Well, that didn’t take long at all. DotEmu’s port of Earth Defense Force [$1.99], the classic horizontal shoot ‘em up that made an appearance in both arcades and on the SNES in the early 90’s, is now available for purchase on the App Store.

Here’s a little synopsis if it doesn’t quite feel like 1991 was just yesterday:

The alien Azyma Empire, threatens to destroy the Earth with the Orbital Buster, a large computerized space satellite. The Earth’s only hope lies in the recently developed XA-1 spaceships held under the organization known as E.D.F: Earth Defense Force. You are the pilot in command!

This iOS version features two game modes: Arcade and Freeplay, and also boasts support for both d-pad and touch controls. Online leaderboards are also a part of the package, as well as Game Center integration.

You’ll also notice that DotEmu has added a touch strip to the game as a part of the UI, allowing you to move the ship without obscuring the ship or parts of the game environment. It’s a decent solution to an age-old issue, but I feel like the strip is a touch too big, as if it’s cutting off a chunk of what could be more play space. That’s all in my head though — EDF is a 4:3 game, so the strip isn’t taking anything away. Alternatively, you can play with a virtual joystick with EDF running at its native resolution.

DotEmu, by the way, specializes in these kinds of retro revivals. As we noted last week, the developer signed a deal with Jaleco LTD to bring a total of 17 of these kinds of games over to the App Store. We can’t wait to play the rest of them.