Mok Force: the procedurally generated shmup that just won't quit

I've typed the words 'procedural generation' into this here text box so often that they've lost all meaning - what procedures are being followed, exactly? Are they the same ones they flout in every procedural cop show? I'm no closer to understanding, but it's nice to see the methods employed in games that aren't roguelikes every now and again. Mok Force is such a game, a vertically scrolling shooter with procedurally generated stages - well, stage , which will go on forever and ever or until you die.

As Japanese shmups go, Mok Force has more in common with the games of Kenta Cho than the artillery underworld of the Touhou Project series, meaning it's relatively low down on the cruelness scale. It's also a fairly simple game, but beautifully put together and with a wonderful soundtrack, which discoverers IndieGames remark is of the Drum and/or Bass variety.

You can play Mok Force in both browser and executable form, and all you need to remember with either is to hold the Z button and dodge like Hell.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.