Soulstar

About

Soulstar is a 3D shooter that shifts between fixed-path rail segments and open 3D exploration. You pilot a starship through levels that range from fast-paced scrolling shootouts to free-roaming space battles. The ship transforms into a walking mech for close combat, adding variety to the combat loop. Single-player or co-op modes let you tackle the Myrkoids, a hive-mind threat draining planets of energy. The Sega CD version leans into its hardware with pseudo-3D environments and digitized effects. The game’s standout is its fluid transition between gameplay styles. Early levels evoke classic rail shooters while later sections let you maneuver freely, a rarity in 1994. Developer Core Design packed in multiple modes without slowing the action. Though forgotten by most, it holds a 7.5/10 on Sega-CD.com for its ambitious design. Bryk Hammelt’s centuries-long hunt for the Myrkoids adds a grim edge to the chaos, even if the story takes a backseat to the gameplay.

Storyline

Killers of Worlds A thousand light years away, across a yawing gulf of space and time, the six plantes of the Soulstar system perform a peaceful celestial dance around their youthful suns, unaware of the horror soon to come. A horror in the dreaded shape of the Myrkoids, an alien species older than the stars themselves, with a unified mind far colder than the spaces between those stars. The Mykroids - killers of worlds - descend on unsuspecting star systems, sucking them dry and draining every planet of its internal energies. Bryk Hammelt, the last of a noble race of warriors known as the Cryo-commandos, set out in his great starship, the Treaghon, to hunt down the merciless Myrkoids. He has hunted them for centuries. For eons he has followed, and they have always eluded him. Until now.