The Last Starfighter NES maps and strats

[guitarzombie | 924]

I dunno why I decided to do this, but after watching some gameplay, I think this game is easier than we think, as long as we can find a strong strategy.  Here are some things about the game:

 - 15 levels, 5 lives but no continues. Do get an extra life after 10k points. No boss battles or anything.

- To beat a level, you don't have to do ANYTHING but land when the game tells you when to land.  I'm unsure if this time is different every level but is about 30-45 seconds.

- Level 15 seems to be the shortest for some reason. 

- Some of the levels at the end almost require you to spin your ship to get past the wall hazards but only really towards the end.  This can be done as Up + A, or Down + A.

- You speed up by pressing right when facing right, or pressing left by looking left.  pressing left while moving right will slow it down, and eventually make you turn around.

- The only ways to lose a life is to be shot / run into a wall / homing bomb.  Luckily, there is no collision detection between enemy ships, so you only have to avoid the walls, which have shadows.

- The way you land is awkward.  When it says "Land now" you have to be to the left of the runway, move right and slow down. If you're to the right of the runway, you have to move to the left, past the runway then back. If you hover right before the runway and it says "Land now" you can land right away.

- IMPORTANT!  For the bonus round, you have to input something, even "quit".  If you let the time run out and don't do anything you will have to replay the stage again.  The bonus stage is a good way to get points for lives if you can reach the max amount.

 

I haven't developed any strats yet, but just using the maps, I find that the hardest element of the game is getting shot by another ship.  Some of the ships shoot really slow which is easy to avoid.  But, there are certain ships that shoot immediately and even at top speed you wont avoid.  This is probably the part I have to work on, to know when they spawn and how to avoid them.  The homing missiles can be tricky but you can outrun/weave around them.

These maps arent super pro, but they're intended to show where the wall hazards are.  I may upload some later with a path overlaid on top. 

 

FOR FULL SIZE IMAGES:

https://imgur.com/a/FeqwlkM

Edited March 5 by guitarzombie

[guitarzombie | 924]

 

I think I found some strats that are pretty consistent.  None of them are 100% because of the randomness of the game, how the enemies shoot, the homing mines, etc.  Id say they're pretty much 75% safe. 

So far, the only one that I think needs to be worked is Level 2.  From this point on, I'll be playing the game without codes and can start to tweak strats if I keep dying in the same spots.  If anyone wants to give these a try go ahead.

 

FULLSIZE STRAT MAPS:

https://imgur.com/a/Pxy02EZ

Star
Level 5: Around this point should be the first homing ship that should be destroyed, if you turn around it should hopefully be behind you to shoot.

Level 7: If you got here at the right time, around the 3rd or 4th spawn will be a homing ship.  After you destroy it, then move on.  The next spawn should go left to right, allowing you to follow it.

Level 12: Ship should be turned sideways after 1st spawn

Level 14:

1) After spawn, flip ship sideways.  If any homing mine is released, RUN till it goes away.

2) First ship spawned here should be a homing ship that needs to be killed or avoided.  Next ship spawns are easy to get past

 

Green lines mean you're moving at a normal pace, pretty much how you start. 

Red lines mean TOP speed.

The Green Boxes are areas where you just move back and forth to wait for something.

Edited March 6 by guitarzombie

[Khromak | 769]

I've always enjoyed Imgur for image hosting online, could try that. It might not help with the embedded images on VGS, but people can hop out to Imgur if they want the full-size images and/or to download them. Worth a try at least.

[guitarzombie | 924]

43 minutes ago, Khromak said:

I've always enjoyed Imgur for image hosting online, could try that. It might not help with the embedded images on VGS, but people can hop out to Imgur if they want the full-size images and/or to download them. Worth a try at least.

Good idea, thanks!  At least those previews will give you an idea what the level looks like.  I just added an Imgur link.

[Link | 2,715]

52 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

Level 15 seems to be the shortest for some reason. 

Victory lap.

53 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

I dunno why they appear so compressed

I've noticed the site does this too. So do social medias, it's common. But these are certainly no worse than old Nintendo Powers, lol

[Tulpa | 3,517]

What, you thought I wasn't going to weigh in?  

