THIS IS DEFINITELY MY TOP ONE GAME OF ALL TIME AND ALL CONSOLES! I love this series even more than Gradius and Aleste which are also my favorite SHMUPs. The Soldier series is very-fast-paced vertical SHMUP, original title is actually Star Force. Believe it or not, its idea is from a BBC Micro game called "Fire Track". Well, I'm not going to give a review or recommendation for you this time, I wanna show off! My Caravan Mode scores of the FC/NES and TurboGrafx titles! These games tooke me 40 minutes to beat just today morning. (I'm off today.) Well, if you don't know Caravan Mode, I could give you a brief introduction. When it was in 1988-1991, many SHMUP companies attended competitions just like NWC at that time, so people practiced their flying skills a lot, in order to get the highest score and money. Caravan Mode is a time-limited score-hunting game mode, basically limited to 2 minutes or 5 minutes within one or two stages of one game. But these games aren't bullet-mania (or bullet-hell), cuz there aren't so many bullets on the screen, don't look down on them, it's very easy to die, cuz the bullets are fxxkin' insanely rocket-speeding for some games! And, there's a reason why we, busy SHMUP lovers, like Caravan Mode so much. You get two or five minutes to beat a game, that's unbelievable in other types of games. Try to imagine, you beat Contra in 35 minutes, I'm pretty sure you must never feel satisfied. But if you could play seven different Caravan SHMUPs in 35 minutes, I think they'd make your day! So, let's take a look of my scores. 1.Blade Buster (Famicom) [attach]435312[/attach] This is a homebrew version of Super Star Soldier of TurboGrafx on Famicom, it's even better than the original! The fast-pace is back! [attach]435313[/attach] 5 minute mode score. I really had a hard time to make such a high score in this game. The secret is to get more hidden extra points as quickly as possible. As for the two bosses, beat them rapidly, then you'll get extra points for remaining time. [attach]435314[/attach] 2 minute mode score. The level design is the same, but there're some diffent details about enemies. My advice is to predict and remember enemies' path of the bullets. It's not hard cuz there aren't so many sorts of enemies in this mode. As for boss, you have enough time to beat him, but you should take him in time, or you'll lost the extra points for beating the boss. 2.Star Soldier Special Version(NES) Well, this is a special cartridge for attending the Shooting Caravan Festival in maybe 1990. Hudson Soft is the angel of us SHMUP lovers. [attach]435316[/attach] [attach]435317[/attach] [attach]435318[/attach] rapid measurement mode. the time limit is 10, 20 and 30 seconds. This mode requires fast pushing skills on your regular NES controller, no turbo pad. Maybe you're curious about how can I make this high score. I'll show you a secret. You see, there're many skull heads on the screen, but actually you don't need to take them down. What you should do is to fly over them and get in the top left or right corner of the screen, and push the A or B button as rapidly as possible. That's it. Get a try if you don't believe me. [attach]435319[/attach] [attach]435320[/attach] 5 and 2 minute mode. Cuz there're no special design between the two, the skills are the same. You should remember the locations of those extra point blocks, you'll get more than 80000 points if you beat all of them! And those big eyes at the end of every level, try your best take them down at the same time and you'll get another high extra points! As for boss, it's easy. Just like the original Gradius, the same boss appears again and again. 3.Super Star Soldier (TurboGrafx) 
My favorite title of the series, the music, the enemies, the power-ups, the protagonist, everything is perfect for me! Though the pace is slower than the original title on NES. [attach]435322[/attach] 2 minute mode. I only want to say, use the triple speed of you ship! Don't fear those quick bullets from the enemies. And the first boss is damn too easy if you know the trick. Watch this video, it's my video uploaded about three years ago. [media=x,500,375]http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzQ5ODI5NjQw.html?from=y1.7-2[/media] [attach]435323[/attach] 5 minute mode. The second boss is easy too, but I think that time you'll feel tired, so don't give up until then, you can make it! Again, use the triple speed, or you'll be fxxked up. 4.Soldier Blade Special Version (TurboGrafx) 
Nearly everybody SHMUP fan takes this one as their fav of the series, it's just nehhhh for me. But I still love it. [attach]435324[/attach] 2 minute mode. This time, you should beat the boss with double speed instead of triple. Too quick to go to the hell. Watch the video below. [media=x,500,375]http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzQ5ODMzMTcy.html?from=y1.7-2[/media] [attach]435325[/attach] 5 minute mode. The second boss is damn WTF! He's very tough. My words are, SHOOT THE CORE! (from Gradius series.) And stay alive. 5.Final Soldier Special Version (TurboGrafx) 
Nothing much too say, very good title, the weapons are great! [attach]435327[/attach] 2 minute mode. There are two bosses at the same time, take the first one down and then shoot the projectiles that the white boss gives out, you'll get a considerably high score as a result. Watch the video below. [media=x,500,375]http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzQ5ODM2ODMy.html?from=y1.7-2[/media] [attach]435328[/attach] 5 minute mode. If you're a die-hard bullet mania fan, it's not a big problem to beat the second boss. 6.Gunhed Special Version (PCE) 
Though Gunhed (Blazing Lazers in TurboGrafx) isn't actually a title of the Soldier series, Hudson soft said that it's a spiritual spin-off of the Star Soldier. [attach]435329[/attach] 2 minute mode. Both of the modes are acutally a reconstruction of the third level of the story mode. So if you're very familiar with the level 3, you'll be the master. Sometimes, you should learn to abandon some power-ups. I used F+II as my weapon, cuz the shooting range is the largest and the firepower is very significant. I'll recommend F+III if you're lazy enough, it's homing lazer, what you should do is to evade bullets, nothing more. [attach]435332[/attach] 5 minute mode. The boss is just a joke, throw two or three bombs at him, then you win. That's all. I love another Caravan games called "Alzadick" on PCE-CD too, but it's too tough and I didn't have a good emulator to play Turbo CD games on my no-disk-drive computer... That's a pity.
