Star Soldier/Gameplay

Controls

 * : Use the direction pad to guide your ship, the Caesar, in any of eight directions throughout the visible screen.
 * or : Press either button to fire your weapon. Once you have upgraded to the first power-up, you can hold the button down for rapid fire.
 * : Press Start to begin the game, or to pause the action in the middle of the game.
 * : Not used.

Caesar
You must pilot the Caesar through 16 stages. You can fly in eight different directions, and you can fire a gun with an unlimited supply of ammo. When you begin with a new ship, you appear as the ship on the left. Your weapon is a twin blaster that fires forward, and you must press the button continuously to attack. You can pick up power-ups to increase the Caesar's offensive powers and even earn shields. After collecting two power-ups, your ship will change appearance and look like the ship on the right. As the Caesar flies through space, you may occasionally find the ship slipping beneath the landscape. While you are behind the landscape, you are completely shielded from attack. However, in addition you will be unable to attack the enemies. Be sure to come out from under the landscape if it is more advantageous to attack the enemy. Do this by returning to open space.

Power-Ups
As you progress through each stage, you will encounter tiles with a large P in the middle (shown to the left). When you shoot at these tiles, a power-up capsule (shown to the right) will fly out, and begin flying back and forth across the screen. To activate the power-up, you must collect this cpasule. After you collect the third power-up and activate your shield, any power-ups that you collect when your shields are active will perform an enemy crash; that is, all of the enemies currently on the screen will explode. The following table explains how the power-ups proceed.

Small Tiles
As you travel over certain terrains, you will encounter groups of tiles that can be shot and destroyed for extra points. Both the star tile and the snake tile are destroyed in one shot, and are worth 100 points.

Large Tiles
Occasionally, you will encounter much bigger tiles. While they are worth more points, they still only require one shot to destroy. The Dragon tiles earn you 200 points, while the Phoenix tiles ear you 300 points. The points are nice, but don't put your ship in jeopardy just to destroy the tiles.

Skull Tiles
Skull Tiles are a different type of small tile that change form as you shoot them. They may begin in any state as you encounter them. The state that they are in determines how many shots are required to destroy them. Destroying a skull tile completely is worth 400 points.

Eyeball Tiles
Shortly before each boss battle, it is common to encounter two large eyeball tiles on either side of the screen. As you continue to shoot the eyeball tile, the pupil will contract and then the eyelid will close. If you manage to destroy the tile after the eyelid closes all of the way, which takes 24 shots, you will earn 2000 points. However, if you manage to destroy both eyes at the same time using the 5 direction fire, you will earn an 80,000 point bonus award.