 

The enemy ship spawning thing is one thing I haven't figured out yet, either. I'm not sure if it's RNG or what, but I've yet to sense a rhyme or reason. But that might be my frustration talking. 

Some of the later levels look absolutely sadistic in their layout. 

 

Good for taking one for the team on this, though. If it were me, I'd try a few levels, then take the cart out and throw it against the wall. 

[guitarzombie | 924]

15 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

What, you thought I wasn't going to weigh in?  

 

The enemy ship spawning thing is one thing I haven't figured out yet, either. I'm not sure if it's RNG or what, but I've yet to sense a rhyme or reason. But that might be my frustration talking. 

Some of the later levels look absolutely sadistic in their layout. 

 

Good for taking one for the team on this, though. If it were me, I'd try a few levels, then take the cart out and throw it against the wall. 

I did some testing yesterday.  For the first level at least, the ships seem to come in the same order.  Each group spawn was the same and did generally the same action.  After the 5th spawn, it came up with the "Land now" sequence.  What I'm gonna try to test is what the 'safest way' is to avoid those enemy spawns and then land right away.  The map layouts are to avoid the obstacles of course.

I have an AVS and luckily, it has game genie built in with infinite lives, so I plan on playing a level over and over, testing different things, until I can get to the end without dying and writing that down.  Then following the guide.  If I didn't have that infinite lives code yeah no way I would be doing this haha.

Oh again, it doesn't seem like its the layout thats tough to mitigate, especially with maps.  The real issue is getting shot immediately seeing a group of ships that you had no time to avoid.  I think maybe the later levels are more obstacle heavy than ship heavy, where the earlier levels are.  Again, I'll do more testing but when I was playing thru it to record the level to make the maps, some of the latter levels I beat relatively quickly.  The hardest parts are when I had to twist my ship, only because I was using a keyboard and wasn't doing that maneuver, so I was trying to make it leveled out, which you can but its just tougher.

Edited March 4 by guitarzombie

[wongojack | 217]

I think those of you on this thread will know this, but the game is known as Uridium on classic computers.  The C64 version is notorious for difficulty too, but I did a comparison not too long ago and found it to be just a little slower and easier.  I think the PAL version was one of those that slowed down a click too iirc.

It is also on Spectrum and Amstrad and there is an Uridium 2 on Amiga which (if you like the original game) is pretty good once you get used to the differences.  I found it more playable than any version of the original game that I tried.

Anyway, I don't know if the levels and enemy patterns are the same, but it really doesn't SEEM like they changed much on the NES conversion except for some visuals.  Going to another platform may help to see some new things and let you come back to Last Starfighter fresh.

A completely different game is the modern release - Hyper Sentinel.  Any fan of Uridium will recognize it, but it is its own thing entirely.

 

Edited March 5 by wongojack

[guitarzombie | 924]

33 minutes ago, wongojack said:

I think those of you on this thread will know this, but the game is known as Uridium on classic computers.  The C64 version is notorious for difficulty too, but I did a comparison not too long ago and found it to be just a little slower and easier.  I think the PAL version was one of those that slowed down a click too iirc.

It is also on Spectrum and Amstrad and there is an Uridium 2 on Amiga which (if you like the original game) is pretty good once you get used to the differences.  I found it more playable than any version of the original game that I tried.

Anyway, I don't know if the levels and enemy patterns are the same, but it really doesn't SEEM like they changed much on the NES conversion except for some visuals.  Going to another platform may help to see some new things and let you come back to Last Starfighter fresh.

A completely different game is the modern release - Hyper Sentinal.  Any fan of Uridium will recognize it, but it is its own thing entirely.

 

Yes I knew it was Uridium.  Admittedly I haven't played it on the C64, but when I looked for maps for Uridium, they were different than whats on the NES.  SIMILAR at points, but the layout of the hazards and ships are different.  You can compare my maps with this

 

https://www.gamesdatabase.org/media/commodore-64/artwork-map/uridium

[Tulpa | 3,517]

I wonder if they had to tweak the tile layout to conform to the NES abilities.

 

Also, for some reason, when I click on the thread's latest post, and then try to scroll up, it gets really jittery when I hit the first post with all the map layouts. I'm not saying the game itself is to blame for that, but it's highly suspicious and I wouldn't put it past that game to screw up the forum. 

