Difference between revisions of "StarBlade"

Latest revision as of 02:01, 20 November 2024

n/a

NTSC-U
NTSC-J
PAL

StarBlade

System(s): Sega Mega-CD

Publisher: Namco (Japan), Namco Hometek (US), Sega Europe (Europe)

Developer: Technosoft^[1]

Original system(s): Arcade boards

Developer(s) of original games: Namco

Peripherals supported: CD BackUp RAM Cart, Sega Mouse, XE-1 AP

Genre: Shooting^[2]^[3]

Number of players: 1

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1994-10-28^[3]	¥7,8007,800	T-14014
US	1994-09^[4]	$49.9549.95^[4]	T-14025
EU	1994-12^[5]		4284-50
UK	1994-12^[5]	£44.9944.99^[6]^[5]	4284-50

Non-Sega versions
3DO Arcade PlayStation

StarBlade (スターブレード) is a Sega Mega-CD rail shooter developed by Technosoft and published by Namco. A port of the publisher's titular 1991 arcade game StarBlade, it was first released in Japan and the United States in October 1994^[3], and was later brought to Europe by Sega the following December.^[5]

The original arcade game was notable for its use of real-time rendered 3D polygon graphics. The Mega-CD port has a reduced screen size and draws its backgrounds in real-time using pre-calculated coordinates. Since the game is on rails, each element appears in the same spot on every playthrough, which significantly alleviates the processing load.^[7]^[8] Enemies are rendered as wireframe graphics. This is in contrast to the other ports of the game for the 3DO and PlayStation (as well as similar-looking games for the Mega-CD, such as Silpheed), which display the background as pre-rendered full-motion video but have fully polygonal enemies.

Story

The starship FX-01 "Geosword" is fighting for the Federation of Planets to defend the Mother Planet from a robotic alien species that seeks to annihilate it. Operation StarBlade is a mission to travel to the mechanized planet Red Eye and destroy its power source, the Octopus reactor, before the planet is in range and can obliterate the Federation with its Wave Cannon.

Gameplay

StarBlade is played from a first-person perspective. The Geosword flies itself, and the player acts as its gunner. The D-Pad moves the targeting crosshair in all directions, and , , and all fire the ship's lasers and can be held for continuous fire. There is an option to invert the vertical controls. There are many different types of enemies with different characteristics (such as attack speed, damage, and durability), and the player must decide which enemies to prioritize in order to minimize the damage taken by the Geosword.

As the original arcade version featured an advanced analog yoke built into the cabinet, the home version of StarBlade is fittingly compatible with some of the Mega Drive's more popular analog peripherals: both the first-party Sega Mouse for direct on-screen mouse control, and the third-party XE-1 AP for control with an analog stick.

The Geosword is destroyed when its shields are depleted by enemy attacks. The player has three credits and can continue from checkpoints. There is no way to replenish shields or gain more credits. There are two difficulty levels, Normal and Hard, which take different paths through the levels. The European version of the game only gives the player two credits and only allows the player to take the Hard route rather than offering a difficulty setting.

The enemy flagship Commander pursues and harasses the player throughout the game. The final mission culminates in a battle with it. This is the only part of the game that has music, though battles have voice clips from other squadron members.

Stages

	Red Eye
	Travel to Red Eye and penetrate its defense shield.
	Octopus
	Destroy the Octopus power source located deep inside Red Eye.
	Iceberg and Commander
	Return to the Mother Ship. The aliens have retaliated by sending the giant battleship Iceberg. After it is destroyed, only the flagship Commander remains.

History

Development

Main article: StarBlade/Development.

Legacy

The game was included in the Japanese version of the Mega Drive Mini 2 in 2022.

Production credits

The staff roll shown at the end of the game is that of the arcade version; a staff list for the port is not available.

Chief Director: H.Nakatani
Assistant Director: K.Kobayashi
Programmer: N.Matsuura, Y.Saitoh, Y.Ohmori
Music and Sound Effects: S.Hosoe
Visual Director: W.Yanagawa
Visual Design: N.Kumagai, M.Tejima, M.Kimura
Industrial Design: N.Yoshimatsu
Mechanical Design: S.Kanebako, H.Igarashi, T.Wakayama, J.Uchida
Electrical Design: M.Yamada, O.Morita, M.Ito
Special thanks to: A.Ohsugi, H.Kikuchi, H.Takeshima, K.Mizuno, M.Takeda, S.Touyama, T.Ishikawa, T.Natsui, T.Sano, K.Teraoka, M.Inoue, M.Cooper-Hart (Namco America Inc)
Producer: K.Sawano, M.Yamada

