Astro Warrior
System: SMS
Release Date: December 1986
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
Astro Warrior is another vertical scrolling shoot ‘em up on Sega Master System. After playing through Action Fighter in the last month’s worth of games, I was wary, but Astro Warrior is a solid title. It took me a little bit to warm up to, because I didn’t understand why powerups were appearing, but once learning that every twelve tiles I would blow up would give me a power up, I quickly got to blowing those bad boys up and completely outfitting myself right away.
You shoot with both the 1 and 2 buttons, so I settled into a double tap pattern until getting the laser beam powerup. I was able to take out my enemies very quickly and efficiently. As you finish powering up your ship, you get two extra allies that shoot when you do. They shadow your movements, so properly positioning them becomes an important part of efficiently killing the baddies in the level.
Enemies are standard space shoot ‘em up fare. There are flying space ships of all shapes and sizes. Blobs that I’ll just say are UFOs of some sort, asteroids, tentacle guys, rockets, and more. Staying out of their paths is the important part during your first play through, as most of them don’t shoot bullets.
At the end of each level there are large bosses. These shoot you and take multiple shots from the Astro Raider to destroy. They weren’t particularly difficult, though, especially if you were totally powered up. Each had five parts to destroy before moving on to the next level.
After beating stage three, you start over again in the Galaxy Zone. The enemies were the same as far as I could tell, but every single one of them would shoot bullets this time through. Research online says you have to play through the three stages three times in order to beat the game. I wasn’t going to do that.
Graphics: 2.5
The graphics do exactly what they need to. I didn’t have any issues with flickering, or blending.
Sound: 3.0
The song and sound effects are also perfectly fine. I like that each stage had different music.
Gameplay: 3.0
This is a good representation of a vertical scrolling shoot ‘em up. Way better than 1942 and Action Fighter.
Difficulty: 2.5
Once I learned about the tiles, I thought the pacing was much better. You want to be fully powered up for later levels.
Fun Factor: 3.0
Astro Warrior is better than many games I’ve played. I like this one.
Overall Grade: 2.8
Astro Warrior earns a B and deserves every point. It’s certainly the best vertical scrolling shoot ‘em up so far.