Sky Force 2004

Developer:	Infinite Dreams
Release date:	2004

Sky Force 2004 is a mobile shmup by Infinite Dreams initially released for Java and Symbian OS phones. In 2011, it was re-released as a remaster for PSP and PS3 as a PlayStation Minis game. In 2014, a remake was made for modern mobile devices for it`s 10th anniversary, and was very different compared to the 2004 release.

Gameplay Overview

The player controls a ship, trying to kill as many enemies as possible while collecting stars and rescuing humans.

The player has a shield gauge along with a lives stock. Shield goes down if damage is recieved. If the shield is depleted, a life will be lost.

Each stage has it`s own requirements, while the game also gives strategies to the player.

Scoring

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Scoring consist of killing enemies, collecting stars and rescuing humans. Killing an enemy group will award bonus points.

Each stage has a set amount of stars and humans needed to collect.

After a stage is cleared, values goes like this:

• Amount of stars are multiplied by 50.
• Accuracy percentage is multiplied by 200
• Amount of humans rescued are multiplied by 500.
• Percentage of objects destroyed are multiplied by 100.

After that, the total bonus will be formed and will add up to the player´s score.

Difficulties

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• Easy: For novice players. Enemies are less agressive and less destroy percentage is required.
• Normal: For moderate players. The original game experience.
• Hard: For veteran players. Enemies are more agressive and more destroy percentage is required.

Ships

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There`s 3 ship types in the game. They all fire the same weapon, but each one has it`s own shield and speed values.

• Type-R (Red):

The standard ship. Has moderate speed and shield.

• Type-V (Violet):

The fastest ship with poor shield.

• Type-Y (Yellow):

The slowest ship with good shield.

Items

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	Star: Spawns from killed enemies.
	Power-up: Increases shot power.
	Shield: Recovers player`s shield.
	Homming missiles: Adds homming missiles equipment to the player.
	Twin shot: Adds two simultanous shots.
	Human: They`re stranded troughout different stages, and to rescue them, the player must touch them. In the 2004 Symbian version, if they`re shot, they`ll die. However, they don`t die in the 2011 PlayStation Minis version.

Trivia

• The game seems to be inspired in Toaplan shmups, along with it`s big hitbox formula. However, in this game, bullet density is quite low and bullets travel slowly.