Starstrike II

Starstrike II by Realtime Games (Ian Oliver & Greame Baird)

The Outsiders have been driven from Federation space by the Starstrike series of starfighters. Now, Federation Command is launching an all-out offensive on the Outsiders' home planetary systems with the next generation of Starstrike ships.

You must neutralise all of the Outsiders' planets to allow the Federation's forces to take control.

Having taken their 'inspiration' for the original 3D Starstrike from the arcade cabinet 'Star Wars' the natural assumption for the follow-up was that a facsimilie of 'The Empire Strikes Back' was on the cards... how wrong those assumptions were!

Starstrike II built on the playability of the original but vastly improved the depth and variety of gameplay as well as improving on the graphics to create a sequel that truly excelled over it's already pretty good predecessor.

Starstrike II was an innovative title that paved the way for Realtime's other 3D games that helped define a genre it has lost some of its shine following the later releases of the more accomplished Starglider but still plays a good game today.

Clearly impressed with the leap from the first game, Starstrike II was honoured with Mastergame status being placed upon it by Amstrad Action. In his review of the game software editor Bob Wade said: "The solid 3D graphics are absolutely stunningm combined with demanding, addictive gameplay and terrific variety in the stages and opponents. It's certainly the best action shoot-em-up of the year so far."

Amtix were cooler towards the game claiming that it was "Not original, but will go down a bundle with arcade freaks." They did conceed that Realtime had "aimed for a different approach with some remarkable graphical content and in this context it works well"

• 1. 3D Starstrike (1985)
• 2. Starstrike II (1986)

• Appeared on Starstrike I & II from Silverbird in 1988

• Starstrike II was also released on the 48k Spectrum
• This was the first game from Realtime Games to be published by a third party developer, although their original Spectrum version was self-published.
• Although made a Mastergame by Amstrad Action it was the first game to tie scores with a Rave title in the same issue - it pipped Thrust (also from Firebird) to the post purely because it had arrived earlier in the month than its budget rival.

• 3D Starstrike (1985)
• Starglider (1986)
• Starfox (1987) (Ian Oliver)

• Codename Mat II Instuctions (pdf)

• The Amstrad CPC Games Resource

• CPC game base from CPC Power

• Starstrike II review at CPC Games Reviews

• Starstrike II at World of Spectrum