Uridium

Your home solar system of 15 planets has been attacked by a horde of Super Dreadnoughts, from a race who wish to harvest your universe's minerals for their own use.

The player must pilot their craft through various levels, shoot down enemy space craft and ground weapons, and avoid the many indestructible hazards. When a sufficient number of enemies have been defeated the player can then land on the Dreadnought and proceed to destroy the ship's reactor.

The innovation is that the craft does not simply travel in a single direction, but instead moves from left to right or right to left depending on where the current targets are, in a manner more similar to Defender than most shoot 'em ups. The action takes place in outer space from a side-scrolling perspective where the ship always remains lined up in the middle of the screen but is able to turn forwards and backwards while accelerating and decelerating. The ship can also collapse into a slimmer configuration. Enemies come at you from all directions and in all formations. Shoot them as quickly as possible while also disabling the enemy fleet's starcruisers as best you can.

In between each level is a bonus round where the player can earn more points. The ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions lack this bonus round.

When the game was ported to the NES, The Last Starfighter license was added. The Last Starfighter is based on the 1984 movie of the same name. The hero must single-handedly pilot an extraordinarily powerful starfighter to destroy an enemy armada.