Soulstar
Encyclopedia
Soulstar is a pseudo 3D space shooter in a similar vein to Nintendo
's Star Fox, released in 1994 for the Sega Mega CD.
viewed from a behind-the-ship 3D perspective incorporating scaling and rotating sprites style of graphical effect. Soulstar was amongst a handful of games developed by Core Design
using this graphical style among Battlecorps, BC Racers
and Thunderhawk
. The game also features a CD quality orchestral soundtrack.
"A thousand light-years away, across a yawning gulf of space and time, the six planets of the Soul Star system perform a peaceful celestial dance around their youthful suns, unaware of the horror soon to come. A horror in the dreaded shape of the Myrkoids, an alien species older than the stars themselves, with a unified mind far colder than the space between those stars. The Myrkoids - killers of worlds - descend upon unsuspecting star systems, sucking them dry and draining every planet of its internal energies. They leave nothing in their savage wake but empty husks drifting lifelessly in space. Following the destruction of his home system, Bryk Hammelt, the last of a noble race of warriors known as the Cryo-commandos, sets out in his great starship, the Treaghon, to hunt down the merciless Myrkoids. He has hunted them for centuries, tracked them across the trackless wastes of the Great Divide, searched for the destructive evidence of their presence in the starfields of Maldrum Tau, and chased them at light speed through the hypergate at Viridum Plus .... For eons he has followed, and they have always eluded him. Until now. Now he'll face this ancient enemy in a battle for the soul of a star ..."
, similar to the Star Fox and Space Harrier
. This mode involves flying a Strike Craft through space towards huge scaling sprites of a planet or space station and flying across a texture mapped planetscape. The second mode involves controlling a hovering Turbo Copter in 360 degrees of freedom, allowing the player to move freely across the map. The third mode uses a similar 360 degrees mode, but this time the player controls a Mech Strike Walker.
Two-player cooperative gameplay is also available, allowing the first player to pilot as normal while the second player controls the ship's weapons systems
.
determines the difficulty of the game (from easy to hard), of which each have a set of levels. At the end of each level set, the player returns to the space station to choose a remaining warp gate
.
. There are some poor quality screenshots of the game available on the web:http://www.cyberroach.com/jaguarcd/html/soulstar.htm, but other than that very little information concerning this game port exists. Judging by the appearance of these screenshots, the game runs at a higher screen resolution than the Sega CD version and has better texturing. A copy of this game can be seen running at the Jaguar Connexion 2005 http://mleguludec.free.fr/jc2005/jc2005centre.htm.
A short video comparing both Sega CD and Atari Jaguar CD
versions can be seen here:http://www.xs4all.nl/~rdemming/Atari/SoulStar/index.htm.
A version of the game for the Sega 32X
, called Soulstar X, was once in development. A prototype of it was found sometime in 2009-2010 and released to the public.
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's Star Fox, released in 1994 for the Sega Mega CD.
Overview
The game is a shoot 'em upShoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
viewed from a behind-the-ship 3D perspective incorporating scaling and rotating sprites style of graphical effect. Soulstar was amongst a handful of games developed by Core Design
Core Design
Core Design was a British video game studio best known today for creating the popular Tomb Raider series.-History:Based in the city of Derby, England, Core Design was set up in 1988 by Chris Shrigley, Andy Green, Rob Toone, Terry Lloyd, Simon Phipps, Dave Pridmore, Jeremy Heath-Smith and Greg Holmes...
using this graphical style among Battlecorps, BC Racers
BC Racers
BC Racers is a racing video game released by Core Design in 1994 in Mega-CD, in 1995 in Sega 32X and 3DO, and also released by the company in PC as freeware in 1995. It was the third game released in the Chuck Rock series...
and Thunderhawk
Thunderhawk (Video Game)
Thunderhawk is a helicopter combat simulator game released by Core Design for the Amiga, Atari ST and IBM PC in 1991, and for the Sega Mega-CD in 1993. The game was renamed to AH-3 ThunderStrike for its USA release.In the game the player is part of the "MERLIN" helicopter combat assault team,...
. The game also features a CD quality orchestral soundtrack.
