Starship Hector
System: NES
Release Date: June 1990
Developer: Hudson Soft
Publisher: Hudson Soft
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
Bio-Mechanical creatures have taken over the world in Starship Hector. The titular starship returns from an exploration mission to find Earth has reverted to Ancient times. Travel through six stages of shoot ‘em up action to save the day!
Odd levels are vertical scrolling stages. The B Button shoots the Sparkle Gun at airborne enemies. The A Button drops the Craster Bomb down and forward. Flying enemies take a lot of hits. I’m not sure that all of them can be killed. There are mounds that can be bombed that open up a panel. If you collect panels to spell out Hector, you get a million points. Even levels are horizontal scrolling stages. Again, most enemies take a ton of hits if they can be killed at all. Here, you have to avoid hitting the ceiling or floor, which will kill you instantly, as well as other obstacles.
There are no powerups. You can grab some energy by bombing certain statues. You just have to be careful to avoid everything else that is trying to kill you. The end of each level has a boss. They are probably the easiest portion of the game. If you keep moving, you can avoid their projectiles and slowly wear them out. You get two extra lives to begin with and can earn more with a lot of points. There are two other timed competition modes having you try to earn the highest score in 2 or 5 minutes.
Graphics: 1.0
It doesn’t look great. There’s also a lot of flickering and slowdown.
Sound: 1.5
Music and sounds are alright, but certainly not my favorite.
Gameplay: 1.0
No powerups? Weak weapons? Really not acceptable.
Difficulty: 1.0
Memorize the enemy layout and avoid everything you can.
Fun Factor: 0.5
It feels like a huge downgrade from other shoot ‘em ups.
Overall Grade: 1.0
Starship Hector earns a D. I see the original release in Japan was 1987, so I understand why it sucks, but it didn’t need a US release.