SolarStriker (Game Boy) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Nintendo's 1990 shoot 'em up for the Nintendo Game Boy, SolarStriker.

SolarStriker was one of the earliest Game Boy games, being released about six months after the system was launched. It's a simple, vertically-scrolling shoot 'em up, and it's one of the few shooters out there to be developed by Nintendo. The project was led by superhero Gunpei Yokoi, and was a joint-project between Nintendo's R&D1 group and Minakuchi, an independent company that's probably best known for their relationship with Capcom and their work on the Mega Man Game Boy series.

Like most early Game Boy games, SolarStriker relies on simplicity and accessibility. The simplistic graphics are all very well defined and were specifically designed to minimize blur on the Game Boy's LCD panel, but the use of basic shapes and simple patterns really does give the game a bit of character. At least, I always thought so. The music is pretty catchy too, and the sound effects... well, they're exactly what you might expect.

Like you'd expect from a first-party game, the gameplay is smooth and easy to get into, though it might be a bit too easy for shooter fans. Even the secret hard mode really isn't very difficult. You can grab power-ups to upgrade your guns, which do a nice job on the bosses at the end of each stage.

And that's really about all. SolarStriker is an uncomplicated but polished bit of old-school arcade-style fun on the go.

*Recorded using the DMG shader in Retroarch to simulate the look of the original Game Boy.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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