Developer: Inter State Co. Publisher: NEC Released: 1991 Genre: Shooter
I was not a fan of the original Star Soldier. I’ll admit that it was probably due to timing; I played it years after its initial release. But even that isn’t completely true. For a game released in 1986 Star Soldier was an incredibly repetitive and simple game. Both Zanac and Gradius were more impressive. Yet somehow despite its faults it became something of a phenomenon in Japan and established the yearly Caravan festival tournament. Hudson Soft would use the jump to more powerful hardware to completely reinvent the series and Super Star Soldier was the result. This is everything a sequel needed to be and more and a strong title in the TG-16 library.
The Star Brain corps who terrorized the galaxy in Star Soldier has returned, now being led by the ultimate space ship Mother Brain. The Neo Ceasar star fighters are the Earth’s only hope against their fleet. This is the first real sequel to the original; there were plenty of games released after Star Soldier that shared many similar gameplay elements such as Starship Hector and two other arcade games but Super Star Soldier is the only one that truly carries on the series legacy.
Technically Super Star Soldier is the first 16-bit entry in the series. However it shares a lot in common with Blazing Lazers which released a year prior and was also part of the Caravan festival. Both games use color coordinated orbs for their power-ups. Red upgrades the main Vulcan cannon, blue creates laser rings, green spews lightning while orange is a flame thrower. Each weapon has four levels at which point subsequent orbs become Bombs. Secondary weapons are light but aren’t as necessary. You can pick up a rotating shield or homing missiles although you won’t notice either that much.
Hudson wasted no time putting the Turbo Grafx’ extra grunt to work. There is rarely a moment when the screen isn’t full of enemy waves and bullets. It is a level of chaos that would have ground prior systems to a halt. Here there is no slowdown whatsoever. Despite their greater numbers the enemy waves are both predictable and arranged. Managing the insanity is relatively easy so long as you are paying attention but the game still manages to catch you with a stray bullet every now and then. Once again like its weapon system the stage themes and even general presentation are a little too close to Blazing Lazers. Whether that was intentional or not at least Super Star Soldier benefits from it.
Super Star Soldier remains completely fair in its difficulty for a few reasons. The way damage is handled is different than most shooters and very lenient. Taking a hit will reduce the power of your weapon one level. Only at its basic level will you die. If you have more than three lives you will instantly respawn. After that you are sent back to the beginning of the level. This system is incredibly generous and allows you to make mistakes without a heavy penalty. Weapon drops are also frequent, to the point you’ll actively avoid them. The game still puts up quite a fight with its insane number of enemies. But it doesn’t feel impossible like many badly balanced shooters.
While I’m not one for multiplayer most of the time but its absence is noticeable here. Super Star Soldier almost seems as though it were designed for two-players. The number of power-ups dropped is far more than a single player would ever need. While the enemy waves are manageable there are times a second player would come in handy. The absence of multiplayer is even more egregious considering the game has a two and five minute caravan mode. These are basically score attack modes for multiple players and sure you can pass the controller back and forth but that is little excuse.
Despite being an early release Super Star Soldier still looks fantastic. The game moves an impressive number of sprites with explosions going off and power-ups flying by and never slows down. There is some sprite flickering but these instances are rare. It features a generous amount of parallax scrolling which was rare early in the Turbo Grafx life. Like many games in the system’s library there are plenty of massive sprites to go around although this time it isn’t to hide a subpar game like China Warrior. If I have one criticism it is that Super Star Soldier could easily pass for an expansion pack to Blazing Lazers. Many of the stage themes are the same, the weapons look similar, and even the bosses are comparable. If Hudson took inspiration from that tile they might have taken it too far, leaving the game without a unique identity.
In Conclusion
That being said the game is great so it doesn’t matter. Super Star Soldier is an excellent shooter that holds up against later titles in the genre. It is not original but makes up for it with solid action
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