Battle Squadron - Gameplay

Gameplay

Battle Squadron supports both mouse- and joystick-controlled styles of play. Players play the game from the perspective of elite fighter pilots of the Earth Defense Fleet, known as the Battle Squadron sent to rescue two human agents, Commanders Berry D. Mayers and Lori Bergin, from the clutches of the ruthless alien empire, known as the Barrax. The player's fighters carry unlimited projectile weaponry and a finite number of Nova Smart Bombs. Players acquire weapons by shooting down Barraxian Artillery Gunships which carry weapon Power-Up icons. Weapons include the Red Magnetic Torps, the powerful Green Emerald Laser, the two-way firing Blue Anti-Matter Particle Beam and the sideways firing Orange Magma Wave. Other pick-up items include Barraxian jewel caches marked by small green X's which are worth 1000 points each. The player has the option to increase the number and speed of enemy bullets therefore altering the game's difficulty.

Notable features of the game are relatively big sprites (with Predator-esque cloaking effects applied to a few) and numerous weapon upgrades (supposedly 25 in total). Barraxian opponents consist of ground installations (generally gun turrets and launch platforms), ground vehicles, aircraft and numerous genetically-engineered living weapons.

Specific enemies of note include:

• Cargo vehicles that drop weapon upgrades upon destruction.
• Four-craft squadrons of Barrax fighters that will release an extra, collectable Nova Bomb upon destruction of the entire squadron.
• Two different varieties of gigantic, apparently robotic terror machines, functioning as the bosses of two separate levels.
• What appear to be several giant faces in the terrain, once again, serving as end-of-level bosses.
• The Barrax Nova Cruiser, the end-game boss.