Overview

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Review

Release Date: 03.1990
Platform: Game Boy
Developer: Nintendo Co., Ltd.
Publisher: Nintendo of America, Inc.

Reviewed by Richard Brownell on 8.3.2003

Review Rating: 7/10

When one thinks of shooters, one does not necessarily thing of the original Gameboy. The world of shooters is one filled with wonder amazement, hundreds of enemies, their bullets, their lasers, and lots and lots of button mashing. This world is only for the "hardcore" and the recent decline in shooters is proof of that. As gaming becomes mainstream and companies are in need of profit and arcade popularity goes down, shooters are no longer anywhere near what they used to be.

SolarStriker came out in 1990, a time when shooters were in their golden days. Arcades were quite popular, and not yet filled with fighting and gun games. It's story is quite simple and is not actually detailed in the game. It is the year 2159 and the human race is in trouble! An alien race called the Reticulon are attacking Earth and the humans have only one chance left: to use the experimental new ship known as SolarStriker.

The SolarStriker has a typical shooter arsenal. It shoots lasers which are more akin to bullets, which can be upgraded (through shooting pods to obtain powerups throughout each level) to shoot two or three at a time and then two missiles at a time. The player starts with three ships and receives an extra ship for every 50,000 points. The game is difficult so get as many of those ships as possible.

Graphically, this game would be described as sucktastic nowadays, but this is 1990 we are talking about here. Not only that, but this is an top-down perspective shooter for Gameboy. Each of the six levels contains a different background, one being over a city. While they couldn't be described as eye candy, they do serve their purpose and are nice to look at when not pressing the A-button wildly.

There are 9 basic enemies, 6 bosses,and 3 sub-bosses that can be encountered which all have fairly simple flying and shooting patterns. The basic enemies are all relatively easy to defeat, but the level design creates a high degree of difficulty with the combination of enemies on the screen at once. However, the game gets redundant at points, which can slow it down.

Considering that this is one of the only shooters that can be found for Gameboy--and that it is not all that bad--SolarStriker is a game that shooter fans should seek out. I bought it when it came out in 1990, but replayed it on the GBA SP. The few added colors enhance the game tremendously, so try it on a GBA SP. Of course, as everybody knows, the original Gameboy is the longest lasting, strongest system. Mine still works, does yours?

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