Stellar-Fire

n/a

Stellar-Fire

Publisher: Dynamix

Genre: Action

Number of players: 1

Release	Date	RRP	Code
US	1993-12^[1]^[2]	$49.9549.95^[1]	T-110025

Stellar-Fire is an action game for the Sega Mega-CD, released exclusively in North America. It features 3D polygon environments. It is part of the Stellar 7 series of games, but unlike its predecessors, puts the player in a flying spacecraft rather than a tank.

The game features an introduction cinematic narrated by Michael Dorn, best known for playing Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Story

In the year 2206, the Draxon, a cybernetic alien race, is consuming all the sentient life in the galaxy by conquering thousands of worlds. Now they are planning an invasion of Earth. They have already destroyed most of Earth's major fleets.

Earth's top remaining fighter pilots have formed a last-ditch attack squadron with the goal of attacking the Draxon's home planet of Arctura. The plan is to assault each moon of Arctura, beginning with the outermost and working inward, disabling the shields on each moon until Arctura itself is vulnerable. However, upon entering the Arcturan system, the squadron is intercepted by Draxon forces, leaving the player as the sole survivor and the only hope for humanity.

Gameplay

The player pilots a spacecraft, the Raven, from a first-person, in-cockpit perspective. On each moon, the player must locate and collect the Moon Crystals (which resemble emerald-cut gemstones). The Raven is equipped with a "crystal compass" that shows the direction of the next Moon Crystal as well as a radar that shows any surrounding enemies or items. Once all the Moon Crystals have been collected, the player must locate and break open the Guardian Crystal to release a boss. Each world has its own complement of unique enemies, which are introduced in a screen preceding the start of the stage.

The Raven is steered with and . It accelerates with and decelerates with ; it maintains its speed until it is changed. The Raven is equipped with three different weapons. The cannon, a slow but strong weapon, is fired with . The laser, a rapid but weaker armament, is fired with . The cannon and lasers are fired directly in front of the Raven and can only be aimed by moving the craft itself. They automatically rapid-fire when held. They have infinite supply and can be upgraded by finding power-up items. The final weapon is the Fat Boy, a smart bomb that destroys everything on-screen, which is deployed with . Fat Boys do not need to be targeted. They are limited but can be found as items.

The player's craft can be damaged both by enemy fire and by colliding with enemies and obstacles. If the Raven takes too much damage, the player loses a life and restarts without any power-up effects. The player can collect Damage Repair items to restore the ship's shields.

Items

	Strength
	Increases the weapon strength. Yellow upgrades the cannon, red upgrades the lasers.
	Stacked Shells
	Doubles the power of each cannon shot by stacking two shells on top of each other.
	Double
	Upgrades the cannon and lasers to fire two shots from the side instead of one shot in the middle.
	Seeking
	Gives the player 25 enemy-seeking cannon shells, which automatically seek out and target the nearest enemy when fired.
	Zig-Zag
	Causes laser shots to travel in a zig-zag path, widening their area of effect.
	Fat Boy
	Gives the player an extra Fat Boy bomb.
	Damage Repair
	Completely replenishes the Raven's shields. Dropped by some enemies when destroyed.
	Extra Life
	Awards the player with an extra life.