Silpheed (1986). Play Free Online

Summary

I first caught sight of Silpheed on the Sega CD, a vertical‑scrolling shooter that feels like soaring through a faux‑3D tunnel of star‑filled enemies. You pilot the SA‑08 Silpheed, snatching red orbs that unlock any of five distinct weapons—homing missiles, auto‑aim blasts or a side‑mounted phalanx laser—while power‑ups drift amid ever tighter formations. The Sega CD version surprised me with polygon ships super‑imposed on pre‑rendered video backgrounds, a technique borrowed from Namco’s Galaxian 3, and a soundtrack so prominent that it was promoted as one of the first games to sell on its music alone. A limited prototype was shown at the Winter CES in January 1993, featuring fewer enemy swarms and hinting at the final CD release’s intense pacing.

Storyline

The story of Silpheed on Sega CD unfolds in a distant future, with the year 3032 noted as the time an alien ship was discovered, sparking rapid technological progress and humanity’s expansion into outer space. A terrorist leader named Xacalite hijacks the planetary‑buster missiles and the massive battleship Gloire, putting Earth in grave danger. Because the main fleet is too far away to intercept Gloire before it can strike, the supercomputer Yggdrasil orders the experimental SA‑08 Silpheed prototype to take on the mission and destroy the enemy vessel. In the Sega CD version, the plot expands to show Xacalite’s forces hacking Earth’s mother computer, seizing control of all solar‑system weaponry. Earth’s last hope becomes a small fleet beyond the computer’s reach, equipped with a squadron of SA‑77 Silpheed dogfighters to turn the tide.

Edited by Maya Carter