : At last screen of the ending, push left direction and L button to get a bonus CG, it will vary accordind to the difficulty level, if my memories are clear.

To have a faster game : This hint is a bit technical because a french "switched" SUPER NES and a french version of the game are needed. Why french ? Because of french TV standard, the game console had to be in 50 hz to work with no problems, in Japan and USA it works in 60 hz. The result for us was a loss of game speed, but some conscientious companies had modified their game so French game version could be as quick as others. It's the case of that SUPER ALESTE so if you play french version on a french 50 hz game console, it's as fast as others, then with the switch you can step to 60 hz mode, then all will be faster than in original game, scrollings, enemies, shots, even musics with boosted BPM sound more hard-core. The game is more difficult but it's fun to play a more hard version than original, moreover it proves that SUPER NES could do better and quicker whitout technical problems.

STAFF

Executive producer
-AKIRA KOBAYASHI
-MOO NIITANI

Producer
-JUNICHI TSUNODA
-MASATO TAKENO
-TAKA TANIDA

Plan/game design
-JEMINI HIRONO

Program
-JEMINI HIRONO

Graphics
-JANUS TERAMOTO
-KEROL WATANABE
-ITOH
-KOSHIO
-SAWA
-OHNISHI

Sound design
-TAKEUCHI
-NAGAO
-KATSUMI TANAKA

Special thanks
-KATSUJI SUENAGA
-MATSUOKA
-COMPILE STAFF

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