''Destination Earthstar'' is a futuristic, first-person and side-scrolling, space shooter game developed by

Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc.—commonly referred to as Walt Disney Imagineering, Imagineering, or WDI—is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construc ...

and published by Acclaim for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Plot

Two hundred years ago, a random number of Earthlings were captured for

slave labor Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. They eventually earned their

freedom Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws". In one definition, something is "free" i ...

and the privilege to live amongst the aliens as equals. The descendants of these enslaved Earthlings formed a group and sent a volunteer into outer space in the hopes of finding planet

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

again.Story of ''Destination Earthstar''
at Nintendo Player Players have to travel through eight vast

planetary system A planetary system is a set of gravity, gravitationally bound non-stellar Astronomical object, bodies in or out of orbit around a star or star system. Generally speaking, systems with one or more planets constitute a planetary system, although ...

s in order to get back to their original home world.

Summary

The view of the game is from the cockpit of a

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

. The goal of the game is to explore a grid which is displayed on screen in search of opponents to destroy and to land on planets some of which refuel the energy and refill the ammunition of the player's arsenal of weapons. The player starts with two weapons. The primary weapon is the Ruby Laser, with a rapid zapping capability that has a tendency to overheat. Once overheated the lasers will stop firing, and the player must wait for the weapon to cool down to use it again. The secondary weapon are Neutron Torpedoes with three times the demolition force of the Ruby Laser, but supplies are limited. As the player travels through a star system they may be able to pick up two additional weapons. The Argon Blaster is a weapon that can be found featuring disintegrating acids. A Heat Seeker weapon can also be found that tracks enemy objects that have a special sighting mechanism, which is not available in other weapons. After the player has destroyed every enemy that is on the grid, a number will be indicated. This number represents how many enemies are in that quadrant of the grid. After blasting numerous enemies, the player will finally be able to go to the planet labeled "B" on the grid. These

planet A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...

s are unlike the other planets as they do not refill the player's vehicles energy or ammo. Rather, they are an enemy base that proceeds with the player entering an 8-bit cutscene of his spacecraft entering the base's gravitational orbit with the gameplay changing from a first-person cockpit players had on the grid stage to a horizontal 2D shoot 'em up stage similar to

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

's ''

Gradius is a series of shooter ( shoot'em up) video games, introduced in 1985, developed and published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper. ...

'' or

Irem is a Japanese video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher and manufacturer of pachinkos. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The full name of the company that uses the brand is Irem Software Enginee ...

's ''

R-Type is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and released by Irem in 1987 and the first game in the ''R-Type'' series. The player controls a star ship, the R-9 "Arrowhead", in its efforts to destroy the Bydo, a powerful a ...

''. Using this perspective, projectiles can be fired from the front or back of the player's ship.

Reception

Allgame RhythmOne , a subsidiary of Nexxen, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the Alternative Investment Market, ...

gave ''Destination Earthstar'' a rating of 2 stars out of a possible 5.

References

{{reflist 1990 video games Acclaim Entertainment games Imagineering (company) games Nintendo Entertainment System games Nintendo Entertainment System-only games North America-exclusive video games Science fiction video games Shooter games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Mark Van Hecke