Play Astro Fantasia in your browser
Astro Fantasia (DECO Cassette) (US) by Data East Corporation (1981)Released
Apr, 1981
Platform
Arcade
Developed by
Data East Corporation
Published by
Data East USA, Inc.
Pacing
Real-time
Setting
Sci-fi / futuristic
Visual
2D scrolling
Gameplay
Arcade, Shooter
Perspective
Behind view
Vehicular
Flight / aviation, Space flight
Genre
Action
Description
Astro Fantasia is a space shooter where one or two players taking turns control a spaceship fighting waves of enemies. The gameplay draws inspiration from titles like Galaga, but with some differences. The game uses pseudo 3D graphics to have enemies come into view from behind a very large ship. When they reach the bottom of the screen they seem to curve back out of view to relaunch their wave from the top, scaling in size. This perspective also gives the game more of a behind view instead of a top-down view. The ship can be steered left or right, but there is also a small amount of room for vertical movement, used to dodge enemies, making the screen scroll slightly. Bullets do not travel across the entire screen, so vertical movement is also often needed to reach enemies when they are at the start of their attack.
Each stage has two wave patterns. In the first wave many enemies attack from once as described above, using different movement and shooting patterns. Once all opponents are defeated the screen scrolls up to take on the mothership that was already in view during the first wave, but could not be harmed. It moves left and right launching projectiles of two types: regular bullets and larger projectiles that scale in size using the same pseudo 3D effect as they swoop in. The mothership has three areas that need to be destroyed. Unlike the first wave where there is a rapid multishot for the player's ship's weapon with two projectiles, it now only has one shot on the screen at the time.
When both waves are completed the entire stage is looped with a new colour palette and new enemy wave attack patterns. There is a time limit as the ship only has a limited amount of view, drained at a constant rate, visible through a meter at the bottom of the screen. If the second wave is not completed before fuel runs out, a life is lost. A single credit provides three lives and a single hit is deadly. Additional lives can be won with points.
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