Steel Rain

Steel Rain is a horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up featuring some strategy elements. After defeating the boss of a planet you can colonize it, constructing buildings to mine resources, research upgrades and even help in combat. By defeating enemies and picking up the items they drop the player gain money and experience to permanently improve their ship, as well as power upgrades that are limited to the current level.

The player has access to several different weapon types which can be switched between and upgraded by picking up additional weapon icons of the right color, each with its own strengths and bonuses. The player also has three different fire modes at their disposal. These are focused forward firepower, wide shot spread or short-range rear-covering fire. There are also several other power-ups, including secondary weapons, screen-covering bombs or repair pickups.

Each planet has three different missions that need to completed and the third one always ends with a boss battle. Aside from conquering new planets the player can do patrol missions on previously colonized planets in order to earn resources and experience points.