Hellfire

Hellfire (ヘルファイヤー in Japanese) is Toaplan's first side-scrolling shooter, released as an arcade game in 1989. It was licensed to Taito America for US distribution.

Gameplay
This game is a continuation of "Truxton" (1988), a shooting game with a science fiction theme. As with other side-scrolling shooters, each side of the game has a different setting, and Toaplan's unique graphics and sound express a unique world view. In an interview, the developer said that the reason why the game is a side-scroller is because they were conscious of porting it to home consoles.

The game features a puzzle-like arrangement of enemies, which can be conquered by switching the direction of the shot and shooting in the direction of the enemy.

One of the things that makes this game difficult is that the enemies are hard, and once you get hit, it's hard to get back up.

There are two versions of the game, one for one player and one for two players at the same time, and the difficulty level is relatively lower than the former one because the former one allows you to go back and recover after a mistake, while the latter one allows you to recover on the spot even if you are alone.

The BGM composed by Takeya Uemura is popular, and in 2015, a performance PV titled "HELLFIRE 2015" by his band U-Brand was released on YouTube.

Use the eight-way lever and two buttons to control your ship, Hellfire. Use the shot button to shoot at enemies or specific terrain. Another button allows you to choose the direction of the shot in four different ways at any time during play. The colors in parentheses below are for laser shots.

The colors in parentheses below are for lasers: forward (right) only (red), backward (left) only (yellow), up and down in two directions (green), diagonally in four directions (blue), forward only...

The color changes with each press of the button.

Item

Items appear when you destroy certain enemies or terrain, and have the following effects when acquired.

P - Power up your shot. It changes in the following order: shot (initial state), missile, and laser.

Lasers are long, single shots with high attack power, and penetrate enemies with low durability (only the front and rear can fire two shots in a row.

S - Speeds up your ship's movement; 4 of these will give you maximum speed.

B - Bonus points.

1UP - Increases the number of remaining planes by 1.

Story
In order to retake the six planets occupied by the Guild Empire, Captain Lancer, aboard the aircraft carrier Sylphid, launches the Hellfire space battle machine. The battle has finally begun.

Ports
Hellfire was ported to the Sega Genesis, as well as the Mega Drive. Additionally, the NEC PC Engine CD got this game as Hellfire S: The Another Story.

About the Genesis version: For single player only. This version has been rearranged to be easier to play, with the addition of the Hyper Cannon, a long horizontal beam that is used in the same way as bombs, the Shield, which prevents enemy attacks only once, and the Option, which supports your ship by hitting enemies and defending against enemy bullets. The graphics of some enemies and backgrounds, as well as enemy attack methods, have been changed from the arcade version. There is a bug that the BGM becomes extremely slow when running on the Mega Drive 2, and possibly a Genesis 2.

About the PC Engine CD version: The game can be played by two players at the same time, and features arranged BGM on CD-DA, as well as boss battle tracks that were not included in the arcade and Mega Drive and Genesis versions. The game also features anime-style visual scenes designed by Hiroyuki Kitazume and produced by Artmik, which are played after the software is started, at the beginning of the game, and after the game's stages are cleared. The two heroines are voiced by Yumi Fuyuma and Eriko Hara, respectively. One change to the game is the addition of a "shield" that can prevent enemy attacks and terrain collisions twice. As the title screen says, "THE ANOTHER STORY", the game takes place in a different setting and story from the arcade and Mega Drive and Genesis versions.