#Earth Defense Force

[obscurevideogames]

Super Earth Defense Force (Jaleco - SNES - 1992) 

[gauntletqueen]

Playing hte new Earth Defence Force game

[flame-shadow]

commission for @mechanicalrot - thank you!

[scottmemelordstrashpile]

Why didn't they just kill Godzilla with buckshot? Were they stupid?

[unfailingeagle]

A cold one with the boys, all my homies hate space bugs!

[jupiterswasphouse]

WASP REVIEW - WASPS AND HORNETS (EARTH DEFENSE FORCE)

[Image IDs: Two screenshots, one of the Wasps in Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon and another of the Hornets in Earth Defense Force 2025 /End IDs.]

Oh the classic scenario, giant bugs attacking the city! A concept as old as- Well, at least the 1950s, with the advent of 1954 film "Them!" and the many films in the Giant Bug Sci-Fi/Horror microgenre to come. These films clearly serving as the inspiration for several video games, including the subject matter of today's review, the Earth Defense Force franchise! Specifically today, I'll be having a look at the basic Wasp and Hornet enemies, although, with the multitude of different enemies and this series' apparent preference for ants, it's entirely possible that it could see a revisit in the future!

For now, though, let's dive straight into the look of these wasps! Starting with the Wasps, which appear in Insect Armageddon (2011). These ones resemble a fairly common genus of Wasps, which I'm sure most of us know well by now, Vespid genus Polistes, of the Paper Wasp subfamily, Polistinae, looking fairly accurate, although the presence of the second pair of wings is unclear. Body shape's about right, the legs are accurate, with the right count of them too, I'm not certain but I think they do have ocelli, the compound eyes look right. Of what specific species this wasp is based on, I'm not entirely certain, as it bears some resemblance to a multitude of different species within Polistes, but I'm as of yet unaware of one with its exact markings. Any other fellow wasp fans who have an idea to this Wasp's potential identity, if there is one, let me know!

[Image Source: Flickr, Bob Peterson | Image IDs: Two in-game screenshots of the Wasps from Insect Armageddon, followed by a real world image of a nest of wasps, species Polistes major, subspecies major /End IDs.]

Meanwhile, the Hornets are very clear when it comes to the exact species they're based on, Vespa mandarinia, the Asian Giant Hornet. The proportions are slightly off, but, generally, everything said above about the other Wasps' accuracy can be said of these truly giant Asian Giant Hornets! Apart from one major difference, the presence of both pairs of wings is very clear here! The only thing I can really say is that they look a bit metallic, and the wings are too grey, with the wings of the real thing being more of an amber color.

[Image Source: Wikimedia Commons, Yasunori Koide | Image IDs: Two in-game screenshots of the Hornets from the Earth Defense Force games, one in front of their nest, followed by an image of a single Asian Giant Hornet on a white surface /End IDs.]

As for their behavior, the IA Wasps have the basic attacks you would expect out of a wasp, a sting and a bite, as well as possessing the ability to pin the player down and attack repeatedly, reminiscent of the hunting behavior of their real world equivalents. However, they also have the ability to fire off bursts of acid or similar chemicals, which is something that can be done by a multitude of insects, including the Paper Wasp's distant cousins, the Ants. But, notably, this is not something done by Paper Wasps! Paper Wasps also don't typically face off against still-living Mammals in the name of food, but rather, defense, either choosing to hunt other arthropods or taking pieces of already dead mammals, both of which go directly to their young. That being said, this could be an instance of both, the sheer size of the wasps potentially leading to them taking more of an interest in humans than before.

[Image Sources: Warren Photographic, and Wikimedia Commons, Judy Gallagher | Image IDs: A photo of a colony of Formica rufa Wood Ants spraying formic acid, followed by a photo of a Polistes major Paper Wasp hunting a caterpillar /End IDs.]

As for the Hornets, they seem to have a completely different method of attack, as they fire off metallic, stinger-like "Darts". Obviously, this is nowhere near accurate to the real thing, as, being eusocial Vespids as well, real Hornets would sting directly or perhaps bite, their stingers not being made of metal whatsoever. I have to wonder what they look like inside if they're storing dozens of massive metal stingers within their abdomen. That said, their behaviors extend past just attacking, as, when idle, they can be found cutely cleaning their faces! :D

Furthermore, they also display nesting behavior, as shown in one of the images above, although unlike a real nest, these nests appear to be completely exposed to the elements, as well as, as could possibly be inferred by the fact these bugs supposedly come from outer space of all places, floating in the air!

[Image Source: ResearchGate, Tshering Nidup | Image IDs: A screenshot of the hive in game, followed by a photo of a Vespa mandarinia nest on the underside of a roof /End IDs.]

Interestingly, this seemingly paper structure is one of the most HP-dense things in the entire game, this, along with the floating, making me wonder what it's truly made of, if not the wood pulp of the real thing. Oddly, in some levels of certain games, they seemingly cohabitate with spiders as well, which is unusual.

Finally, also of note is that both of these enemy types have variations, with the Hornets having much larger queens, entitled "Death Queens", as well as having mutated red variants. They aren't very different, with the queens being boss-type enemies, and the mutants being more aggressive. Furthermore, queens are typically bigger than their soldiers/workers, but as you might imagine, these ones are taken to the extreme, and are absolutely gigantic.

[Image IDs: Two in-game screenshots, one of a "Death Queen" and the other of the red mutant Hornets /End IDs.]

As for the IA Wasps, they have one variant, that being... Biomechanical Wasp robots.