Story
- (From the game's manual)
"A thousand light-years away, across a yawning gulf of space and time, the six planets of the Soul Star system perform a peaceful celestial dance around their youthful suns, unaware of the horror soon to come. A horror in the dreaded shape of the Myrkoids, an alien species older than the stars themselves, with a unified mind far colder than the space between those stars. The Myrkoids - killers of worlds - descend upon unsuspecting star systems, sucking them dry and draining every planet of its internal energies. They leave nothing in their savage wake but empty husks drifting lifelessly in space. Following the destruction of his home system, Bryk Hammelt, the last of a noble race of warriors known as the Cryo-commandos, sets out in his great starship, the Treaghon, to hunt down the merciless Myrkoids. He has hunted them for centuries, tracked them across the trackless wastes of the Great Divide, searched for the destructive evidence of their presence in the starfields of Maldrum Tau, and chased them at light speed through the hypergate at Viridum Plus .... For eons he has followed, and they have always eluded him. Until now. Now he'll face this ancient enemy in a battle for the soul of a star ..."
Description and gameplay
Gameplay is based around three vehicle types, that the player space combat vehicle transforms into. The first mode is an on rails shoot 'em upShoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
, similar to the Star Fox and Space Harrier
Space Harrier
is a third-person rail shooter game, released by Sega in 1985. It was produced by Yu Suzuki, responsible for many popular Sega games. It spawned several sequels: Space Harrier 3-D , Space Harrier II , and the spin-off Planet Harriers ....
. This mode involves flying a Strike Craft through space towards huge scaling sprites of a planet or space station and flying across a texture mapped planetscape. The second mode involves controlling a hovering Turbo Copter in 360 degrees of freedom, allowing the player to move freely across the map. The third mode uses a similar 360 degrees mode, but this time the player controls a Mech Strike Walker.
Two-player cooperative gameplay is also available, allowing the first player to pilot as normal while the second player controls the ship's weapons systems
Air gunner
An air gunner a.k.a. aerial gunner is a member of an air force aircrew who operates flexible-mount or turret-mounted machine guns or autocannons in an aircraft...
.
Selectable game routes
At the player enters the space station at the end of the first level, there are three warp gates to chose from. Each warp gateWarp zone
A warp zone is usually an area in a video game where players can go from one place or level to another. They are sometimes used as cheats and sometimes as ways to avoid too much walking...
determines the difficulty of the game (from easy to hard), of which each have a set of levels. At the end of each level set, the player returns to the space station to choose a remaining warp gate
Warp zone
A warp zone is usually an area in a video game where players can go from one place or level to another. They are sometimes used as cheats and sometimes as ways to avoid too much walking...
.
Unreleased ports
An unfinished outsourced port of the game also exists for the Atari Jaguar CDAtari Jaguar CD
The Atari Jaguar CD or Jag CD is a CD-ROM peripheral for the Atari Jaguar video game console.Late in the life span of the company, Atari released this long-promised CD-ROM unit. The unit hit shelves on September 11, 1995 and retailed for $149.95. The device sat atop the Jaguar console, snapping...
. There are some poor quality screenshots of the game available on the web:http://www.cyberroach.com/jaguarcd/html/soulstar.htm, but other than that very little information concerning this game port exists. Judging by the appearance of these screenshots, the game runs at a higher screen resolution than the Sega CD version and has better texturing. A copy of this game can be seen running at the Jaguar Connexion 2005 http://mleguludec.free.fr/jc2005/jc2005centre.htm.
A short video comparing both Sega CD and Atari Jaguar CD
Atari Jaguar CD
The Atari Jaguar CD or Jag CD is a CD-ROM peripheral for the Atari Jaguar video game console.Late in the life span of the company, Atari released this long-promised CD-ROM unit. The unit hit shelves on September 11, 1995 and retailed for $149.95. The device sat atop the Jaguar console, snapping...
versions can be seen here:http://www.xs4all.nl/~rdemming/Atari/SoulStar/index.htm.
A version of the game for the Sega 32X
Sega 32X
The Sega 32X, codenamed Project Mars, is an add-on for the Mega Drive/Genesis video game console by Sega. Its aim was to increase the lifespan of the aging Mega Drive/Genesis system, which was facing stiff competition from the SNES...
, called Soulstar X, was once in development. A prototype of it was found sometime in 2009-2010 and released to the public.