A horizontal scroller shooter that combines R-Type with Tyrian 2000 and available for free!

Release Date

November 1996.

Pros

Stargunner is a simple, fast and action packed horizontal scrolling shooter.

It is free! Get it now from GOG.com.

The music sounds pretty good, even though it is the old MIDI type sound.

There are four episodes with I don’t know how many levels each, filled with plenty of enemies. Plenty of shoot’em up goodness to be had.

Much like Tyrian 2000, you can pick up power-ups and buy upgrades between missions. There is not as much variety as in Tyrian 2000 though.

Cons

Like all simple scroller shooters, Stargunner does get repetitive.

The game is very difficult. Not as difficult as R-Type, but difficult enough that on the easiest setting, I cannot complete any episodes.

Other Points

There is a story although I did not care much for it after seeing the intro of each episode once. Standard strike the bad guys before they attack us scenario.

Biases

Reviewed the GOG.com version of the game.

I am sure I have played quite a few horizontal scroller shooters, but the only one that I can remember is R-Type and I enjoyed that a lot despite it being insanely difficult.

In the vertical scroller shooter arena, I do really like Tyrian 2000.

DRM

Stargunner is free and DRM free.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8
1 GHz Processor (1.4 GHz recommended)
512 RAM (1 GB recommended)
3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1GB RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.