Star Prince
Title screen
| Developer: | indieszero
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|---|---|
| Release date: | Game Center CX / Retro Game Challenge (DS) JP 15 November 2007 [1] US 10 February 2009 Game Center CX 2 (DS) |
| Previous game: | Cosmic Gate |
| Next game: | Gun Duel |
Star Prince (スタープリンス) is a 2007 vertical shmup and one of the games available within Game Center CX : Arino no Chousenjou (ゲームセンターCX 有野の挑戦状 ) for the Nintendo DS, a game also known as Retro Game Challenge in the 2009 English localization.
Game Center CX is a Japanese TV show where manzai comedian Shinya Arino tries to beat a specific old game throughout each episode. He also visits various arcades and game centers, interviews developers, and tries niche consoles and gaming platforms. This video game adaptation of the show has you being sent back in time by Arino as revenge for the games he could not clear, and the goal is to beat challenges in various retro games created specifically for this compilation. Star Prince is one of them.
There is also a second, Japanese-only (albeit with an English fantranslation), Game Center CX game released in 2009 in which a Score Attack version of Star Prince is available, featuring 3 and 5 minute modes.
Both games were later ported and bundled together in 2024 for the Nintendo Switch in the Japanese-only Game Center CX 1+2 REPLAY. A third, Japan-only, Game Center CX game was also previously released on the 3DS in 2014 [4]; however, it does not contain any version of Star Prince.
For replay videos, visit the Video Index.
Contents
Unlocking Star Prince in-game
The compilations in which Star Prince is will not immediately provide access to all their games. The player must instead go through the Story Mode and beat challenges in games by chronological in-universe release order as to unlock the next games.
In Game Center CX 1 / Retro Game Challenge, Star Prince is unlocked after beating the 4 challenges for Cosmic Gate, Robot Ninja Haggle Man, and Rally King. The game will also be available to play in the Freeplay menu after its 4 challenges have been completed.
In Game Center CX 2, the Score Attack version of Star Prince is unlocked after beating the 4 challenges for Wiz-Man, Mutekiken Kung Fu, Demon Returns, Arino : Ace Detective (Part 1), Gun Duel, and then completing 2 of the 4 challenges from Triotos.
Star Prince Score Attack is not a main game with Story Mode challenges of its own, but a playable game inside an in-game kiosk. To access it once unlocked, select the Shop option in Arino's room and pick Star Prince Score Attack in the list of available games.
Gameplay Overview
Basic info
- Vertical orientation, horizontal 4:3 screen
- 1 player only
- 8-direction movement and 2 buttons
- The player starts with 3 lives
- Score-based extends are at 50k, 100k, 200k, 500k, and every million points
- Checkpoints upon death
- 2 loop-game with 4 stages per loop.
Controls
- A or B (Tap): Shot
- A or B (Hold): Barrier
- Y: Shot rapidfire
Notes on rapidfire:
- The in-game rapidfire functionality is not immediately available upon getting access to Star Prince in Game Center CX 1. Only after beating the second in-game challenge will Young Arino purchase a rapidfire controller. However, the rapidfire feature will be immediately available when unlocking the Score Attack version in Game Center CX 2.
- If the rapidfire button and a regular shot/barrier button are held together, the regular shot/barrier button will not have priority. In other words, it is necessary to let go of the rapidfire button in order to activate the barrier.
Interface
Top left : Player score
Bottom right : Player lives. NOTE : The counter is for total lives and not remaining extra lives. Consequentially, a value of 1 indicates that the player is on their last life and if the life counter reaches 0, it is an immediate game over.
Top right (Score Attack version only) : Remaining time (in format m:ss)
Weapons
Shot
When starting the game or when recovering from a death, the ship is in its default form with a base shot type. By collecting a weapon powerup, the ship can change into one of 4 different forms with each having their own ship visual, color, and shot type.
There are no granular power levels for each weapon : collecting more weapon items will not further increase the player's strength.
