Released in 1995

Available in

Genre: Shooting

Also known as: Stellar Assault

Developed by SEGA, Shadow Squadron is a 3D space shooter which has you playing as a single pilot and battling an enemy armada across several stages. There are two different ships available, one being faster than the other, but the other having superior weapons. A two player option is also present, as by using the Feather 2 ship, one player can control the craft whilst the other gets to shoot.

One of the problems with this game is that all of the missions have the same objective: blow everything up. There is no variety to it, and it really could have done with some missions where you have to do something else, such as defending a base or escorting ships. Some of the later levels get really tiresome just because the large ships you have to go up against take forever to destroy. Only the last level changes things a little by giving you a tight time limit.

The graphics are quite nice though, and some of the enemy ships are gigantic. There can be quite a lot of ships on screen but there is little slow-down most of the time. However there isn't enough of it. With only 6 missions, the game can be completed within an hour, and there isn't anything to come back to once you beat it -there are no alternate level paths or anything like that. I guess there is the challenge of beating it with both ships (personally I think that trying to beat the game with the Feather 1 is much harder than using the Feather 2) but other than that the only other things the game offers are a color edit mode, a sound test and an object viewer option.

Shadow Squadron isn't a bad game, but the short length of it combined with the high prices it tends to sell for make it tough to recommend. Whilst the game is a lot harder, Star Wars Arcade would be a cheaper alternative.

Each mission of the game requires for you to destroy all of the targets you are given. Before each mission starts you will be shown all of the enemy ships in a level, along with which ones you are required to destroy. There are two different ships available. The Feather 1 is a fast ship which has a weak double laser along with homing torpedoes. The Feather 2 is slower than the Feather 1, but has vastly superior firepower. The laser cannon does a lot more damage and can destroy enemy projectiles, and it also has a powerful bomb attack. The Feather 1 torpedoes and Feather 2 bomb are special weapons which have limited use.

Each ship has an energy bar. For the Feather 1, this will drain when using torpedoes or the ship's shield (which sadly doesn't seem to work in the game). The Feather 2's energy bar will drain whenever the bomb is used, and will also drain to refill the shield energy bar between each level. The shield energy will deplete when you take hits or collide with another ship. If this bar is emptied, your ship will explode and you will have to restart the level, if you have a continue.

The missions take place in an area of space that you are free to move around in, going in any direction you want. The Feather 2 has an auto pilot mode, where the CPU will fly for you on a pre-determined path, whilst you just get to shoot. If you don't destroy a target it doesn't matter, as you'll proceed to the next stage once the CPU has completed the run. Each mission has a set amount of targets to destroy, from small fighter ships to massive enemy cruisers. The majority of the big ships just need to be blasted all over until they blow up, but certain targets have specific weak spots that need to be hit.

The missions take place in an area of space that you are free to move around in, going in any direction you want. The Feather 2 has an auto pilot mode, where the CPU will fly for you on a pre-determined path, whilst you just get to shoot. If you don't destroy a target it doesn't matter, as you'll proceed to the next stage once the CPU has completed the run. Each mission has a set amount of targets to destroy, from small fighter ships to massive enemy cruisers. The majority of the big ships just need to be blasted all over until they blow up, but certain targets have specific weak spots that need to be hit.

Trace mode
Complete the game and after the game resets, a "trace mode" option will have been added to the main menu. Select this to watch a replay of your playthrough.

There are currently eight prototypes available for this game, read about them here.

-The Japanese version of this game was titled Stellar Assault. The American version changed the title to Shadow Squadron, but the European version changed the title back to Stellar Assault.

-More more info about the differences between regional versions of the game, click here.

-A sequel to this game, called Stellar Assault SS, was released exclusively for the SEGA Saturn in 1998. Unlike the 32X game, Stellar Assault SS was never released outside of Japan.