Clash Force

My first honest reaction to Clash Force was relief: here is a game that knows exactly what it is and clocks out before overstaying its welcome. You choose one of three anthropomorphic heroes (Voom the rhino, Scorpido the scorpion, or Echid the... whatever Echid is) and run through forest bases, hydrofied deserts, underground mines, and a flying fortress, blasting war robots the entire time. The whole thing lands somewhere between Mega Man and Contra in feel, though it never approaches the mechanical richness of either. It is a single-plane sprint: no elaborate vertical exploration, no backtracking, no secrets demanding a second pass. Just move right, jump, fire, repeat across 21 bite-sized stages. What actually works here is the moment-to-moment flow of the weapon system. Spread guns, focused shots, and a handful of other pickup types appear by destroying flying bots or sitting in the open on the floor, and losing one on taking a hit adds just enough risk to keep the middle stages engaging. A bonus round pops up between stages where you can gamble for a random power-up or a shield pack that acts as an extra hit point, which some players will find a welcome buffer and purists will find too forgiving. The auto-save after every level is a considerate touch, and three difficulty settings (Normal, Hard, Expert) do exist, though reviewers broadly agree the gap between Normal and Hard is less dramatic than the labelling implies. The late-stage difficulty spike, on the other hand, is very real: enemies that cannot be killed and dense projectile patterns appear somewhat out of nowhere, which reads more like tuning oversight than intentional escalation. The presentation sits in an honest middle ground. Clash Force opts for chunky sprites and a wider colour palette than actual NES hardware would have allowed, framed in a box-shaped screen meant to evoke an old television set. The art lands closer to faux-retro than authentic chiptune-era craft, and some reviewers found the character sprites lack the personality of the cartoon influences the game is reaching for. Where the game genuinely earns praise is its soundtrack: the music leans more electro than pure chiptune, and the better tracks carry a funky, kinetic warmth that a few critics singled out as the title's strongest asset. The soundtrack is even sold separately on Steam, which is a meaningful vote of confidence in that side of the work. The most persistent criticism across reviewers is what Clash Force chose not to include. The three playable characters are purely cosmetic - pick whoever looks coolest, because they control identically, with no ability differentiation. There is no co-op, which several reviewers felt the game's Saturday-morning-cartoon DNA practically demanded. Firing upward is not possible, which creates friction against enemies positioned above the player. Weapon pickups overwrite whatever you are carrying without any inventory option, which occasionally punishes you for collecting an upgrade in a tight spot. None of these are individually fatal, but taken together they outline a game that found its floor and stopped digging. For players who want a brisk, unchallenging run through a cheerful NES-flavoured world, Clash Force is a compact and honest offering. For anyone who replays Contra on Expert or expects a retro title to push the genre forward even slightly, the cracks will show within the first hour.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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