Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth is a very traditional style sci-fi scrolling shooter. While it features some nice 3D graphics, it doesn’t try to utilise 3D in its gameplay or camera usage, it just keeps things simple. I was quite surprised that this game worked well with widescreen, as with the fixed camera, you would expect everything out of view to be removed.

However, keeping things simple works for this genre. You can pick between a few ships that have different weapons – all of which can be upgraded by collecting power-up, which level down if you get destroyed. Everything is fast, smooth and feels polished.

Outside of the main mode – which has some hidden paths to unlock bonus missions – there’s also a couple of timed modes for quick high score challenges. It’s a decent example of its genre.

Fun

Gameplay is predictably and reassuringly simple. Just select one of three distinctly different types of ship and head off into battle. The controls will be familiar to anyone that has ever played a SNES or arcade scrolling shooter.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #19. Review Score: 62%

Remake or remaster?

A regular re-release would be fine.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth