Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth

Intricate story lines and elaborate puzzles can be intriguing, but video game purists know that sometimes simple concepts are the most fun. Understanding our occasional need to blindly blast away baddies, ElectroBrain has developed Star Soldier, a satisfying return to the vertically scrolling shooter.

Star Soldier is set in the year 2092 A.D., and the driving force behind the plot is simple: shoot everything and strive to survive. You control one of three ships, and must blast your way through seven missions packed with enemy space craft. The game includes three bonus missions, and secret rewards for completing the game on different difficulty settings. Just like the scrolling shooters which were so successful in the arcades, Star Soldier is full of power-ups and special weapons to increase your fire power.

If your trigger finger isn't quick enough, the screen can quickly be filled with enemy ships, missiles, and energy blasts. Simple advice for beginning Star Soldiers? Keep your thumb on the fire button and never let go. The enemies aren't smart enough to dodge your shots, but you can easily be overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of kamikaze craft.

As an extra bonus, Star Soldier has a time trial mode which challenges you to get the highest possible score in a limited amount of time. You can get higher scores by hitting enemies continuously without missing. To earn high combo scores, you have to learn to anticipate where the enemy vessels will appear on the screen. A true Star Soldier master can hit around 1,000 enemies in a row, but you'll have to log a lot flight hours to reach this level of excellence.

Star Soldier is a return to pure arcade fun, with the hypnotic music to match. As you're collecting power ups and blasting bosses, don't forget to blink.

Source:

www.nintendo.com