Mega Force1984

Exerion is a vertical shoot 'em up released by Jaleco in 1983 and licensed to Taito for distribution in the United States. Screenshot from arcade version Exerion is a shoot 'em up game featuring parallax effects and inertia simulation, something notable for 1983. The player travels around strange scenarios shooting aliens. The player has two types of guns: fast single shot (limited) or slow double shot (unlimited). In 1984, along with the MSX1 port of the original, a sequel was released titled Exerion II: Zorni for the MSX1, with similar gameplay to the original. There were plans for an NES release of this game. In 1987, the game was followed by the semi-sequel titled Exerizer, also known as Sky Fox.

It's a nightmare, but it's true! Research shows that we are the actual aliens on Earth, and the ruthless Xevions are the original inhabitants. Now the Xevions want Earth back -- minus humans! Their invasion forces are fierce -- the land is crawling with deadly Domogram Rovers; the sky is black with Toroid Patrol Fleets and Zoshi Death Squads. Our puny weapons offer no defense. Earth's only hope is our powerful new Solvalou Fighter Plane. Its pilot will have a single mission: Penetrate the enemy ranks and destroy the Xevious Mother Ship. The mission is dangerous. We can't guarantee success. But at this point, it's do or die! One small problem. We still need a pilot. Any volunteers?

Star Soldier is a 1986 vertically scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Hudson Soft for the Nintendo Entertainment System and MSX. It is the first game in the Star Soldier series. The player pilots the starship "Caesar", traveling through space stations occupied by powerful supercomputers known as "Starbrains" who threaten the galactic empire. Star Soldier greatly resembles the earlier arcade game Star Force. The MSX version of the game was brought to the SG-1000 in Taiwan.

The gameplay in Galaga '88 is built on the same premise as that of the original Galaga game, but is in many ways more complex and more difficult. The game is divided into a series of 29 Stages distributed through eight Worlds. The starship Galaga accelerates between Stages and Worlds and even to higher dimensions (go to the section on Dimensional Travel below to find out more). With the exception of the third and eighth, each World culminates in a Challenging Stage. There are six such stages to engage in any full game, and each begins with the on-screen announcement "That's Galactic Dancin'!" and has its own YM2151-generated song to which the enemy formations dance. In any given Challenging Stage, both the design of the enemies and their dancing formations shall vary according to the player's current Dimension. As in Galaga, the objective is to destroy all forty enemies before they fly away off the screen. However, refraining completely from touching any controls for the duration of a Challenging Stage awards a "secret bonus" ranging in value from 10000 to 25000 points, and equal to the "special bonus" which would have been awarded for destroying all forty enemy aliens instead. Galaga '88 introduces a variety of new enemies and behaviors. Most of these special enemies are worth varying amounts of bonus points when destroyed. Some enemies can combine into larger enemies which take multiple hits to destroy, while others arrive in eggs, explode in a shower of fireworks, grow with multiple hits, or sport armor which makes them invincible while in formation. Certain enemies drop small formations of tiny creatures that wiggle their way down the screen, and still others can act as escorts to incoming groups of enemies and then quickly dive at the player before leaving the game. Most stages also include various obstacles which appear once the enemy formation has been assembled. These can be destroyed with either one or several shots, and the first one on each stage will leave a "Warp Capsule". At the start of the game, the player can select how many Galaga starships to start with (one or two), affecting their number of remaining lives. The game ends after the final boss is defeated (or when the player's last ship is destroyed or captured) - in the latter case, the player can continue the game for an additional credit. The Game Over screen shows the player's hit-miss ratio and a visual representation of their progress. If the player reaches Stage 27, the game also shows a picture of the final boss (damaged if defeated, but silhouetted if not). If the arcade operator has set the "continue" option to "on", the player also cannot continue if he is defeated on Stages 27-29.

Stinger is a shoot-em-up developed by Konami. It is the North American version of the sequel to Twinbee.

Forgotten Worlds can be played by up to two players simultaneously. The player controls a flying muscle-bound soldier armed with a rifle with unlimited ammo. The Player 1 character is equipped with a long-range automatic rifle, while Player 2 has a short-range wide shot. The controls in the original coin-op version consists of an eight-way joystick for moving the character in the air while flying and a unique rotatable button known as the "roll switch".Rotating the switch left or right allows the player to adjust their character's aim in one of sixteen directions, while pressing it causes the player character to shoot his gun. This allows for the player to move their character anywhere while keeping their aim in one direction. Pressing the switch rapidly will cause the character to perform a "megacrush" attack will destroy all on-screen enemies, but at the expense of a portion of their vitality gauge. The player character is accompanied by a satellite module orbiting near him that will provide backup firepower every time the player fires their gun. Like the main character, the satellite can also be rotated with the roll switch. Rotating the character while firing will only rotate the aim of the satellite, while rotating the character without firing will not only rotate the satellite's aim, it will also move its relative position around the player. The player can obtain blue-colored coins known as "zennies" from defeating enemies throughout the game. The zennies are used as currency to obtain new power-up items from shops located at certain points in each stage. When the player enters an item shop, they are given a choice of the items available and a limited time to make any purchase they wish. These items consists primarily of new weapons for the satellite module, but also includes a health kit to restore lost vitality, an armor that allows the player to sustain additional damage, and even tips on how to defeat the boss awaiting at the end of the current stage. Forgotten Worlds consists of five stages with a total of eight bosses. The player will lose if their vitality gauge runs out, but will be given a chance to continue.

A call for help comes from deep in the universe. Fantasyland has been taken over by destructive forces. Quick on the scene is Space Harrier equipped with his laser, who must attempt to outwit and outmanoeuvre the hoards and prevent Fantasyland from being blown into oblivion!

Gaplus is a fixed shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1984. It was the only other game to run on Namco Phozon hardware, and in the US, a modification kit was later released to change the name to Galaga 3, possibly to increase recognition among fans of the games even though there was no "Galaga 2". Since Gaplus is a sequel to Galaga, it has similar gameplay. The player controls a spaceship, that can now move vertically (limited to halfway up the screen, much like Atari's Centipede) as well as horizontally, and shoots at swarms of incoming insect-like aliens which fly in formation above it and swoop down to attack it in akamikaze-like dive. In this sequel, the level starts over if the player gets killed before all the enemies have come in. When all enemies are killed, the player moves on to the next level. By obtaining certain powerups, it is possible to shoot sixty bullets per screen, the most any Galaxian-related game has.