Hellfire

Hellfire

Title screen

Developer:	Toaplan
Publisher:	Taito
Music:	Masahiro Yuge, Tatsuya Uemura
Program:	Tatsuya Uemura, H. Matsumura
Art:	Shintarō Nakaoka, Kouetsu Iwabuchi, Yuko Tataka
Release date:	1989
Next game:	Daisenpuu (Twin Hawk)

Hellfire is a horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up developed by Toaplan and published by Taito in 1989. It is notable for being one of the only two horizontal shooters ever developed by the company, and unlike most of Toaplan's other shooters, doesn't use bombs. Despite the game's struggled development, it was still well-received by critics, enough so that it received localization and home console ports.

Gameplay Overview

Hellfire is only 6 stages long, but features various different types of stages, with enemies coming from all directions. To counter this, the ship has the unique ability to change it's firing direction with the press of a button. The power-up variety is limited, only featuring pickups that either power-up the main shot, increase speed, or just give a point bonus. The end of each stage has a boss, which requires the player to utilize their shot direction in order to destroy their weak spot. Death results in the loss of all power-ups and being sent back to the nearest checkpoint.

Controls

All four shot directions in order.

• A: Fire shot
• B: Cycle shot direction.

Starting from the first, pressing button B cycles the shot direction in the following order: Forward, Backward, Vertical, Diagonal. Pressing button A while holding down B will also change shot direction, which can cause problems if using an autofire mechanism (e.g. an autofire circuit on an arcade cabinet, or the Rapid Fire feature in the Toaplan Arcade Garage version); be careful when changing shot direction with autofire!

When firing bullets, up to 4 shots or pairs of shots can be on screen at a time, with lasers, it is reduced to 2.

Items

Item	Desciption
Power-Up	Increases shot power. The second pickup upgrades the weapon to a laser. Maxes out at 6 pickups, afterwards, all power-ups are replaced with bonuses.
Speed-Up	Speeds up the ship, with maximum speed being reached after 3 pickups. After which all speed-ups are replaced with bonuses.
Bonus	Awards 2000 points.

Loops

Hellfire loops indefinitely. After completing the final stage, the game restarts back to the first stage with increased difficulty.

Revisional Differences

When the game was localized, a new, 2-player version was created. This new version makes several changes to the gameplay:

• The ship's color no longer represents the direction they're shooting, only what player they are.
• The shot limit is altered. When firing vertically or diagonally with lasers, only 1 pair is allowed on screen.
• Checkpoints are replaced with respawns. This in turn makes the game much harder than normal, making it possible to chain-death in specific sections.

Ports

Hellfire saw ports on fourth-generation consoles after the arcade release, with both making their own unique changes.

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Version

Released in 1990, this version is based on the original singleplayer version of the game. It introduces a one-hit shield, a helper ship that rams into enemies, and a special weapon that fires a large shot. Regular shooting functions differently, in that they travel faster and allow more shots on screen when upgraded. Bonus pickups are worth more the more are collected, up to 10,000 points. The difficulty is similar to the arcade original, but is slightly toned down. Certain sections of Stage 6 were cut from the game, and replaced with a unique high-speed section.

PC Engine CD Version

Came out after the Genesis/Mega Drive version a year later in 1991, it is based on the 2-player version. Being a PC Engine CD title, it includes cutscenes and an arranged soundtrack by T's Music. Gameplay-wise, the port acts more faithfully to the Arcade original, only including a shield power-up that lasts 2 hits. The difficulty is far easier compared to the Arcade, with all bosses having little HP and overall low enemy count in most sections.

Zero Fire

A compilation package for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 released by M2 as volume 3 of the Toaplan Arcade Garage series, itself a subset of the M2 ShotTriggers lineup. This package includes, in addition to Zero Wing, Horror Story (Demon's World), and various ports thereof, these versions of Hellfire:

• Arcade 2P version; default version.
  • Super Easy mode, based on this version; introduces drastically reduced rank and more frequent extends.
  • Custom mode, based on this version; allows various parameters of the game to be adjusted to the player's liking.
  • Arcade Challenge, based on this version; a practice mode with automatic rewinds.
• Arcade 1P version
• Genesis / Mega Drive version -- JP and US variants
• PC Engine CD-ROM^2 version

The arcade versions come with both the digital and physical editions of the game. The consumer versions are available on the physical editions (requiring a code redeem for the PS4 version) and as DLC for the digital version.

All games in the collection include savestates, remappable controls, and screen options. The arcade 2P version and its variants additionally have online leaderboards, M2 Gadgets, and settings to modify Change button behavior (but will change leaderboard eligibility for Arcade mode).

Every purchase of this title also comes with a complimentary download code for Teki-Paki, a puzzle game by Toaplan