Star Soldier
| Star Soldier | |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) | Scrolling shooter |
| Developer(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Publisher(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Platform(s) | MSX, NES, TurboGrafx-16, Super Famicom, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Mobile phone, PlayStation Portable, Wii, iOS |
| First release | Star Soldier June 13, 1986 |
| Latest release | Star Soldier R March 25, 2008 |
| Spin-offs | Starship Hector Blazing Lazers Star Parodier |
Star Soldier is a series of scrolling shooters mainly developed by Hudson Soft. Konami has owned the rights to the series since their absorption of Hudson Soft in 2012.
The first game, Star Soldier, was released in 1986 for the MSX and NES, and the series has continued on various gaming systems. Star Soldier itself was released with little change in the compilation Caravan Shooting Collection for the Super Famicom in 1995, received enhanced remakes for both the GameCube and PlayStation 2 in 2003, and a different remake for the PlayStation Portable in 2005. The Nintendo 64 got an exclusive release called Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth in 1998, while the latest installment of the series was released on the Wii as a WiiWare game in 2008. In addition, Super Star Soldier, Final Soldier, Soldier Blade and Star Parodier have been re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console and on the Japanese PC Engine's Best Collection lineup for the PSP.
The Star Soldier games are best known for their distinctive music, unique weapon power-ups, and a special time attack high score mode called "Caravan Mode".