I introduced myself to Tehkan's (now Koei Tecmo's) Star Force today, as I spotted that it was available in the Arcade Archives series, and I'd mentioned it in the Atari ST A to Z video on Plutos a while back.
A few observations: firstly, Plutos was most definitely inspired by Star Force, not that it was attempting to hide that fact in any way. Secondly, Warhawk was also most definitely inspired by Star Force, and in retrospect that was not attempting to hide that fact in any way either.
I find the latter quite interesting, because I recall Warhawk specifically being praised for being a relatively fresh and original-feeling shoot 'em up on its original release for Atari 8-bit (and other platforms) — but it turns out that yes, it's absolutely a shameless ripoff of Star Force. In fact, I'd probably argue that Warhawk is more of a Star Force ripoff than Plutos is — and Plutos is much more commonly known as being an "homage" to Star Force.
Warhawk goes so far as to wholesale lift enemy designs and their respective attack patterns from Star Force. Remember the annoying "Pac-Man" type ships in Warhawk that float straight down the screen until you cross their path, at which point they float horizontally? They're in Star Force. The waves of enemies that simply scroll vertically down the screen at you? Star Force. Waves of enemies that go wibbly-wobbly from side to side? Star Force.
I suspect Star Force itself didn't invent a lot of these things, but it just amuses me how shameless people were back in the Good Old Days — and how these things can come to light much more easily today than they ever would have done way back when. Sitting in front of my TV right now, I can immediately call up Warhawk, Plutos and Star Force and play them all alongside one another if I really wanted to. I mean, I don't, but I could if I wanted to.
As for Star Force itself, I really like it. I'm developing a real soft spot for this sort of mid-'80s vertical scroller that occupies a space somewhere between limited 8-bit shoot 'em ups and the slightly later, more spectacular 16-bit affairs. If nothing else, Star Force is one of the most relentlessly chipper and cheerful shoot 'em ups I think you'll ever play, and that certainly has to count for something these days, right?
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