Terra Cresta



Terra Cresta is an arcade game that was released by Nichibutsu in 1985. It is considered a follow up to their much older game Moon Cresta, which was released in 1980. Just as Moon Cresta improved upon the Space Invaders formula by providing multiple ship parts that enhance the player's firepower, Terra Cresta provides the same improvement to the vertically scrolling shooter genre created by Xevious.

As the player proceeds through the game, it is possible to reveal and collect five different ship parts. These additional modules may either fly in formation around the player, or can combine with the player's ship to form a larger, more powerful ship. Each ship piece has its own unique attack, and each formation (based on the number of collected ships) has a different attack as well. If the player manages to survive and collect all five parts at the same time, he or she can temporarily transform into a blazing invulnerable Phoenix and crash into enemies.

Home conversions of the game appeared on the NES, Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and the Sharp X68000. It had two follow ups, Terra Force in the arcade, and Terra Cresta II for the TurboGrafx-16.

Controls

 * Joystick: Press the joystick in any one of eight directions to maneuver the ship across the screen. You can travel throughout the extent of the screen, which automatically scrolls upward.
 * Fire: Press the fire button to fire your weapons. Which weapons you fire is dependent upon which ship parts you have collected and whether you are unified as one ship or spread out as a formation.
 * Formation: Press the formation button to break your ship parts apart into specific formations, or to recall them back to your main ship to combine into one craft.
 * 1-2 Players: Press to start a one or two player game.