Super Star Force: Jikuureki no Himitsu is a vertical shooter developed by Tecmo for the Nintendo Famicom, released in late 1986. It is considered a sequel to the original Star Force. As adventure games were becoming more popular, and the shooter genre was becoming saturated with look-alikes, developers were looking for was to make their shooters stand out in a crowded market. So they began to cross the adventure genre with the shooter genre.

Super Star Force is one such game. Half of the game is played in the style of a vertically scrolling shooter. You must shoot enemies in order to collect "time points" which are then used to purchase items, and travel to different time periods. Traveling to previous time periods allows you to make changes in the stages that occur at a later time, which typically gives you access to a previously unaccessible dungeon.

Once you can access the dungeon, you will enter a Zelda-like maze where you must fight through monsters to reach chambers and find items. Some chambers are hidden and can only be revealed by using a bomb on certain parts of the wall. Ultimately, bosses must be defeated to collect necessary parts that will enable access to the final dungeon in the future.