Jumpjet was an action side-scroller in which the player piloted a jet to complete four missions, culminating in a "final" boss fight against the "Head of Doom". Defeating all four levels would bring the player loop the player back to the first mission. Play would continue as such until the player ran out of lives.
DOS version based on the film of the same name.
In the Year of Darkness, 2029, the rulers of this planet devised something that felt no pity. No pain. No fear. Something unstoppable. They created The Terminator.
The cult movie phenomenon batters its way into your home in the most relentless arcade/adventure game of all time! From the nightmare world of the future to the mean streets of Los Angeles, The Terminator takes you right to the very edge...then pushes you over! Play urban commando Kyle Reese and pit your speed, skill and cunning against the most perfect killing machine ever devised. Or take a trip through the dark side and become The Terminator, a ruthless cyborg juggernaut bent on destroying mankind's last hope. It's your choice. One thing is certain...the fate of all humanity rides upon your next move.
Heavy Unit: Mega Drive Special (ヘビーユニット メガドライブスペシャル) is a 1990 Sega Mega Drive shoot-'em-up developed by Kaneko and published by Toho exclusively in Japan. It is a port of Kaneko's 1988 arcade shoot-'em-up Heavy Unit. Humans have developed an artificial planet, "Le Tau," which is being attacked by aliens, and only the Heavy Unit transforming ship can stop them. A and C shoot; rapidfire is an option. B drops a bomb, which you have an unlimited supply of but must collect as a powerup. Among the various powerups is one, labeled T, that transforms your ship into a mecha and back, which plays identically, except its bombs will home in on enemies.
Probotector is the European port of Contra (NES), which changes the main characters and enemies into robots. It was made based on the American version of the game, with the cutscenes changed accordingly.
Gaiares is a horizontal-scrolling shoot em' up released for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis in 1990. The game bears a striking mechanic similarity to that of the R-Type series, alongside those of other well-known Shoot Em' Ups such as Gradius and Thunder Force, all of which it was trying to compete against.
Battle Unit Zeoth takes place in the future where mankind is invaded by a race of alien robots known as the Grein. The Earth’s forces were triumphant in battle and the Grein forces fled the Solar System. However, as they retreated, the Grein left behind a secret underground base filled with self-replicating Grein machines.
Forty-two years after the Earth’s victory, the Grein base opened and a new attack force decimated the city of New Age. To retaliate, Earth’s military has stored a mecha that specializes in alien combat known as the Zeoth. It is the Zeoth’s assignment to stop the attack force, go into the Grein secret base and destroy the mechanical occupants before a new invasion force arrives.
M.U.S.H.A. is a Sega Genesis vertical-scrolling shooter from Compile and Seismic originally released in 1990 and later re-released on the Nintendo Virtual Console in 2009. The game is known for its rarity and its ability to fetch high prices on auction sites.
1999. What appeared to be a harmless meteorite crashing in the Nevada desert has turned out to be Darc Seed, an evil alien creature with horrible powers. By shooting strange magnetic rays, Darc Seed had turned the helpless nation into zombies and had brought the Statue of Liberty to life to do his dirty work. These rays had also given him control over many deadly weapons, but none were more powerful than the legendary samurai sword, Shura. When the great head of the samurai, Namakubi, heard that the sword had fallen into evil hands, he set off immediately for the United States. For only he possessed the strength and knowledge needed to recapture the magical sword and free the U.S. from the evil clutches of Darc Seed.
Sinistron, released as Violent Soldier in Japan, is a side-scrolling, ship based shooter that was released for the TurboGrafx-16 in 1991.
The game is notable, among other things, for the adjustable armored jaws of the player's spacecraft. Opening the invincible jaws of the ship increases the spread of the player's shots but exposes the vulnerable cockpit. Obtaining one weapon upgrade allows the ship's jaws to be set half-way open (a 3-shot spread) or closed (with increased damage), and a second upgrade allows them to be closed, half open, or fully open (a 5 shot spread).
Five power-ups exist in the game. The Vulcan flame cannon, crystal-pulse laser, and CHAOS (homing) missiles are weapon upgrades. There are also speed upgrades and plasma droids, invincible pods which will flank the ship. The plasma droids can absorb enemy pellets and will even damage enemies they come into contact with.
The ship's charge-up attack releases a circular wave of force that will damage all enemies in a radius around the ship.
Sinist
Evil forces have kidnapped the leader of the Burning Project! It's up to the Burning Angels to rescue her! And so starts another vertically scrolling shooter on the PC Engine. There are no surprises in the gameplay here - choose one of two ships, shoot down enemies and collect power upgrades and energy pods. Levels range from the city to the desert and the obligatory sci-fi enemy base. At the end of each level, defeat the large boss craft to move on.
Cyber Tank is a would-be dual screen on-rails shooter from Coreland. Due to poor feedback during the location test phase of development, the game was not put into further production. Luckily, the board from the lone existing arcade cabinet was lent to MAME developers, and the game can now be played by a much wider audience. Game preservation!
Sol-Feace is a typical 2D shooter with weapon powerups. The game features six levels: Sirius, Enemy Arsenal, ArtifiStar, Pluto Base, Almathea, and Final Battle.
The Punisher is a 1990 video game developed by Beam Software and released by LJN, which stars the Marvel Comics anti-hero, the Punisher. It is one of the few NES rail shooters.
In the same year, there was also The Punisher computer game for Amiga and DOS systems, unrelated to this one and released by MicroProse.
The 1990s was a decade of great change marked by growing friendships between old enemies and never before seen levels of co-operation between powerful nations of the world. However, in 1997, using new weapons designed in secrecy, the Middle Eastern country of Rabu threatened to destroy this fragile peace.
Rabu's proported goal is to purge the world of sin and force a new morality, with her allies. Rabu quickly claimed the Middle East, then spread into both southern Asia and parts of Europe. Their weaponery is terrifyingly eeficient at manufacturing death. They seemed unstoppable. When they gassed Tokyo in 1999, U.S. intervention became unavoidable. If Rabu is allowed to use Japan's manufacturing facilities, there will be no end to the nightmare.
Hoping to protect world peace, the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) heads out to the sea.
Silver Surfer is a shooter game, with some levels taking place vertically and some horizontally. The Surfer's only ability is to move around on the screen and to shoot directly in front of him. Power-ups that can be picked up include: the letter "F" (Firepower) which will increase the number and power of his projectiles, Smart bombs which destroy everything on the screen, the letter "S" (Speedup) which increases the surfer's movement and Orbs which will also fire the Surfer's weapon. Orbs are special in that two can be obtained (only 1 is shown on horizontal scrolling levels) and they can be positioned to fire forwards, backwards or sideways.
A vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up that configures its difficulty to match the skill of the player.
Final Blaster is a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up for the PC Engine. The player is part of squadron of fighters sent to save the world from an alien invasion. Final Blaster hosts a number of features that are distinct to the game: the first is a charge shot that resembles a phoenix and is the only form of projectile that can destroy certain larger enemies. The second is that the game configures its difficulty depending on how many power-ups the player has when finishing a level, or how often they've been destroyed.
The game was unique to the PC Engine and did not see an international release outside of Japan. It came out on the same day as W Ring: The Double Rings, another shoot 'em up exclusive to the Japanese PC Engine.
Naious is a horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up. The gameplay is fairly traditional and involves navigating outdoor and indoor stages (often with narrow spaces), destroying mobile and stationary enemies on the way. The fighter craft starts with a vulcan gun and can later change to wide shot, laser, and homing missiles. Rather infrequent power-ups appear at set points on the stages and change or enhance the plane's weapons.