AstroHawk2013

The game begins by asking the player(s) to choose a difficulty level, not only making the enemies more difficult and the players weaker, but higher difficulties start the players in a later set of levels (called "galaxies") and with some powerups. The easiest difficulty level starts the player(s) in the first level with no bonuses. The player controls a tank with constantly draining fuel, and must navigate through multiple levels (14 stations in the arcade version) from bottom to top, encountering obstacles and enemies. Along the way, a player may find powerups including tank fuel, stars (currency), shields, and two types of sub-weapons: smart shots (homing missiles) and bombs (powerful rockets). Each level has a key that will open a door at the top of the level, which will either take the player to the next level or to a special hub with multiple powerups that must be escaped in 10 seconds or less. If the player is unable to escape, the tank will lose half its fuel. After escaping the hub, the player(s) then proceeds to the next station. Occasionally, the player(s) will face a boss that must be defeated to advance. Normal shots are ineffective however, and the player must decide/guess the appropriate time to buy sub-weapons to greatly raise the chance of victory. After destroying a boss, the player(s) can continue to the end of the level. Between levels, the player is taken to a shop where items and upgrades to tank speed, power, etc. may be purchased with stars. Any damage caused to the player's tank will decrease the shield level. Purchasing a shield drastically reduces damage down to a mere pixel worth of the fuel gauge per hit. When the fuel depletes, the speed of the tank is reduced to a crawl and a countdown begins from 10. If no fuel is gained before the timer reaches zero, or if the player is shot during the countdown, the tank explodes and a life is lost. The arcade version, in addition to having special two-joystick controls for each player, contained three special contest levels, with one contest star in each. With three contest stars and nine normal stars, the player(s) could compete in a special time-limited contest level in which the player could win a T-shirt. A later version of the game was released which eliminated the contest levels and stars.

Released in 1988 on Nintendo Entertainment System, by Sega Enterprises, Ltd..

Communist Mutants from Space was a video game created in 1982 by Starpath (formerly known as Arcadia) for the Atari 2600 home video game console and the Starpath Supercharger cassette accessory. Communist Mutants from Space is a typical 1980s-era Space Invaders-inspired space shoot-em-up. The player starts off with three reserve cannons. The object is to destroy the mutants aliens and, most importantly, the Mother Creature. The mutants hatch from moving eggs at the top of the screen. Because the Mother Creature replenishes eggs when they hatch or are destroyed, it must be defeated before the player can advance to the next wave. If a mutant or a bomb thrown by a mutant comes into contact with the cannon, the cannon will be destroyed and a reserve must be called up. A new cannon is awarded on every other wave. The menu allows a variety of gameplay changes; for example, the player may toggle the shield option on or off. If activated, "shield" mode allowed a player to press down on the joystick to become invincible for a short period (only one shield was allotted per level). Another feature was the "time warp," which allowed the player to press up on the joystick to temporarily slow down the passage of time for his opponents (i.e., they move slower than usual). Additionally, the type of shot fired could be changed by activating the "penetrating fire" option (which enhanced the beam fired so that it could withstand hitting two mutants rather than a single one) and/or the "guided fire" option (which caused the beam to be moved with the joystick rather than firing in a straight line). The menu also allowed for multiple players (up to four) to be entered into the game. Players one and three shared the first joystick while players two and four shared the second.

A surreptitious video game rehash of the Death Star trench sequence from Star Wars, the player controls an X-Wing shaped aircraft firing at a TIE-Fighter (human or CPU controlled). Before starting out a maximum score (1-999) is entered and the player that first reaches it wins the game. A single hit is enough to bring down the enemy ship and it is worth one point.

3D Starstrike is a clone of the original wireframe Star Wars game.

Take to the streets or take to the skies. Because Action Fighter is the incredible, transformable combat vehicle. You start out on a customized cycle. Built with enough speed and power to jump over water and overtake enemies. Then, by finding the right parts along the way, you'll change your cycle into a supercharged, state-of-the-art sports car. Next, add two turbojets to make your car airborne. And take to the skies. Down hyped-up helicopters and jet spaceships from above. And no matter which vehicle you're manning- or who you're after- get ready to stand by for action!

In this vertical scrolling spaceship shooter, you control a ship that can change its polarity at will. As blue/white, the ship can easily destroy red/black enemies, and vice versa. Bullets of your polarity can be collected to fuel your energy gauge, but those opposite will kill you. Destroying an enemy ship causes them to fire revenge bullets which can be absorbed and fired back by the player. Different difficulties exist to change exactly how you interact with polarized points, or how they appear. It is the spiritual successor to Radiant Silvergun, featuring similar level and boss design, as well as it's buddhism inspired themes and aesthetics. Both are directed by Hiroshi Iuchi, who also composed Ikaruga's soundtrack.

High-speed action-packed game play returns with the addition of exciting head-to-head battle modes, a challenging new time attack mode, and expanded game play progression that goes beyond Fever Time to SUPER FEVER TIME! Space Invaders Extreme 2 - faster and more exhilarating than ever before!