The year is 2051. The cruiser Agano was out patrolling the long thought to-be abandoned planet, Satazius. Unfortunately, for you and your crew, the planet wasn’t abandoned. Having stumbled upon a confederacy of space pirates, your cruiser is shot down. You barely escape the wreckage in a top-secret assault ship named “Trafalgar”. Now, the pirates want your ship and the only thing left to do is fight, even with a very small chance of surviving.
Satazius is a 2D horizontal scrolling arcade shooter developed by indie developer ASTRO PORT (Super Charged Robot Vulkaiser, Gigantic Army, Meglilo the Witchborg, etc) and released in Japan in July 14, 2011. Satazius is the perfect throwback to the old school shooter heritage. The gameplay is reminiscent of every other good horizontal shooter, but with intense gameplay and upgradable weapons. In December 2011 the game was localized by Nyu Media and can be purchased digitally.
As a blast from the past, Satazius won’t win any awards for creativity, but ASTRO PORT have done a remarkable job with such a small development team. Player can select a main weapon and two secondary weapons. By pressing the weapon change button, player can swap between two secondary weapons at any time. The most powerful weapon is “charge” that comes in limited quantities. Charge weapon must be charged for a period of time before it can be used. The weapon selection screen is similar to Gradius, but without upgrade system.
Each level in Satazius inspired by Gradius, from space to jungle, and from cave to volcano. As a tradition in the series, there are unexpected walls or traps. Touching a wall will destroy the ship instantly and forcing the player restart from the last checkpoint. Losing a life will reduce the weapon’s power level and speed to underpowered ship. Dying during a stage will also cause player to lose all their obtained stars. There are 10 stars in each stage. The more stars are collected, the more points earned at the end of the stage.
Each boss in Satazius similar to those in R-Type series, with gigantic size and relentless attacks. There is a time limit to destroy them, and if player take too long to destroy a boss, they can still destroy it but will not get a new weapon. Also, the true final boss only appears based on the level being played by players: two forms on easy, three on normal, and four on hard and insane mode.