SoulStar, 1994 Core Design (20 From Sega/Mega CD #19)
8Visually arresting sprite-scaling/rotating space shooter, with elements of surface exploration as well.. but man oh man is the game hard and confusing. Still well-worth checking out. You pilot one of 3 different crafts, mostly the Strike Craft for the space shooting scenes, but also the Turbo Copter for flying just over the surface of the planet in a confined area looking for a specific target or targets, and a mech called a Combat Walker to also find certain targets to disable. The latter 2 forms are really tough to get used to piloting and you need to learn to hold the C button and move the controller to rotate in place or fly straight up or down (as in the Turbo Copter), or how to fly short distances (with the mech). Another cool feature is the mission briefing given before you try to liberate another planet from the evil Myrkoid race. Your weapons are many and you can shuffle between them simply by pressing the B button. They include various different missiles, a very destructive bomb, twin lasers, a ring cannon, and many more! If you see a giant "S" floating towards you, shoot it, then fly through the ring it creates. A letter may appear; it will give you a weapon. Or if the ring is empty you will get a stronger shield or thrusters (for the mech) when you fly through. Even though the mission briefing is plenty detailed, it's still very confusing if you don't familiarize yourself with both the controls and the scanner-- the latter is especially important for knowing where the boss or targets are. For a first stage of missions, it is one of the more confusing-- if it behooves you, you may elect to cleanse the area of the enemies that are constantly trying to shoot you.. I prefer to take out the mission objectives as quickly as possible. Constant movement will make it more difficult for the enemies to draw a bead on you, so if you're able to constantly move and also work on completing your objective (very possible in the underwater area), do that-- and another helpful hint is to save your strongest weapons for the bosses. SOULSTAR (I believe it is all one word) is best enjoyed by the very, very patient. Hope you enjoyed, and I hope you join me for game #18! (It may take quite a while to finish)