Vertical Force (Virtual Boy)

first let me say - never been a Nintendo fanboy by any stretch and when the VB first came out I thought it was horrible. fast forward some years, I got to pick one up with a bunch of games and thought it was an amazing piece of kit (no headaches in my case), a lovely oddball toy. Like owning a Gizmo.

one of these games was Vertical Force. I think anyone who is into shooters, especially de Hudson Soft variety owes it to themselves to play this - on original hardware if possible. as a retro experience it's just unique in my opinion. classic 2D shooter with all the bells and whistles - in red and black - with 3D parallax scrolling (?) - and stereo sound.

I dug it. to the point that I will probably buy another system for this and a couple of other games.

I'm not a massive fan of the genre but I do like what I like and I like this.

I will admit that most of the time I couldn't tell what the fuck was going on.

i enjoyed the VB a lot actually. wario was great, nesters funky bowling is the best bowling game i have ever played, mario tennis was good, red alarm was really impressive with the visuals and 3D physics. i acutally never got to play vertical force, and now after seeing it, it looks awesome. only reason i dont still own one is because they seem to mess up so regularly with bad solder joints causing visual issues. had 2 consoles go bad on me and then decided to sell. kinda miss it really.

max 330 mega said:

i enjoyed the VB a lot actually. wario was great, nesters funky bowling is the best bowling game i have ever played, mario tennis was good, red alarm was really impressive with the visuals and 3D physics. i acutally never got to play vertical force, and now after seeing it, it looks awesome. only reason i dont still own one is because they seem to mess up so regularly with bad solder joints causing visual issues. had 2 consoles go bad on me and then decided to sell. kinda miss it really.

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My unit had the same issue. If you have a gamebit driver, there is actually a very easy guide to repairing them. Reflow a few joints and epoxy the ribbon cables so they don't move. I fixed mine 5 years ago and haven't had any issues with the headset since. The controller's battery packs fail after awhile, but those are very easy to find a replacement for.

Also, V-Force is awesome. Its totally 90s Hudson which isn't a bad thing.

Vertical Force was amusing, definitely worth picking up if you have a Virtual Boy.

Vertical Force was pretty decent. It played like another entry in Hudson's "Soldier" series - I'm surprised it wasn't called Virtual Soldier. I don't like playing it on actual hardware because of eye strain but on an emulator it's definitely worth a look.

That said, Vertical Force was no where near as good as some other Hudson Soldier titles like Soldier Blade.

on an emulator it looks like crap, the eye strain is worth it.

It's a nice shooter, i think the ship is too big...

Great game, and I think it's an underrated system. Sure it's gimmicky as hell, but it's also fun - isn't that what it's all about?

Love the stereo sound effect blasting in your ears as well.

I'm a Virtual Boy fanboy, imported one when it first came out. I think it's up there with the Vectrex in terms of under appreciated systems, it's a very unique experience. A lot of people shit on Red Alarm but it was the first game I got and probably still remains the most played game. Vertical Force is a good one and super cheap to scoop.

One of my favorite VB games...and i think it used the dual layers very well for the 3d effect. Red Alarm on the other hand...

I remember getting hooked on Telero Boxer, I used to lay down with that thing on my head for hours...talk about permanent brain damage.

ElectricGrave said:

I remember getting hooked on Telero Boxer, I used to lay down with that thing on my head for hours...talk about permanent brain damage.

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Haha, yeah the best way to play was on your back with it resting on your face.

I probably spent the most time on Wario, Teleroboxer and Jack Bros.