Forcing A Soldier Into The Stars

I remember thinking Star Force was pretty similar to Star Soldier as a kid. However lots of space shooters were pretty similar, so I just chalked it up to that. Later I'd learn that Star Soldier is a spiritual follow up. Really this post isn't as much about either game as it is about playing shoot 'em ups more as a kid. I was pretty good at them at the time. During the Atari and NES years I'd often find myself in front of the TV just shooting bad guys at a frantic pace. It was a lot of fun and often gave way to playing out levels with toy space ships bought from gumball machines. Which ironically may have been bootlegs of keshi based on the very games I was playing out.

Sound The Red Alarm

Despite it's limitations, I was a pretty big fan of the Virtual Boy. It was the first time I bought a system at launch. Often rushing home after school to get some game time in before flipping burgers at McDonald's. I accepted the systems limitations going in, so they didn't bother me at all. It's something of a skill I've always possessed. You never see me complaining that the coffee is hot. It wasn't a virtual reality experience at all, but I really loved the 3D game worlds. 

Red Alarm was a space shooter game that was clearly inspired by Star Fox, but with wire frame graphics similar to Atari Star Wars. Once you got used to it, it could be quite immersive. With the Virtual Boy's unique controller and ability to generate 3D worlds inside that visor, setting the automatic break was a good idea. I could loose myself for hours flying around and shooting bad guys. That red on black display was pretty hard on the eyes, so definitely needed to look away every so often. I wonder if that's why the kid in the commercial gets beheaded?

A Soldier Of The Stars

I love to play Star Soldier even though I'm terrible at it. Flying around in space ship Caesar and taking down Starbrains (dying a lot in the process). It's a particularly old school space shooter that's still fun. It's on a few different systems, but I grew up playing it on my NES. Like other shooter games, repetition is the key to really getting good and working your way through the levels. 

These day's I regularly pay it on the Switch Online service. Of course there's a big difference between starting over and over during summer break in middle school and being an adult. So admittedly after dying a few times I tend to give up. Still I love to play it on occasion. It's got a bunch of sequels and I'm bad at those too. At least I'm consistent.

Gunhed 30th Anniversary

Now that SDCC is over, back to Zone Base. I don't pretend to know a whole lot about Gunhed. A few games here, a movie that started out as part of the Godzilla series there. General cool stuff all around. It's hard not to appreciate it. Today is the 30th anniversary of the movies release and that's worth noting.

TransBot/Astro Flash attract mode... Is that Omega Supreme?

And that sure is an At-ST Omega Supreme is fighting.

edit: Shawn pointed out it's pretty close to Rodimus Prime and, he's right. I was noticing it looks like Optimal Optimus, which the game came out 10 years before, so that's just a coincidence. Unless a Beast Wars designer was a SEGA kid...