Click image to enlarge
Description
Two thousand years of galactic peace has come to an end as the evil Vargan Military Empire has declared war on Earth. A vicious, yet intelligent race, the Vargans have built a line of space battle fortresses reaching for our planet, each equipped with fuel tanks, cannon batteries and homing missiles. Each fortress hides a powerful Mothership and is protected by Vargan Death Fighters.
Against all odds, you must commandeer a Zaxxon fighting ship on a one-man mission to restore peace to the galaxy. In each of nine levels of play, you must shoot your way past enemy Death Fighters, run the gauntlet in the enemy battle fortress, and defeat the Vargan Mothership. "Running the gauntlet" consists of piloting a ship over, around, and through a series of walls and magnetic barriers. Other obstacles and enemies include cannon batteries, tanks, homing missiles and base missiles.
As you fly through the fortresses, you must shoot fuel tanks to restore your fuel supply. You can also grab power up capsules that give you increased fuel tank capacity, extra lives, heightened speed, increased weapon power and extra weapons. There are three types of upgraded, changeable shots: Nuclear, Hyper and Miracle. When you are on target, a firing sight will appear onscreen. Keep in mind that firing shots uses extra fuel in this exclusive release for the Sega Master System.