[guitarzombie | 924]

5 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

I wonder if they had to tweak the tile layout to conform to the NES abilities.

 

Also, for some reason, when I click on the thread's latest post, and then try to scroll up, it gets really jittery when I hit the first post with all the map layouts. I'm not saying the game itself is to blame for that, but it's highly suspicious and I wouldn't put it past that game to screw up the forum. 

Haha yeah it does it for me too.

[guitarzombie | 924]

I have strats now up to level 7.  The real issue is the bit of randomization.  Sometimes the enemies spawn behind you, or the bottom group shoots instead of the top one.  I don't think there can be a 100% foolproof 'strat' for each level, but these are the things that I'm doing that seem to be most successful. 

The other bit I didn't count on is, every so often there's a 'homing' enemy that flies right to you and shoots you, but not all the time.  Again another aspect of the randomness so I'm trying to find the best strats to shoot them or avoid it.

PS. I realized level 7's map is longer than it should be (I doubled a section).  Its been corrected but i'm gonna see if I messed up any others before I reupload the maps.

[guitarzombie | 924]

Strats added!

[Tulpa | 3,517]

Hey, it's no longer jittery! Your smackdown of the game put it in its place!*

 

 

 

*In the garbage.  

[guitarzombie | 924]

46 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Hey, it's no longer jittery! Your smackdown of the game put it in its place!*

 

 

 

*In the garbage.  

I never said it was GOOD, but for how short it is, I figured theres a way to finish this somewhat consistently so it isn't so daunting.  I seem to have a thing for obscure and tough NES games.

[guitarzombie | 924]

Just gave it a go and got to level 8, with some silly deaths.  Level 2 is still pretty tricky, but most I beat in one shot or got really close and had bad luck at the end.  Plus I missed one of the bonus things at the end.  Work in progress!

[guitarzombie | 924]

GAH!  I got to level 14 with 3 lives and choked.  Honestly the beginning of that level is probably the hardest in the whole game because of the mines and ships.

What I noticed was for the first few levels I was trying to farm points by shooting the ships on the ground.  But in turn, doing that made me mess up more.  Once I started just following my guides and ignoring points, I got to level 14.  I only had 1 really dumb death where I got the "Land now" and my ship wasn't landing and some random ship spawn shot me.

With that being said I think my strats are relatively solid.  I'm going to compare them to the speed run.

Edited March 6 by guitarzombie

[guitarzombie | 924]

I did it on my second real try!  YAY!  Id say my strats worked.  I would hope someone else gives this a shot and lets me know what they think.  I would suggest just farting around with the game to get a feel for it, then give my strats a go.

[NostalgicMachine | 238]

Those maps are sick, dude!

[guitarzombie | 924]

49 minutes ago, NostalgicMachine said:

Those maps are sick, dude!

Thanks!  Luckily with NES games, its pretty easy to combine images and have it look seamless, or even fix parts that didn't come out right.  I could have cleaned it up more but I didn't think that was important.

[NostalgicMachine | 238]

2 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

Thanks!  Luckily with NES games, its pretty easy to combine images and have it look seamless, or even fix parts that didn't come out right.  I could have cleaned it up more but I didn't think that was important.

Correct! They also look amazing at any size since pixels scale perfectly . They look great. Awesome work on these.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,091]

Excellent work on the maps.  Have you considered having them posted on vgmaps.com and/or gamefaqs so that they'll be out there for the rest of posterity to use?

[guitarzombie | 924]

1 hour ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Excellent work on the maps.  Have you considered having them posted on vgmaps.com and/or gamefaqs so that they'll be out there for the rest of posterity to use?

I don't mind if someone else does it.  I wanted to kinda cultivate a strategy here with people here before something is definite, but since what I did worked, I say those are ok, and can be put out to the world.

[Crabmaster2000 | 501]

Amazing work on this! Love your dedication to helping others through tough games like this!

[guitarzombie | 924]

22 minutes ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

Amazing work on this! Love your dedication to helping others through tough games like this!

I usually do things like these for myself, but decide to share it .  Im still curious for anyone willing to try it and give me some thoughts on it.