Master of Weapon

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Master of Weapon

Publisher: Taito

Developer: KID^[1]

Original system(s): Arcade boards

Genre: Shooting^[2]

Number of players: 1

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1991-09-27^[2]	¥6,8006,800	T-11063

Non-Sega versions
Arcade

Master of Weapon (マスターオブウエポン) is a Sega Mega Drive vertical shoot-'em-up developed by KID^[1] and published by Taito. A port of the publisher's 1989 arcade game Master of Weapon, it was released exclusively in Japan in September 1991.

Sega later manufactured a conversion kit for the arcade release of Master of Weapon which converted the game into a Tetris machine.

Story

An entire week of nuclear war on Earth destroys its global environment. The survivors of the war gather their strength and resources in an attempt to bring Earth back to the way it was. Using a supercomputer called God System, the survivors start their first step in rebuilding Earth by having the God System create machines capable cleaning and reconstructing much of what has been lost from the war. However, without warning, a mysterious mutant entity known as "N" takes over the God System; creating three strange guardian statues based on Greek mythological figures, "N" manipulates the God System's machines and programs in order to attack mankind. The survivors create an artificial human called Yukiwo, built to harness perfect dexterity and strength, as well as a super-powered jet for him to pilot in order to reclaim Earth from "N."

Gameplay

The game is a vertical shoot-'em-up. The ship moves in any direction using the D-Pad. It starts with a basic photon cannon and bombs. The photon cannon is fired with and shoots flying targets. It is initially a single stream of bullets, but it splits into an additional beam each time is upgraded by collecting power-ups. The bombs are dropped with and hit ground targets. A targeting reticle appears in front of the ship to show where bombs land. Both weapons are unlimited and can be fired simultaneously. Rapid-fire is enabled by default (but can be disabled in the options). The exhaust of the ship also harms enemies.

Special weapons can be found as power-ups. The currently equipped special weapon can be used with (which also drops a standard bomb). There is a green meter in the sidebar that determines the power of the special weapon. The meter empties when the special weapon is used but replenishes in a few seconds.

The spaceship is destroyed if it is hit by an enemy. It respawns if the player has extra lives. The ship loses its movement speed and weapon upgrades when it is destroyed but keeps its special weapon. The player receives an extra life at 30,000 and 80,000 points and then every 100,000 points after that. The game ends if the player runs out of lives but can be continued a limited number of times. Continuing loses the equipped special weapon and resets the score.

The player can choose the starting number of lives (3, 5, or 7) and continues (between 0 and 3) before starting a game. There are three difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, and Hard).

Items

	Item Carrier
	Releases a random item when destroyed.
	F
	Increases the number of beams fired by the ship's photon cannon, up to a maximum of 5.
	S
	Increases the movement speed of the ship. It also increases the size of the ship's exhaust, which can be used to destroy enemies.
	P
	Equips the P (Pier) special weapon, which is the same as the conventional air-to-ground bomb. This is the default special weapon.
	L
	Equips the L (Laser) special weapon, which is powerful but has very short range. It can attack both air and ground targets.
	G
	Equips the G (Guide) special weapon, which shoots several green projectiles that track all targets on screen.
	W
	Equips the W (Wide) special weapon, which launches fireballs in a star pattern.
	H
	Equips the H (H-Bom) special weapon, which fires 10 times and destroys all enemies on the screen. It can only be used one time (and then reverts to the previously equipped special weapon), but multiple bombs can be collected and stored.

Acts

The game is played as one uninterrupted stage, but it is nominally divided into nine acts. The length of each act varies, and not all acts end with a boss fight.