[Image ID: A render of a Biomechanical Wasp from Insect Armageddon /End IDs.]

Yeah since these are robots there's not a lot for me to say, but they do look absolutely awesome! Just look at those blade-like legs!

Overall, these guys are visually pretty accurate, and their behaviors seem mostly all there! They seem to really care about making these bugs like the real thing. But they're not entirely correct, with unusual attacking abilities that are either found in different species or aren't found in any species whatsoever, on top of their alien nest floating in the air with seemingly no explanation. With that, my ranking is-

-

Overall: 7.5/10

-

Leave your wasp review suggestion in the replies, tags, or askbox!

[lordmortimor]

[pixelmason]

Just finished watching the first season of Kaiju No. 8

It’s really good. Nice animations, characters, and general premise too.

If you like the aesthetics of:

Pacific Rim (Kaiju and futuristic weapons and the effect of kaiju on the societal level),

Monster Hunter (Human with ridiculous weapon vs Big monster),

Kaiju (Kaiju),

EDF (Discretionary Spending of military funding),

Attack on Titan season 1 (Transform into strong monster),

Edge of Tomorrow (Exosuit and badass girls),

Spiderman (Normal person gets great power, shenanigans ensue),

Gundam (Big things fighting in a city),

One Punch Man (world building of a city often attacked by powerful monsters),

My Hero Academia (Heroism/Aspiring Heroism),

30 year old men,

Explosions,

Chasing your dreams,

and/or other such cool stuff,

you’ll like this anime.

[retphienix]

MAJOR shade towards a game I actually really enjoyed and am currently as of typing waiting with minor optimism for the next update which claims to be a "community focused" update based on the critiques laid at them, and I'm only like, 20% sorry- but:

Sometimes I slow down and realize that the most mundane moments in EDF are the EXACT ""Fantasy"" other games claim to be striving for and claim to be perfectly adequately accomplishing in their games.... while they nerf anything that comes close to the power fantasy and fun they claim to already provide and instead make any tool that players want to shred with near worthless because ????

Anyways to be less vague and more direct: Things in EDF are ridiculous and powerful and you are put in situations where you can use that preposterous power to shred hundreds / thousands in some cases / of enemies.

Here we see me just going "You know what, I'm gonna slap on 2 miniguns and shred explosive robots with them" and what happens?

I throw on 2 miniguns and in seconds I feel like the 300 ton steel wall that these pathetic android waves crash upon and fall to the calm waters of the pavement below.

I strafe my aim from left to right and watch an orchestra of destruction play out before me.

I look to the devs and I see a big thumbs up in my direction 👍

They wanted to provide a game that lets you feel the power fantasy of big gun do big thing and when you play said game you get that experience. We shout "E! D! F!" at each other and then no more words are needed.

Meanwhile, another game I really enjoyed and still think is a fantastic game, just one that lost itself fast as hell for seemingly no reason, Helldivers 2, has the devs regularly saying their weapons and outfits and strategems are all in service of a ""Fantasy"".

They repeat it again and again, they say "X stat was adjusted Y direction in order to improve the ""Fantasy"" of the weapon".

And what do they do?

Nerf everything that does anything, give you a heavy machine gun that bounces off enemies, provide explosives that tickle bugs, buff literal mushrooms to be bulletproof because players weren't complaining enough, give you new weapons that are just downgrades of literal day 1 equipment, nerf a popular weapon because of a crossover bug (seriously, and don't ever revert the change), nerf another popular weapon because it worked (literally just worked- not excelled- just worked- it was an adequate anti armor so it had to be nerfed), nerf popular gear instead of taking a closer look at WHY those things are popular and if perhaps enemy behavior needed nerfed instead, buff the enemies repeatedly, provide the enemies with new AI and spawning behaviors that force the bulk of the community to assimilate into the few builds/tools that still work- nerf those tools.

And then gleefully say "We're buffing stuff!" and change insignificant stats that in no way actually impact the game or allow a single new experience to be felt from having used those tools.

And why?

Why did the game start as a fun horde shooter and then a few nerfs later it's a "GRIZZLED DIE WITH A PEASHOOTER IN YOUR HANDS" thing?

Why are we constantly sold the idea that these changes are to support the ""Fantasy"" of the experience when all that's been accomplished is anything that was fun and effective now sucks eggs and enemies are more aggressive than at launch?

Why?

And how do you justify nerfing us and buffing enemies while stripping the identity from all our equipment to be in service of a ""fantasy""?

Your heavy machine guns don't even feel good.

I hope the update is good and don't regret a second I spent playing that game :)

[badroyarts]

Welcome to The Dopamine Cave

[obscurevideogames]

Super Earth Defense Force (Jaleco - SNES - 1992) 

[tanookitalez]

a million wendys

[prfm-multiverse]

NEBULA Character Introduction

Ayaka - Yuka - Ayano

They fell to Earth in The Light. They were taken in by Kikimo and are living as Earthlings. The three, who are less physically capable than Earthlings, were thoroughly trained by Kikimo from a young age and are now members of the Earth Defense Force "NEBULA." They also perform as a three-person techno pop unit "Perfume," and are deified by Earthlings.

[taberone]

hanging out with the wing divers in EDF4.1

the girls are back in town and its so over for these giant spiders

[gamebleed]

Because I am so regularly asked about it, here are my favourite shop signs from Earth Defense Force 5.

Happy New Year! 🥳

[doremela]

Magical girl!! (And boy) Chibi art collection

If you like my art checkout my Etsy!