Space Invaders 90

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Space Invaders 90
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Taito
Developer: Taito
Distributor: Tec Toy (BR)
Genre: Shooting
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1990-09-07 ¥5,9005,900 T-11053 US 1991-05 11036 BR 199x
Non-Sega versions Arcade

Space Invaders 90 (スペースインベーダー９０) is an update to Taito's classic arcade game Space Invaders, released for the Sega Mega Drive in 1990.

Story

Fearsome alien invaders have suddenly appeared over Earth. The invasion stretches to the Milky Way and the far reaches of the universe.

Gameplay

The game is a fixed shooter game. Rather than controlling a movable laser cannon protected by four stationary bunkers, as in the original game, the player controls a starship with multiple hit points. The ship moves horizontally and fires on rows of alien invaders, which move left and right as a group, changing direction and shifting downward when they reach a screen edge. The goal is to eliminate all of the aliens by shooting them. The aliens occasionally fire at the player. Aliens in later rounds have more complex attack patterns and more advanced weapons. Each round consists of two battles; once the first wave of aliens is destroyed, a second wave appears. The last aliens of a wave move faster than the others.

The player's ship moves with and . It shoots its standard weapon with or . The standard weapon has unlimited ammunition, and it is shot directly upwards, though some rounds have uneven terrain that cause the ship to shoot at diagonal angles. It destroys enemies and also intercepts enemy fire. The player can obtain special weapons through items, which are fired with . These weapons have limited ammunition.

The ship has a shield that starts with five hit points but can gain as many as ten by collecting items. The number of hit points is carried over to the next round. The shield can be fully replenished by hitting the invader at the center of the formation at the start of a round. The ship is destroyed if it loses all of its hit points or if an invader reaches the bottom of the screen, and the player starts the round over again if there are extra ships left. The game ends if there are no extra ships remaining, but it can be continued if the player has credits remaining. The player earns an extra ship at 30,000, 60,000, 120,000, and 240,000 points.

Items

UFOs occasionally move quickly across the top of the screen. Shooting them down releases an item or sometimes awards bonus points. UFOs can also sometimes contain enemies.

Item effects are lost when the round ends or if the player's ship is destroyed.

Offensive

	Hyper Laser (H-LASER)
	Shoots a laser that, if it destroys an alien, also destroys all horizontally adjacent aliens. Lasts for 2 shots.
	Homing Bomb (H-BOMB)
	Fires a bomb that seeks out enemies automatically. The targeted enemy appears "locked on" with a crosshair around it. Lasts for 20 shots.
	Buster Laser (B-LASER)
	Fires a penetrating laser. Lasts until its energy runs out.
	Power Beam (P-BEAM)
	Shoots a wide beam that destroys all enemies in its path. Holding increases the width of the beam. Lasts until its energy runs out. Wider beams cost more energy. Taking damage while charging the beam costs energy but does not emit the beam.
	Super Crusher (S-CRUSHER)
	Creates two mirror images that follow the ship and duplicate its fire. Lasts for 15 seconds.

Defensive

	Speed Up (SPEED-UP)
	Doubles the movement speed of the ship.
	Recover Shield (RECOVER-S)
	Adds 2 hit points to the ship's shield.
	Time Stop (T-STOP)
	Stops the movement of the invaders for 10 seconds.
	Hyper Shield (H-SHIELD)
	Renders the ship invulnerable to enemy fire for 20 seconds. The ship is still vulnerable to homing devices and lasers.
	Psychic Shield (PSYCHIC-S)
	Renders the ship invulnerable to all attacks for 20 seconds.

Rounds

Earth

Milky Way

Merutas

Planet Dufa

Moon

Planet Venus

Planet Solaia

Planet Lisubi

Planet Guraivas

Planet Mars

Planet Mercury

Planet Aluga

Planet Laia

Planet Bailam

Planet Daruta

Planet Lamusa

Planet Ikuru

Doriasta 1

Doriasta 2

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English (US)	Space Invaders '91	Space Invaders '91
Japanese	スペースインベーダー９０	Space Invaders 90
Portuguese (Brazil)	Space Invaders	Space Invaders

Due to the delay in bringing the game to North America, the game was retitled Space Invaders '91 for this region. In Brazil, the wait was even longer, so the game was simply labeled Space Invaders when it reached Brazilian shores. The game was not released in Europe.

Production credits

• Art Design: Yoshihiko Wakita, Keishi Itoh, Toru Kawaishi
• Character Design: Yoshihiko Wakita
• Program: Hideaki Tomioka
• Game Design: Yoshiharu Satou
• Special Thanks: The Other People

Source:

In-game credits

Exactly who "The Other People" are is unknown, however Noriyuki Iwadare of Cube created the sound driver (his standard "Cube/Noriyuki Iwadare" driver used in several other games, and in fact, this is the first game to use said driver).

Magazine articles

Main article: Space Invaders 90/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Game Players Sega Guide! (US) #0203: "Vol. 2, No. 3: June/July 1991" (1991-0x-xx)
also published in:

• Mega Play (US) #4: "May/June 1991" (1991-0x-xx)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-01: "January 1992" (1991-12-07)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-02: "February 1992" (1992-01-08)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-03: "March 1992" (1992-02-08)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-04: "April 1992" (1992-03-07)

History

Legacy

Space Invaders 90 was available as one of the few Mega Drive games to play on B-Club. The game was also re-released for the Nintendo Switch as a pre-order bonus for Space Invaders Invincible Collection, with emulation done by M2; being properly released on Japanese Nintendo eShop on June 2024. The Nintendo Switch re-release is unlicensed by Sega, as the Sega logo screen is gone and no employees from the company are mentioned in the credits either.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 40 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 58 Game Power (IT) 76 Games-X (UK) NTSC-U 61 Famicom Hisshoubon (JP) NTSC-J 40 Joystick (FR) 80 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) NTSC-J 64 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 61 Mega Play (US) NTSC-U 63 Power Play (DE) 41 Sega Power (UK) NTSC-J 75 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 79 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 43 Supergame (BR) 85 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 66

	62
Based on 15 reviews

Space Invaders 90

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, BR
Cover

Technical information

Main article: Space Invaders 90/Technical information.