Once powered up, the ship will keep the shot type until a different power up is collected, in which case the ship will swap shot type, or when losing a life which causes the player to respawn with the default shot. After having powered up, a life loss is the only way to revert back to the default shot.
| Shot type | Description |
 Default |
Forward twin shot |
 Red S |
4-way spread shot |
 Green B |
Backward shot |
 Blue P |
Strong forward laser shots |
 Purple M |
Explosive missiles |
Barrier
By holding one of the non-rapidfire shot buttons, the ship deploys a barrier that is able to cancel bullets. The barrier has two forms : a basic barrier that only covers the front, and a powered up version that encapsulates the entire ship.
.png){kind=small} Default barrier |
.png){kind=small} Powered up barrier |
The shield is immediately available in its default form to the player, at the beginning of the run and during respawn after a death. Collecting any weapon powerup will also upgrade the barrier to the powered up version as a side perk.
The barrier can absorb enemy bullets. However, if the barrier hits an enemy instead, the barrier will be canceled. The ship doesn't thus immediately die, but a very slight delay is incurred before the shield can be activated again, rendering the ship vulnerable to another enemy collision in the meanwhile.
If the barrier was able to absorb 3 bullets without being canceled, it will emit a Spark Shot. This attack is a powerful set of 8 way spreads that also renders the ship temporarily invincible. If the barrier has been de-activated by player input or by collision with an enemy before the player was able to absorb 3 bullets, the absorbed bullets count is reset, and 3 new bullets have to be absorbed again before a Spark Shot can be fired.
Items
| Item | Effect |
   
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Weapon switch : Changes the player shot if collected (See Star Prince#Shot) or cancels on-screen hazards if shot enough times (See Star Prince#Powerup_destruction_bonus). Collecting a different weapon item will also provide temporary invincibility during the weapon switch, whereas collecting a same weapon item will provide a score bonus (See Star Prince#Powerup_collection_bonus) but no invincibility. |
     
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P-R-I-N-C-E letter : Grants bonus points when uncovered. See Star Prince#PRINCE_letters for more details. |
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1UP Tomato : Grants one additional life. One such item is hidden in every stage. |
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Score Tomato : Triggers a secret bonus of 100.000 points. These tomatoes are only available in the Score Attack version where they replace the 1UP Tomatoes. |
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Golden Tomato : Grants 1.5mil points if uncovered. See Star Prince#Secret_Golden_Tomato_bonus for more details. |
Loops
Star Prince features a second loop. After beating stage 4's boss, it is revealed the enemies were imitations of the real opponents and the player is thrown into the 4 stages again. No specific conditions gate access to this second loop.
The second loop features more aggressive enemies and rearranged locations for ground items such as letters or 1UPs.
After beating the second loop's final boss, the game ends proper.
Scoring
As it is an homage to classic caravan shmups such as Star Force and Star Soldier, Star Prince reuses a lot of ideas and elements from these games for its scoring mechanics, while also adding a few new tricks of its own.
Dynamic enemy spawns
Enemy waves in Star Prince spawn in a dynamic fashion. When a wave is killed or all its enemies have left the screen, the next wave appears. Consequentially, it is possible to fight more enemy waves throughout a stage with faster wave destruction. Some waves can get more complex and feature more than one enemy type in them.
An exception to this enemy spawn mechanic are the scripted waves at the very end of each stage that fire lots of bullets. These are not dynamic, however they can be accompanied by regular enemy waves that are.
Dynamic sets of enemy waves are assigned to each stage half. Regardless of the amount of waves destroyed before a stage's midboss, the stage's second half will always start with fresh waves rather than a continuation of the first half's waves.
PRINCE letters
Every stage has 6 hidden letter items spelling PRINCE. Collecting them grants two score bonuses. First is a cumulative bonus that gets higher the more letters are uncovered within the same stage. This combo resets upon death, however it will not reset if a letter has simply been overlooked.
| Letter combo | Pickup score value |
| 1 | 1.000 |
| 2 | 2.000 |
| 3 | 4.000 |
| 4 | 8.000 |
| 5 | 16.000 |
| 6 | 32.000 |
Collecting all 6 letters without dying in the meanwhile will thus be worth a grand total of 63.000 points.
