Star Soldier

Mobile versions were released on January 26, 2001, in Japan as Star Soldier Special+ in 2004, Star Soldier SP Arcade in 2005 and in 2008; they were also released for Palm OS in November 2001 in Japan and iOS on January 4, 2012, in United States. Soldier has spawned numerous sequels, starting with Super Star Soldier on the PC Engine. It was ported to the Game Boy Advance in 2004 in Japan as part of the Famicom Mini series, and to the Wii's Virtual Console in the Japanese and North American regions in July 2007. An enhanced remake of the game was released on PlayStation Portable only in Japan in 2005. Re-released by Konami on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console on November 14, 2012, in Japan, on August 15, 2013, in PAL regions, and September 24 in North America, and via iOS, titled on June 20, 2013, in Japan.

• Title — Star Soldier • Developer — Hudson Soft • Composer — Takeaki Kunimoto • Series — Star Soldier • Platforms — NES, MSX, mobile phone, Palm OS, Game Boy Advance, iOS • Genre — Scrolling shooter • Modes — Single-player

Star Soldier is a vertically scrolling shooter where the player controls the pilot and space fighter Caesar in a ship. The player can move and shoot enemies that appear from the top of the screen. Bullets from the starship can hit both flying and grounded enemies, and the player only has one shooting attack. The game has sixteen unique stages with vertically scrolling background and foreground elements. With the scrolling background of the space station, the player may occasionally enter the "trap zone", an area where the ship can fly underneath the space station to avoid enemy fire. Shooting the "P-mark" that appears in the stages can reward the player with a capsule, a power-up that increases the power of the ship's bullets as more capsules are collected. If the capsule is not collected, the ship will move slower and only shoot one bullet at a time. If two capsules are collected, the ship will transform and can be able to shoot from behind. If the player collects three capsules, the ship will start shooting in five directions and will summon a shield that protects the player until the ship is hit five times, with the fourth and final capsule collected being able to destroy any flying enemies. Starbrain appears as the boss fight at the end of each stage, with Big Starbrain, a harder variant of Starbrain, appearing in levels four, eight, twelve, and sixteen.