Source:

In-game credits (JP)^[9]

Digital manuals

Mega Drive Mini 2 JP manual

Magazine articles

Main article: StarBlade/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Sega Visions (US) #21: "October/November 1994" (1994-xx-xx)
also published in:

GamePro (US) #64: "November 1994" (1994-xx-xx)^[10]

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication

Version

Score

Beep! MegaDrive (JP)

NTSC-J

68

^[11]

Consoles + (FR)

74

^[12]

Famitsu (JP)

NTSC-J

70

^[13]

Game Players (US)

NTSC-U

70

^[4]

GamePro (US)

NTSC-U

70

^[14]

GamesMaster (UK)

PAL

71

^[15]

Games World: The Magazine (UK)

PAL

82

^[16]

MAN!AC (DE)

PAL

69

^[17]

Mega (UK)

PAL

75

^[6]

Mega Force (FR)

PAL

61

^[18]

Mega Fun (DE)

PAL

63

^[19]

Mean Machines Sega (UK)

PAL

75

^[20]

Play Time (DE)

PAL

55

^[21]

Saturn Fan (JP)

NTSC-J

72

^[22]

Sega Magazine (UK)

PAL

68

^[23]

Sega Power (UK)

PAL

87

^[24]

Sega Pro (UK)

NTSC-U

53

^[25]

Sega Saturn Magazine (JP)

NTSC-J

80

^[26]

Todo Sega (ES)

89

^[27]

Video Games (DE)

PAL

68

^[28]

VideoGames (US)

NTSC-U

80

^[29]

	71
Based on 21 reviews

StarBlade

Mega-CD, JP
Cover
Spinecard Disc File:Starblade MCD JP manual.pdf Manual

Mega-CD, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Mega-CD, EU
Cover
Spinecard Disc Manual

Technical information

Main article: StarBlade/Technical information.

References

StarBlade
	Main page \| Comparisons \| Development \| Magazine articles \| Reception \| Technical information No results

[https:.2F.2Fweb.archive.org.2Fweb.2F20180803202340.2Fhttps:.2F.2Ftwitter.com.2Fummo_chan.2Fstatus.2F924644482892554240-1] @ummo_chan on Twitter (Wayback Machine: 2018-08-03 20:23)

[:File:StarBlade_MCD_JP_Box_Back.jpg_p-2] File:StarBlade MCD JP Box Back.jpg

[https:.2F.2Fweb.archive.org.2Fweb.2F20190610175627.2Fhttps:.2F.2Fsega.jp.2Ffb.2Fsegahard.2Fmcd.2Fsoft_licensee.html-3] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 https://sega.jp/fb/segahard/mcd/soft_licensee.html (Wayback Machine: 2019-06-10 17:56)

[:File:GamePlayers_US_0709.pdf_p92-4] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 Game Players, "Vol. 7 No. 9 September 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 92

[:File:SegaMagazine_UK_13.pdf_p92-5] 5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 ^5.3 Sega Magazine, "January 1995" (UK; 1994-12-15), page 92

[:File:Mega_UK_27.pdf_p44-6] 6.0 ^6.1 Mega, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-11-30), page 44

[https:.2F.2Fgdri.smspower.org.2Fwiki.2Findex.php.2FBlog:Starblade:_The_Home_Ports-7] ttps://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Blog:Starblade:_The_Home_Ports

[https:.2F.2Fwww.sega-16.com.2Fforum.2Fshowthread.php.3F20809-So-like-is-Star-Blade-does-use-teh-FMV-for-its-polygons-or-not-yo-8] ttps://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?20809-So-like-is-Star-Blade-does-use-teh-FMV-for-its-polygons-or-not-yo

[:File:StarBlade_MCD_JP_SSCredits.pdf_p-9] File:StarBlade MCD JP SSCredits.pdf

[:File:GamePro_US_064.pdf_p175-10] GamePro, "November 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 175

[:File:BeepMD_JP_1994-10.pdf_p21-11] Beep! MegaDrive, "October 1994" (JP; 1994-09-08), page 21

[:File:ConsolesPlus_FR_040.pdf_p110-12] Consoles +, "Février 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 110

[13] Famitsu, "1994-11-04" (JP; 1994-10-21), page 40

[:File:GamePro_US_064.pdf_p118-14] GamePro, "November 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 118

[:File:GamesMaster_UK_023.pdf_p72-15] GamesMaster, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-10-20), page 72

[:File:Games_World_The_Magazine_UK_08.pdf_p21-16] Games World: The Magazine, "February 1995" (UK; 1994-12-xx), page 21

