Blast Off

Blast Off is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1989 only in Japan. It runs on Namco System 1 hardware and is the sequel to Bosconian, which had been released eight years previously.

Introduction
As in the original Bosconian arcade game, the player takes control of the Star Fighter for a second time; however, as with many other vertical scrolling shooters (such as Namco's own Xevious), it is now always facing top of the screen and constantly moving upward while the background scrolls down behind it, bringing enemies into view.

The game uses two buttons - one is used to fire circular shots at the enemies, while the other is used to cycle through the Star Fighter's four varieties of firing patterns. The patterns are cycled through in the following order:
 * Red: Two shots are fired directly ahead of the Star Fighter in what is described as a "double-helix" pattern.
 * Blue: One shot is fired directly ahead of the Star Fighter while another is fired directly behind it (the original).
 * Yellow: One shot is fired directly ahead of the Star Fighter while another is fired to its left and a third to its right.
 * Green: Two shots are fired diagonally ahead of the Star Fighter (NW & NE) while a third is fired directly behind it.

By holding the firing button down, the Star Fighter will be able to fire more powerful spherical shots at the enemies.