A second score bonus is granted at the end of a stage. Unlike the previous bonus, this one is not cumulative but a simple one-time bonus given after beating the boss. The more letters have been collected, the higher the bonus value is. Losing lives during the stage does not incur any penalty to this second score bonus.
| Amount of letters | End of stage score bonus value |
| 1 | 1.000 |
| 2 | 2.000 |
| 3 | 5.000 |
| 4 | 10.000 |
| 5 | 20.000 |
| 6 | 40.000 |
Technical bonuses
Technical bonuses are bespoke tricks to pull off in order to get a predetermined point bonus. Many opportunities for technical bonuses are laid out throughout the game and usually reward specific destruction timings on enemies or background tiles.
| Enemy | Description | Score value | ||||||||
 Redansat |
This large enemy is made of multiple parts that are not initially combined. Redansat is initially invincible until the central eye flashes, which is where the side parts try to combine with the core. If said eye is killed before this fusion occurs, the bonus is granted.
Attacking the enemy during the initial invincibility, before the eye flashes, will actually boost its health and make it harder to kill whenever it becomes vulnerable to attacks. [VIDEO SHOWCASE : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwxpdtCAI-8 ] |
30.000 | ||||||||
 Hyokder |
These enemies show up in groups of 2, and have to be killed simultaneously. Regular shots or a Spark shot can do the trick, but powerup destruction will not defeat them. | 20.000 | ||||||||
 Zomes |
Ground formations of 2 or more large orbs that require the ship to be positioned in specific ways as to destroy the orbs at the same time. Depending on the specific formation, some weapon types can be a much better fit, if not necessary.
All Zomes in the formation must be destroyed simultaneously to unlock the bonus. If a Zomes formation contains more than 2 enemies and a few of them are simultaneously destroyed while some of them are still left alive, no partial bonus will be granted. A few places also pit multiple Zomes formations together for more complex intertwined technical bonuses. The goal is to destroy the specific orbs for each simultaneous kill without prematurely destroying a nearby orb required for another one of the area's Technical bonuses. |
| ||||||||
 Sectum |
These disc floor tiles can be aggregated in specific parts of stages. Every time 8 discs within such a group is destroyed, a score bonus of 2000 points is granted. There is no strict timing element to the disc destruction, however, destroyed discs may no longer add to the counts to 8 once scrolled off-screen. | 2.000 |
Go to Star Prince/Stage Maps to see technical bonus locations in the levels
Powerup collection bonus
When collecting a weapon switch item of the same kind as the currently equipped one, a score bonus will be granted.
The more consecutive weapon items are collected, the higher the score bonus gets, up until it reaches the 50.000 cap. Any subsequent powerup in the chain will also give 50.000 points.
| Powerup chain | Bonus value |
| 1 | 8.000 |
| 2 | 12.000 |
| 3 | 16.000 |
| 4 | 30.000 |
| 5+ | 50.000 |
The chain resets upon losing a life, and whenever the currently equipped shot type is changed by collecting a weapon powerup of another color.
Powerup destruction bonus
Instead of collecting a powerup item, it is also possible to shoot it multiple times in order to destroy it. Whenever a powerup is destroyed in such a manner, all on-screen air small enemies and bullets get canceled and converted into points. However, bigger enemies and ground targets are not affected by the powerup destruction.
The scoring formula for powerup destruction bonus is as follows :
| Point value = [Multiplier] * [Number of bullets and small air enemies] |
The multiplier value can have 3 different values depending on how many enemies and bullets the powerup cancels :
| Number of hazards canceled | Multiplier value |
| 0~15 | 500 |
| 16~31 | 1.000 |
| 32+ | 2.000 |
Secret Golden Tomato bonus
Both loops of the game feature a secret bonus of 1.5 million points awarded when uncovering the Golden Tomato item in stage 4.
However, conditions have to be fulfilled for the item to show up in the first place. In order to make the Golden Tomato available, every midboss has to be destroyed within 12 seconds. A short jingle will be heard upon midboss destruction if it was destroyed in time.
This bonus can only be obtained once per loop. Dying on purpose and abusing checkpoints to get the bonus again does not work.
End of game bonus
After clearing the second loop and beating the final boss, a final score bonus of 50k per remaining life is granted. As this counts the total lives count rather than simply extra reserve lives, the player will still get 50k instead of 0 if the game is cleared on the last life.
Checkpoint milking
While the game rewards the player for remaining lives at the end of the second loop, some stage segments can provide more points when doing or redoing them after sacrificing a ship compared to said endgame bonus.
