StarBlade

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NTSC-U NTSC-J PAL
StarBlade
System(s): Sega Mega-CD
Publisher: Namco (Japan, US), Sega (Europe)
Developer: Tecnosoft
Original system(s): Arcade boards
Developer(s) of original games: Namco
Peripherals supported: CD BackUp RAM Cart, Sega Mouse, XE-1 AP
Genre: Shooting
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1994-10-28 ¥7,8007,800 T-14014 US 1994-10 T-14025 EU 1994-12 4284-50 UK 1994-12 £44.9944.99 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 Tecnosoft 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, and was later brought to Europe by Sega the following December.

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). 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 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 are two difficulty levels, Normal and Hard, which take different paths through the levels.

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.

Production credits

• 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)

Note: 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.

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)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 68 Consoles + (FR) 74 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 70 Game Players (US) NTSC-U 70 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 70 GamesMaster (UK) PAL 71 Games World: The Magazine (UK) PAL 82 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 69 Mega (UK) PAL 75 Mega Force (FR) PAL 61 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 63 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 75 Play Time (DE) PAL 55 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 72 Sega Magazine (UK) PAL 68 Sega Power (UK) PAL 87 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-U 53 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 80 Todo Sega (ES) 89 Video Games (DE) PAL 68 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 80

	71
Based on 21 reviews

StarBlade

Mega-CD, JP
Cover
Spinecard Disc

Mega-CD, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Mega-CD, EU
Cover
Spinecard Disc Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	468,198,528		CD (JP)	T-14014
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	468,198,528		CD (US)	T-14025