

After the first Colony Wars game, the Earth Empire was defeated... and the remnants of this regime sealed inside of the Sol System, cut off from the rest of the galaxy by some unknown technology. Within Sol, the Earth Empire civilization has fallen apart. Various tribes and factions, warring with one another have left the once great home system of humanity a wreck of salvage and waste from used up resources. One leader however, a Commander Kron, seeks to unite the warring clans under a banner of vengeance... and together find some way to break out from this solar prison. The game is space combat, done from a cockpit view. Different combinations of weapons can be equipped on your space fighter prior to launch. Missions take place in space as well as inside planet atmospheres. Various buttons cycle weapons, activate tractor beams, communicate responses and navigate your ship. In typical space combat fashion, you are equipped with 360 degrees of movement as well as thrust and braking options. The game does not feature realistic inertia and objects will gradually "slow" in space.

Simulator / Action / Science fiction
Red Sun is the third in Psygnosis' Star Wars inspired "Colony Wars" saga. This time around you follow the personal quest of Valdmar a miner who gets caught up in the wars between the League and the Navy after meeting the enigmatic "General" in a series of mysterious dreams.

Simulator / Action / Science fiction
Wing Commander is a space combat simulator intercut with live action cutscenes. Gameplay involves completing missions and destroying enemy craft, Wing commander III dispensed with the issuing of medals after such missions and relied more on cutscenes to drive the story along making much more use of CD technology. As the man giving the orders, Blair often gets to choose what ship he will fly, what missiles it will carry, and what wingman (wingmen) he will take with him. As in Wing Commander, some wingmen can be killed permanently in combat. Blair's own call sign remained customizable

Real Time Strategy (RTS) / Role-playing (RPG) / Simulator / Action / Science fiction
Infinite Space, a role playing game exclusively for the Nintendo DS portable handheld system, takes place in outer space and gives players the ability to control, build, outfit and customize more than 150 spaceships. Infinite Space stretches the DS hardware to the limit, offering over 200 characters and the ability to control multiple spaceships at any one time. Releasing in 2009 and currently being produced by Atsushi Inaba and directed by Hifumi Kouno (from developer Nude Maker), Infinite Space is one of the most complex RPG titles developed for the DS to date, and shows PlatinumGames commitment to teaming up with the most creative minds in gaming.

Simulator / Action / Science fiction
Colony Wars is a combat fighter game set in space. You, as the player, join as a recruit in the League's fleet. Missions take place in various fighters, from a 1st person view inside the cockpit, or a 3rd person view from behind your ship. Ships have separate meters for shields and armor, and the player must cycle between weapons designed specifically to damage each. At the most basic, purple lasers must drain a target's shields, followed by switching to red lasers to destroy them. The game features advanced lighting and particle effects for the Playstation, as well as a basic simulation of Newtonian physics. Thrusters are only active for as long as the accelerate button is held down. The player can burst fire their thrusters and drift, allowing for some advanced maneuvers. The campaign also features multiple endings and branching missions/storylines, based on your performance in the previous operations.

Shooter / Role-playing (RPG) / Simulator / Action / Science fiction
An early first-person role-playing shooter released by Arysis Software for the PC-88 and PC-98 in 1988, and later ported to the Sharp X68000 and Mega Drive/Genesis. Ahead of its time, it had 3D polygon graphics, FPS gameplay, strafing controls, open-world space exploration, and an epic sci-fi space opera plot.

Shooter / Simulator / Tactical / Action / Science fiction
You are the genetically engineered Clan Mechwarrior. The Clans are invading the Inner Sphere. Join either the Wolf Clan or the Jade Falcon Clan as they pursue their own agenda against the Inner Sphere and other Clans. Take your advanced Omnimechs into battle against all comers. Win high warrior ratings (by using less mechs or smaller mechs than needed, completing secondary objectives, etc.) and you'll get chance at a promotion trial where you face superior odds in an arena. If you win, you advance in rank. If you are very successfully, you can make it all the way up to Khan, leader of the Clan! Mechwarrior II was developed in-house by Activision as the successor to their original Mechwarrior. While this time there are no dynamic campaign and mercenary actions, the Clan culture is integrated into the two campaigns. Different clans have different mechs and different rules, even different weapons. You can customize your mechs in order to use less than the "par" force in order to get a higher rating. The full 3D environment wasn't pretty as this was before the 3D accelerators made their debut, but it's still better than anything that came before. Let addition of NetMech allowed users to fight each other online. When 3D cards came along, special versions were created to take advantage of 3D texturing. While not QUITE as replayable as Mechwarrior, it's nonetheless a classic. If you want them now, get the Titanium Edition, which is 3D accelerated.

Shooter / Simulator / Action / Science fiction
Gameplay consists of completing successive missions and overall cockpit performance affects gameplay: going above and beyond the call of duty results in medals, promotions in rank are awarded at regular intervals, and success or failure on certain critical missions decides the player's plot progress, "winning" or "losing".

Point-and-click / Puzzle / Role-playing (RPG) / Action / Science fiction
Fasten your seat belts, bring your seat back to an upright position, you are about to pilot a Federation Starship on a wild roller coaster ride through the final frontier. Star Trek: 25th Anniversary is a point-and-click adventure with multiple solutions and moral choices, combined with a first person starship simulator. As Captain Kirk, you'll control phasers, photon torpedoes, shields, and communications during eight separate space and ground missions. Visit different worlds and then join a landing party sent down to map and interact with alien races and artifacts. Piloting the U.S.S. Enterprise is a thrill in itself, but the actual voices of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols will make your adventure truly out of this world.