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Star Soldier

Video game series

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
3 min read
Source updated July 10, 2026

Star Soldier is a series of scrolling shooters mainly developed by Hudson Soft. Konami has owned the rights to the series since their absorption of Hudson Soft in 2012.

The eponymous first game, Star Soldier, was released in 1986 for the MSX and NES, and lead to a series of sequels that continued on various gaming systems. Star Soldier itself was re-released with little change in the compilation Caravan Shooting Collection for the Super Famicom in 1995, received enhanced remakes for both the GameCube and PlayStation 2 in 2003, and a different remake for the PlayStation Portable in 2005. The Nintendo 64 got an exclusive release called Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth in 1998, while the latest installment of the series was released on the Wii as a WiiWare game in 2008. In addition, the TurboGrafx-16 games Super Star Soldier, Final Soldier, Soldier Blade and Star Parodier have been re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console and on the Japanese PC Engine's Best Collection lineup for the PSP.

The Star Soldier games are best known for their distinctive music, unique weapon power-ups, and a special time attack high score mode called "Caravan Mode".

01Caravan gaming tournaments

Star Soldier was developed as a spiritual successor to Tecmo's Star Force, from which it borrows most of its gameplay elements. The Star Force series, along with Hudson's Star Soldier, was often featured in the popular Japanese gaming tournament known as "Hudson All-Japan Caravan Festival". Home ports of Star Soldier games would sometimes feature "Caravan" modes in which the player would race through timed stages while trying to accumulate a high score.

02Common elements

Being an arcade-style game, Star Soldier's objective is primarily based on achieving a high score. The series often makes use of hidden destructible tiles that offer bonus points when shot, but may occasionally power-up the player's ship instead. Bonus points will also be awarded for defeating sequences of enemy formations while they are within a certain proximity to the player's ship, or defeating mini bosses before they have a chance to attack.

03Games

Release timeline
1986Star Soldier
1987Starship Hector
1988
1989
1990Super Star Soldier
1991Final Soldier
1992Soldier Blade
Star Parodier
1993
1994
1995Caravan Shooting Collection
1996
1997
1998Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003Star Soldier (GCN)
2004
2005Star Soldier (PSP)
2006
2007Soldier Collection
2008Star Soldier R

During the Konami Action & Shooting Contest hosted by the Shueisha Game Creator’s Camp and Tokyo Game Show 2022, Beep won the rights from Konami to develop the game through the competition, a game titled Star Soldier RE:VIVE Multiverse is in development.

Crossover

Compilations and remakes

Canceled games

  • 1995: Kuma Soldier - PC-FX

04Other media

  • 1985-1987: Famicom Rocky - manga: Star Soldier is one of the videogames based on the manga.
  • 1986-1987: Famicom Cap - manga: Star Soldier is one of the videogames based on the manga.
  • 1986-1987: Nekketsu! Famicom Shounendan: Star Soldier is one of the videogames based on the manga.
  • 1991-1993: Cyber Boy - manga: Soldier Blade and Star Parodier, two of the video games based on the manga.
  • 1986: Running Boy Star Soldier no Himitsu - anime film
Watch videos about Star SoldierExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Star Soldier”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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