Lieutenant James Bryant, reporting for duty!
Space Debris is a 2000 3D space-shooter video game created by Rage Software, inspired by the Star Fox franchise.
In the future, mankind have colonialized most of the Solar System when aliens from another galaxy suddenly emerged through a wormhole, targeting various space colonies in an all-out assault. The United Earth Defense, ill-prepared for an invasion of such massive scale, are quickly wiped out, and as per the norm of these games, its up to a single Ace Pilot hero to fend off the invading alien swarm.
The player assumes the role of Lieutenant James Bryant, a hotshot pilot whom had volunteered to defend humanity and battle the aliens, and he is later backed up by new friends - United Earth Defenses maverick ace Rip "Starfire" and freelance mercenary pilot Halo - all three of them who become humanity's last hope against a never-ending horde of alien invaders.
Ready to Engage enemy forces - let's go!
- Ace Pilot: The three playable heroes, James Bryant, Rip "Starfire" and Halo the sole female character. They can take out entire hordes of alien enemies in their fighter ships, kicks tons and tons of ass while outnumbered, and take down entire alien behemoths.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The restricted military installation was shut down because of it's malfunctioning AI. While trying to take a shortcut through, James ends up having to battle the robotic security, culminating in facing off a skyscraper-sized Killer Robot boss.
- Alien Invasion: What kicks off the plot of the game.
- Asteroid Thicket: Tends to show up time-to-time in a few levels starring James. The good news is that the destroyable asteroids contain health to collect.
- Attack Its Weak Point: ALL the bosses in the game are invincible and cannot be harmed by lasers or missiles, save for having a glowing orange weak spot that can be targeted.
- Big Damn Heroes: How Rip "Starfire" makes his entrance in the third level, shooting down a massive alien dragon about to devour James.
- BFS: The Killer Robot boss in the derelict military base will try swatting James out of the air with a sword larger than itself. Note that this is the only instance of a boss in the game using a close-range weapon.
- Cyborg: James at the end, courtesy of the Phoenix Project. Part-man, part-Super Prototype spaceship.
- Derelict Graveyard: A level starring Rip took place in one of these, with the debris from broken-down ships being an additional threat besides the aliens.
- Emergency Transformation: James volunteering for Project Phoenix, which involves getting himself grafted into becoming a spaceship-human, definitely counts.
- Fake-Out Opening: The opening FMV begins in a lush, green alien forest planet, full of life... before panning out revealing to be a small indoor garden inside a massive space station.
- Flash of Pain: The bosses are invulnerable to all attacks, unless their weak spot are directly hit - at which point they start flashing white, an indicator to the player that yes, they're hitting the correct spot.
- Flunky Boss: Most of the bosses are surrounded by hordes and hordes of lesser alien ships, that will harass James and his allies throughout the battle.
- Giant Mook: Giant alien dropships are recurring enemies several times larger than the heroes. There's also tanks in the military installation, and occasional alien monsters towering above the heroes.
- Giant Spider: In a few land-based missions, the alien's forces also include oversized arachnid monsters larger than buildings.
- Golden Super Mode: Project Phoenix's final form turns James - and the ship he's grafted together - into one of these, glowing with an unstoppable golden energy aura destroying the alien core.
- The Great Serpent: The boss of the volcano planet is a lava serpent, large enough to swallow entire spaceships, and attacks by breathing fire on the heroes.
- Hero of Another Story: Rip "Starfire", despite his big entrance, turns out closer to one of these; despite the game depicting him as a veteran pilot whose status is almost legendary, most of his exploits and achievements occurred offscreen, before the events of the game. He only gets two missions where he's playable, with James having most of the attention and development and later reduced to cheering for James in the sidelines after James gets accepted for the Phoenix Project.
- Humongous Mecha: Two of these shows up as bosses in the old military test site as bosses. The first one is a Robot Dog the size of a building, while the second is a Killer Robot towering over the heroes which blocks the exit.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The behemoth-sized alien dragon in the end of the third level gets its wings shot off by Rip while pursuing James, resulting in the dragon landing back-first into a skyscraper-sized stalactite.
- Kaiju: The alien-based bosses are all skyscraper-sized monstrosities.
- Lethal Lava Land: One level with the player controlling Halo is set on a volcanic planet, with burning lava launching into the air constantly. Also, giant lava serpent boss.
