Super Star Soldier
System: TG-16
Release Date: March 1991
Developer: Kaneko
Publisher: NEC
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
Thwart another alien menace as they try to take over the world in Super Star Soldier!
You are the ace pilot of the Caesar and you need to, once again, save everyone on your own because nobody else has the ability to do it. At least your space cruiser has been upgraded so you can do more damage, because Mother Brain is throwing everything at you. Make your way through 8 levels and hope that you can avoid all the enemies and their bullets all the time, or else you’re going to leave the fate of the world in the wrong hands. This vertical scrolling shoot ‘em up is a sequel to the NES’s Star Soldier. Though the game looks and sounds a lot better, it plays very much the same. Wait, this actually feels a little more like Blazing Lazers… No, wait… that’s not quite it either…
You can change the speed of your ship by pressing the Select Button to go slow, medium or fast. There are 4 weapons you can choose from and power up by collecting their colored powerup. Red is your multi directional laser, which gives you more directions as you power it up. This is out of the original Star Soldier. Increase your power and gain hit points by collecting like colored orbs. Blue is your ring shot, which gives a little bit larger spread as it’s powered up. Green is the MVP in my book, as it is the constant lightning shot. As you power this up, you get longer beams that shoot out in 45° angles in front of you. You can sweep enemies pretty easily with this. Blue and green weapons are familiar, but I can’t find which game it’s from.
Unfamiliar to me is the yellow orb, which shoots fire from in front of the ship. The manual says this is the ultimate weapon, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Switching weapons keeps the power level you’ve already earned, so feel free to switch when you want. Also available for you to pick up are homing missiles, which you can upgrade from 2 to 4 and the option which you rotate around your ship by pressing Button I. If you upgrade the option, it spins around your ship automatically. There is the occasional orb that stops when you shoot at it. This will cycle among the different powerups, but if you keep shooting it will turn into a screen clearing bomb.
Difficulty throughout the levels run from really freaking hard and long to extremely short and fairly easy. The first level is one of the longer harder levels. But when you finally get through, levels 2 through 4 are pretty simple. The manual had me expecting mid bosses and end bosses for each level, but that was not true for the second or third level. The level 4 boss and level 5 picked up the difficulty again. It took me a lot of tries to get through. You do gain extra lives as your point total increases, so you end up with lots of attempts before having to continue. Bosses range from very easy to incredibly difficult. Many of these bosses, you will have to try many times before you learn the proper pattern to avoid their projectiles.
I relied heavily on time travel in the last half of the game. I honestly don’t know how anybody can beat this game legit. The escape in Level 7 requires precognition of where the walls shoot out from. Then the final level is the obligatory boss gauntlet. It gives you very few power ups to rearm and replenish hit points. It took me a long time to finally beat the final boss and I cheated like a madman to get through it. It was easier with the electricity power up, but it took quite awhile to collect it in that final level. Maybe it’s Truxton I was thinking of?
Graphics: 3.0
The sprites and backgrounds are really nice and colorful.
Sound: 3.0
Music is pretty good, but is often overpowered by sound effects.
Gameplay: 3.0
There are plenty of powerups to choose from, but there’s an over reliance on memorization.
Difficulty: 2.5
You gain lots of extra lives as you rack up the points and I’m pretty sure you can continue all you want, but the boss gauntlet is rude.
Fun Factor: 3.0
Despite all that, it’s a fun challenge until you hit a wall.
Overall Rating: 2.9
Super Star Soldier earns a B. It’s what I expect from a vertical scroller.