Most noticeably, every stage features a dedicated segment before the boss where fixed enemy waves shoot many bullets which can be canceled into points by destroying a powerup from a container located right before that section.
Technical bonuses other than Redansat can also be repeated as ground tiles and enemies are restored. However, items such as PRINCE letters or 1UPs can only be collected once.
On the other hand, the dynamic waves are not reset when being sent back to a checkpoint. This means that that upon restarting a checkpoint, the non-static waves will not feature the exact same enemies every time but will instead continue through the list of enemy waves pertaining to the stage, which can alter the strategy through each repetition of the checkpoint.
Stage maps
See Star Prince/Stage maps for maps of the stages with locations of powerups and score items.
Score Attack Mode
This version of Star Prince is available in Game Center CX 2's Shop menu once enough progress in the Story mode has been done for it to be unlocked. Two modes are available, with 3 and 5 minutes courses. Both start from the beginning of the game and let you play until the timer runs out. The timer continuously ticks down except for end-of-stage transitions.
There are multiple differences in this version compared to the full Star Prince from Game Center CX 1 / Retro Game Challenge :
- The player starts the run with only one life and no score-based extends are available.
- 1UP items have been replaced by variants granting 100.000 points instead when uncovered. Their locations themselves remain unchanged.
- In-game rapidfire is immediately available.
- Enemy formations are slightly tweaked.
Cheat Codes
Game Center CX features in-game magazines that provide in-universe news about the game releases, as well as various tips and even cheat codes that alter gameplay or facilitate progression through the games and in-game challenges. Star Prince features a few such codes.
Game Center CX 1
- Invincibility : title screen, while holding Up, press A, A, A, then while holding Down press B, B, B. If the code was successfully input, a jingle should be heard to confirm it. Note : This code will not work in the Freeplay mode where high-scores are saved.
- Continuing after a game over : Hold Left while pressing Start
Game Center CX 2
- Palette swap : On the title screen, press Left, Right, Right, Left, B, B. The red crystal will turn green if the code was correctly entered.
Trivia
- There is screen wobble in segments with sideways scrolling. As such, the player's shot can be desynced from the background by moving sideways and panning the camera. This can affect technical bonuses. [VIDEO SHOWCASE : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdjWF-juOxE ]
- The game's bosses only have collision hitboxes on their active turrets. It is possible to fly on top of the bosses' sprites and over the destroyed turrets without getting crushed. [VIDEO SHOWCASE : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBh0J4Avwus ]
- Redansat's technical bonus can be seen as a reference to Game Center CX episodes where Arino played Star Force and had to trigger the Secret bonus on Rarios.
References
Links
- GameCenter CX official JP website : https://www.bandainamcoent.co.jp/cs/list/gamecenter_cx/product/index.php
- Retro Game Challenge official US website : http://www.retrogamechallenge.com/
- GameCenter CX 1+2 Replay JP website : https://replaygccx12.bn-ent.net/
- NA localization blog articles by XSEED Localization Specialist Mike Engler : https://web.archive.org/web/20090325102544/http://www.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=6017191&pager.offset=3 & https://web.archive.org/web/20090324211550/http://www.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=6017191
- Game Center CX 2 fantranslation : https://www.romhacking.net/translations/2217/
Scoreboards
- System11 leaderboard thread : https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=32185
- Restart syndrome leaderboard : https://www.restartsyndrome.com/board.php?id=712&mode=Normal
- hiscores.shmup.com leadeboard : https://hiscores.shmup.com/game/130
Replays
For replay videos, visit the Video Index.
Story
[Taken from the in-game manual in Retro Game Challenge]
Galactic war and betrayal in the Istaan family...
In the far end of the galaxy, a war between planets has been raging on in the Cecilus Nova. The result of the war was a peace treaty between the warring royal houses. However, House Istaan made a deal with an ancient evil power and violated the treaty, driving all other royal houses to near extinction.
The ancient warship, Valbird!
The ancient Sky City, long-protected by the treaty, was destroyed and the only remaining inhabitant of the city was a young man of House Tirus. He decides to take possession of Valbird, which now only he can activate. The young man heads to space with the fate of the galaxy in his hands.
