Vertical Force

Vertical Force is a vertical-scrolling shooter video game. The player controls a starship, the Ragnarok, and must destroy the malfunctioning supercomputer on the human colony planet Odin before it annihilates Earth. The Ragnarok must shoot down oncoming enemy fighters and avoid their projectiles and other obstacles within the stages. The Ragnarok can also sustain multiple hits before being destroyed.

Some enemies will drop power capsules that can be collected to strengthen the Ragnarok's abilities, such as a wide shot, a piercing laser, and a shield. Collecting additional power capsules will increase the abilities further, such as making the projectiles stronger or the shield be able to take additional hits. The Ragnarok has the ability to switch altitude into the background, which is used to avoid incoming obstacles from different planes. Enemies will also change their behavior if the Ragnarok is at a different altitude.

Throughout stages, the player can find small crafts known as AI Drones, which when collected will help the Ragnarok destroy enemies, each featuring different weapon types. Drones can be damaged if they are hit enough times by enemies, which lets the player store them into a "reserve" box to repair them and allow the Drone to be used again. Multiple Drones can be stored in the reserve space, and can be deployed into battle at any time. Drones can also be used as smart bombs, destroying all enemies on-screen.

The game is composed of five stages, made up of starfields, mechanical bases and tunnels. Each stage features a boss at the end that must be defeated, some requiring the player to switch to the background to inflict damage. Most stages will also involve fighting a mech-like robot miniboss named Bratt, who will learn the player's abilities as the game progresses and gradually become stronger. The player can save their high-scores to an entry table upon losing all of their lives, however these scores are wiped when the system is turned off.