- Macross Missile Massacre: The default Smart Bomb backup for all the heroes, where upon activation their ships will release a battery of missiles taking down most enemies onscreen. Unfortunately they're rather useless against most bosses - the missiles wouldn't go for their weak spots, which the player must manually shoot at.
- Organic Technology: The lesser alien ships appears to be alive. There are several instances during gameplay where alien vessels zooms closely past the screen, and these ships seem to contain living features such as tentacles, feelers, and flesh.
- Protection Mission: The second level has James defending a Martian outpost from being assaulted by three humungous alien brutes, backed up by hordes and hordes of lesser alien ships. He needs to destroy all three of the brutes within the given time limit, or else fail instantly.
- Robotic Undead: The robot tanks and mecha in the abandoned military installation which are mostly dismantled after some conflict decades ago, only to suddenly activate and attack James when he tries passing through. The Robot Dog and Killer Robot bosses notably looks like skeletal versions of themselves, with random bits of metallic "flesh" embedded on their hips, limbs and ribcages.
- Scary Scorpions: The third boss is a giant alien scorpion (large enough to stomp on the James' ship) kaiju whose upright tail can spam energy bolts.
- Sentry Gun: The alien bases and the derelict military outpost contains stationary turrets which can fire potshots at the heroes.
- Sequential Boss: Most of the bosses needs to be fought at least twice, including the lava serpent, the Killer Robot in the abandoned military outpost and the pirate mothership. The Final Boss, the alien core, notably needs to be destroyed four times, coming back after each defeat again and again...
- Short Cuts Make Long Delays: In order to take a shortcut to reach the Outer Rim in time, Rip suggests taking a shortcut through an old, abandoned military installation which was deemed a "Restricted Area" by the space authorities, to their travelling time from days to a few hours. Turns out the base's long-dormant defense systems are still active, leading to the robotic security swarming all over the heroes the moment they arrive.
- Space Battle: The premise of the entire game, what with humans engaging in an all-out space war against alien invaders.
- Standard Starship Scuffle: Each and every level.
- Super Prototype: The Phoenix Project late into the game, an empowered space fighter created by fusing with human components, but never tested because of the various risks it entails. It ends up being humanity's last hope to defeat the aliens.
- Swirly Energy Thingy: In the opening cutscene, the alien invaders made their way to the outer rim through one of these, which serves as a wormhole of sorts allowing them to attack our solar system. Said swirly thingy is still visible in the background during the first boss battle.
- Switching P.O.V.: While the game starts with the hero, Lieutenant James Bryant battling the alien forces, it later introduces Rip "Starfire" and Halo, two other heroes which the player will control. In turn, the player will be controlling Rip for the first time in the third mission, and later play as Halo in the lava planet stage.
- Time-Limit Boss: The Alien core's final stage is invulnerable to ALL of James' attacks ( this is despite being after James merging himself with the Phoenix Project), and all James can do is to dodge the core's attacks, defend himself from the alien underlings summoned by it, parry it's attacks by shooting it's limbs and head, but after reaching a time limit he (and the player) is then treated to a cutscene of Project Phoenix's final activation, which unleashes an unstoppable aura of golden energy obliterating the core, destroying the aliens once and for all. Mission Complete!
- Timed Mission: Several of the missions are timed and needs to be completed in a handful of minutes, or else lead to a Non-Standard Game Over and must be repeated over again. Notably, the second level have James defending a Martian outpost from three giant alien brutes which he must destroy before the timer reaches zero, and the military outpost level where James must battle his way across within eight minutes.
- Two Guys and a Girl: The trio of playable heroes, with Lieutenant James Bryant as The Hero, Rip "Starfire" as his lancer, and Halo the sole female pilot.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: What the Phoenix project entails, revealed late into the game, where upon activation the pilots will be assimilated and integrated into parts of the Phoenix Super Prototype. The project has a very high mortality rate and kills off most volunteers, leading it to be closed down, but late in the game James instead subjects himself to Willing Roboticisation in order to take down the alien hive and save humanity.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: One stage halfway through have James battling Space Pirates instead of aliens, which have zilch to do with the alien invasion and only wants to rob James and Halo of their cargo en-route to the Outer Rim. They're the only human enemies in the entire game and do not show up after said level's completion.
- Xenomorph Xerox: The final phase of the Alien core resembles the classic Xeno, albeit one with yellow, slit-like eyes and the size of a skyscraper. It's head, limbs and rib-like exterior body still matches the trope though.
- Zerg Rush: The aliens' lesser units will attempt to overwhelm the heroes through sheer numbers.