[:File:MAN.21AC_DE_1995-01.pdf_p84-17] MAN!AC, "01/95" (DE; 1994-12-07), page 84

[:File:MegaForce_FR_36.pdf_p80-18] Mega Force, "Février 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 80

[:File:MegaFun_DE_1994-12.pdf_p118-19] Mega Fun, "12/94" (DE; 1994-11-23), page 118

[:File:MeanMachinesSega26UK.pdf_p110-20] Mean Machines Sega, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-10-28), page 110

[:File:PlayTime_DE_1995-01.pdf_p108-21] Play Time, "1/95" (DE; 1994-12-07), page 108

[:File:SaturnFan_JP_1995-01_19950115.pdf_p63-22] Saturn Fan, "1995 January" (JP; 1994-12-xx), page 63

[:File:SegaMagazine_UK_13.pdf_p91-23] Sega Magazine, "January 1995" (UK; 1994-12-15), page 91

[:File:SegaPower_UK_61.pdf_p68-24] Sega Power, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-10-20), page 68

[:File:SegaPro_UK_40.pdf_p56-25] Sega Pro, "January 1995" (UK; 1994-12-01), page 56

[:File:SSM_JP_19950901_1995-09.pdf_p85-26] Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 85

[:File:TodoSega_ES_23.pdf_p36-27] Todo Sega, "Febrero 1995" (ES; 1995-0x-xx), page 36

[:File:VideoGames_DE_1995-02.pdf_p96-28] Video Games, "2/95" (DE; 1995-01-18), page 96

[:File:VideoGames_US_70.pdf_p101-29] VideoGames, "November 1994" (US; 1994-1x-xx), page 101

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@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 | tab2=NTSC-J
 | tab3=PAL
-| publisher={{company|[[Namco]]|region=Japan}}, {{company|[[Namco Hometek]]|region=US}}, {{company|[[Sega]]|region=Europe}}
+| publisher={{company|[[Namco]]|region=Japan}}, {{company|[[Namco Hometek]]|region=US}}, {{company|[[Sega Europe]]|region=Europe}}
 | developer=[[Technosoft]]{{ref|https://web.archive.org/web/20180803202340/https://twitter.com/ummo_chan/status/924644482892554240}}
 | system=[[Sega Mega-CD]]
@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 | otherformats={{NonSega|Arcade|3DO|PS}}
 }}
-'''''{{PAGENAME}}''''' (スターブレード) is a [[Sega Mega-CD]] rail shooter developed by [[Technosoft]] and published by [[Namco]]. A port of the publisher's titular 1991 arcade game ''[[wikipedia:StarBlade|StarBlade]]'', it was first released in Japan and the United States in October 1994{{ref|https://web.archive.org/web/20190610175627/https://sega.jp/fb/segahard/mcd/soft_licensee.html}}, and was later brought to Europe by [[Sega]] the following December.{{magref|segamaguk|13|92}}
+'''''{{PAGENAME}}''''' (スターブレード) is a [[Sega Mega-CD]] rail shooter developed by [[Technosoft]] and published by [[Namco]]. A port of the publisher's titular 1991 arcade game ''[[wikipedia:StarBlade|StarBlade]]'', it was first released in Japan and the United States in October 1994{{ref|https://web.archive.org/web/20190610175627/https://sega.jp/fb/segahard/mcd/soft_licensee.html}}, and was later brought to Europe by Sega the following December.{{magref|segamaguk|13|92}}
 The original arcade game was notable for its use of real-time rendered 3D polygon graphics. The Mega-CD port has a reduced screen size and draws its backgrounds in real-time using pre-calculated coordinates. Since the game is on rails, each element appears in the same spot on every playthrough, which significantly alleviates the processing load.{{ref|https://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Blog:Starblade:_The_Home_Ports}}{{ref|https://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?20809-So-like-is-Star-Blade-does-use-teh-FMV-for-its-polygons-or-not-yo}} Enemies are rendered as wireframe graphics. This is in contrast to the other ports of the game for the [[3DO]] and [[PlayStation]] (as well as similar-looking games for the Mega-CD, such as ''[[Silpheed]]''), which display the background as pre-rendered [[full-motion video]] but have fully polygonal enemies.

Difference between revisions of "StarBlade"

From Sega Retro

Latest revision as of 02:01, 20 November 2024

Contents

Story

Gameplay

Stages

History

Development

Legacy

Production credits

Digital manuals

Magazine articles

Promotional material

Physical scans

Technical information

References