DemonStar is a series of Vertical Scrolling Shooters developed for Microsoft Windows by Mountain King Studios. The series is also a Spiritual Successor to Galactix and Raptor: Call of the Shadows.
There are four main titles in the series:
- DemonStar (DS) was released on January 28, 1998. The player is a pilot in the Terran Fleet who was testing out the RaptorX prototype Space Fighter when the Xidus Armada launched an attack on the fleet, destroying all of the fleet's mainstay Raptor fighters, except the handful of RaptorX prototypes, which were away on testing at the time. Using the unfinished RaptorX prototype, the player must take the fight to the Xidus by attacking their space fleets and controlled planets, with the ultimate goal of destroying The Dreaded Dreadnought of the Xidus — the DemonStar.
- DemonStar: Secret Missions 1 (SM1) (2002) is a mini-sequel to DS, in which the Xidus started to build a new DemonStar. Using the completed RaptorX prototype, the Terran Fleet must now attack the Xidus and prevent the launch of their new DemonStar.
- DemonStar: Secret Missions 2 (SM2) (2003) rehashes the same premise as SM1 but adds vastly improved visuals.
- DemonStar - Original Missions (OM) (2023) is an Updated Re-release of DS, featuring full compatibility for the latest versions of Windows, overhauled visuals and game mechanics, a new soundtrack, and an on-the-fly "Legacy Mode" toggle that makes the game look and play exactly like DS.
Gameplay-wise, DemonStar draws many references from the Raiden series, in particular Viper Phase 1. The game supports two players, with the Player 1 and Player 2 ships colored red and blue respectively. The goal of every level is to destroy the boss at the end. The player starts out with a standard twin-barrel Slow Laser main gun that can be upgraded by collecting powerups dropped from larger Mooks. The powerups change colors at set intervals and determine what upgraded shot the main gun fires. Successive upgrades of the same color will further upgrade the main gun but picking up a different color will drop the main gun's upgrade to the lowest level. The player also has a limited stock of secondary weapons that they can use to clear out most enemies on the screen at once. Additional powerups that the player can get include permanent side- and rear-firing cannons as well as a temporary stock of dumbfire or homing rockets.
Terran Base: Tropes Listed!!
- Alien Sea: In Level 8 you enter the level entitled Water Planet and the entire landscape of that planet is entirely made up in water.
- Arbitrary Weapon Range: Damage from the player's weapons is greatly reduced from medium range out; this is shown by the weapon projectiles slowly fading out. However, the projectiles themselves have a much higher effective range, being able to hit targets at the opposite end of the screen. This mechanic thus forces the player to decide between getting up close to targets and finishing them off quickly, or inflicting Death of a Thousand Cuts at range, and was used as an alternative to One Bullet at a Time to balance out the amount of damage the player can inflict, especially when their ship has obtained all available upgrades.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- From upgrade level 2 onwards, the projectiles fired by all weapons, except the proton laser, will generate large explosions upon impact, which look really cool but don't do any additional damage and obscures everything flying through them.
- The ion cannon rapid-fires a dazzling stream of blue shots forwards. Unlike the other shots, however, it has no spread or homing ability whatsoever, requiring the player to position their ship directly below whatever they want to destroy.
- Giant Mook: In spades, ranging from large cylindrical ships that have no attacks, to miniboss-tier ships that have their own Boss Warning Siren.
- Humans by Any Other Name: The players' mugshots show a male human, and in all games except SM2, the Terran Base mugshot shows an older male human. However, the fleet that the player flies for is always known as the Terran Fleet.
- Invincibility Power-Up:
- Appears as a yellow shield powerup in DS and a black horizontal tablet powerup in all other games, both with the letter I on the front. Picking it up makes the player ship immune to all forms of damage, including Ramming, for 30 seconds.
- From SM1 onwards, picking up a small shield crystal or energy powerup when the player ship already has full shields will make it invincible for 3 and 15 seconds respectively. Picking up additional crystals/powerups will extend the duration.
- It's Up to You: Justified; all of the Terran Fleet's Raptor Space Fighters were destroyed in the Xidus's initial attack, leaving only the RaptorX prototypes as the only remaining flight-ready fighters left in the entire fleet.
- Macross Missile Massacre: The missile powerup adds a limited stock of dumbfire or homing missiles that automatically fire with the player ship's main weapons. Despite looking small, the missiles fire quickly and do lots of damage.
- Mythology Gag: The level 6 boss in DS is visually similar to the stage 2 boss from Viper Phase 1.
- Planet Terra: You are a player from the terran fleet and when you start a mission. You get a message from Terran Base announcing that the pilots have launched. (Though Confirmed that there is no earth in this game.)
- Regenerating Health: From SM1 onwards, the player ship will regenerate shields slowly as long as it isn't firing.
- Save Sat: Larger ships that leave a lingering wreck for 2 seconds before exploding a second time will damage all hostile targets caught in the second explosion. This is exemplified in SM2 level 1, with the first wave of Giant Mooks positioned so that their second explosion usually destroys a follow-up flight of regular-sized mooks.
- Single-Biome Planet: When the mission is not in space, it is set on a planet that features only one kind of landscape.
- Spread Shot:
- The proton laser, at higher upgrade levels, fires diagonal shots that do slightly less damage than the main forward shots.
- The plasma cannon sprays smaller, weaker projectiles in a small arc from the main forward shot.
- The red bomb fires a spew (or, in the case of OM, a literal forward spread) of small explosive munitions that damage anything caught in their delayed explosion.
- Subsystem Damage: If the player has at least 2 main gun upgrades and takes a hit that reduces their shields to exactly 1 bar, their main gun will lose 1 upgrade.
- Wave-Motion Gun:
- The Xidus use two versions: a thin, blue forward laser that the player can barely survive a glancing hit from, and a wide, red forward laser that will one-shot the player regardless of their shield strength.
- The blue bomb powerup gives the player their own version of the Xidus's blue forward laser, which rapid fires for about 5 seconds and will one-shot almost anything it hits.
