Xain'd Sleena is a Japanese arcade game produced in 1986 by Technos Japan that was exported by Taito as Solar Warrior in USA and later on ported as Soldier of Light with more or less success to other platforms as the Amstrad CPC, the ZX Spectrum, or the Amiga among others.
In this game you control Xain'd Sleena, a bounty hunter who must free five planets ("Cleemalt Soa", "Lagto Soa", "Cleedos Soa", "Guwld Soa", and "Kworal Soa") of the same star system of the invasion of the evil Dristarg empire... and that's all the plot. Even the name of the invaders is only revealed when you clear the end stage. While fighting on planets he's protected by a Powered Armor, armed with a laser rifle that can be enhanced with PowerUps released by some enemies, and uses rocket-powered boots that allow him to Double Jump, but after defeating the boss and destroying with a bomb the Imperial base he'll move from one planet to another with his starship... after you've fought the Imperial warships that guard the world, later on their Mothership, and finally their movable fortress in the last stage.
The most noticeable feature of this game is to be both a platformer (the planetary stages) and a side scrolling shoot'em up (the space ones), as well as in the original version the relative freedom of play it gave, as you could go to any of the five worlds and clear them in the order you wanted. (The sixth and final stage, the Imperial space fortress, is not unlocked until you've cleared the five others.) This was unfortunately lost in Solar Warrior as well as in other ports, where you play in linear fashion from the easiest planet to the hardest one. Other changes were to replace the text of the start screen, removing "Xain" and putting you in charge to defend not all planets but the Solar System instead, and to change the names of the planets from invented ones to Real Life ones (in the above's order: Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Neptune).
This game contains examples of:
- Alien Sky: Cleemalt Soa/Saturn has a starry sky with a large, ringed Saturn(-like planet) in the background, Cleedos Soa/Jupiter a pale blue one with two moons, and Guwld Soa/Mars a red one.
- Artificial Stupidity: When one of the mooks who carry laser blades or the Cleemalt Soa/Saturn boss approach, crouch down (do not simply kneel) and watch how they attempt to kill you in vain.
- Artistic License – Physics: Kworal Soa/Neptune, even if the action takes place in the seabed, has your character moving as if he was on the surface, including your spaceship descending to both leave and retrieve you as in any other planet.
- Artistic License – Space:
- All the planets, be they a barren space rock, an ocean planet, or a big desertic world, have the same gravity.
- Solar Warrior has the stages named after Real Life planets. Saturn takes place on one of its moons (Hyperion
?)... OK. Venus as a lush jungle world and Mars as a volcanic world... much less so. Jupiter as a desertic world and Neptune as an ocean one... even less.
- Asteroid Thicket: After you've cleared the third planet and on your way to fight the Dristarg Mothership and the fleet that protects it, you'll have to cross one complete with Space Mines.
- Attack Its Weak Point: The enemy vehicles are destroyed much faster if you kill the pilot. In the case of the flying bike-like things, this may backfire as it may fall in flames over you, costing you a life the Mothership can only be destroyed by opening a tunnel through its central part.
- Battleship Raid: The Imperial Mothership.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: The intro and ending are littered with grammar problems, and "gauge" is spelled without a "u".
- Blob Monster: Cleemalt Soa/Saturn has some of them that appear from certain floating rocks. and move on their on. While they cause little damage if you touch one they may cause you to fall down, which can be quite harmful for your health.
- Boss Battle: At the end of each planetary stage, you'll find the Empire's base -a hemispheric structure- and the planet's boss will pop up. Depending on where you're you'll have to fight from one of the laser sword-wielding Mooks in steroids to a large guy who employs a jetpack. You must kill it in order to be able to clear the stage, by putting a bomb on the base and leaving on your ship. The space ones except for the Mothership have no bosses per se.
- Checkpoint: Each planetary stage has several of them. They both are places where you respawn when you've been killed and reset the time counter to 60 seconds. In space there's sort of one when you fight the Mothership, where if you've been killed by the fleet guarding it you'll skip the latter and directly fight the former.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Or rather, ordered for your convenience. Planets in Xain'd Sleena are ordered on the selection screen according to their difficulties, the more you go to the right the harder they are. The Dristarg fortress appears way to the right, outside of the screen, which should give a hint.
- Convection, Schmonvection: At Guwld Soa/Mars, Xain can stay at the edge of or in columns over of a lava lake without issues. Walk or fall into it and say goodbye to a life.
- Critical Existence Failure: Xain is totally fine as long as the damage gauge has even a small part filled. Just one more hit and you're history (and in this game health is only recovered between stages).
- Double Jump: One of the few examples where you can do it with rocket-powered boots. Of the enemies, the boss of Cleemalt Soa/Saturn is one of the very few who can imitate you.
- Dungeon Bypass: Rather not shoot away the Mothership's central pillars? Your ship also fires glowing spheres, and in the Mothership's column are two semi-octagonal protrusions with square indents. Hit both of these indents with a glowing ball, and hey presto - the pillars vanish, the Mothership stops shooting and you cruise through the middle.
- Elite Mooks: In a sense at least. The mustard-colored guys as well as the ones who carry laser swords can take two hits before being killed, and the latter kill you with just one hit.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: The Imperial forces, the native lifeforms of the different planets (or the planets themselves...)
- Giant Mook:
- The large dark blue guys who carry large guns. They can take quite a number of shots before getting killed.
- In space, the large ships that appear at the end of each stage. Not only are they large but also moving while firing at you, attempting to block your path.
- The Greys: The most abundant mooks. Even if their heads resemble First Order Stormtrooper helmets in-game due to the game's low resolution, artwork as the one above in the game's flyer shows they look like your standard grey aliens, assuming these are not helmets that is.
- Homing Projectile: The large ships that appear at the end of each space stage as well as the Mothership will launch pink spheres that chase you, often for quite a while. It's easy to dodge one, but less so when in later stages there are three or more of those ships, that are also firing normal projectiles, and you're also attempting to shoot them down.
- Instant-Win Condition: If you are hit just when you defeat the Imperial Mothership, your ship will explode… but you will continue without losing a life, with the game playing the animation of it flying through the former. Likewise, if there're still mooks around when you kill the stage's boss (much harder than what it seems), they'll be killed when your ships descends to pick you up.
- It's Quiet… Too Quiet: The way the Imperial Mothership makes its debut. After the fleet guarding it has been left behind, no enemies will appear for some seconds... until the music changes to one far more menacing and she appears scrolling up while shooting from the bottom right.
- Jet Pack: Some enemies, up to the boss of Cleedos Soa/Jupiter use this. The enemies who carry laser swords are the worst offenders, as they love to dive attempting to impale you with their weapons.
- King Mook: The boss of Cleemalt Soa/Saturn who appears also on the last stage is a large, and able to double jump, version of the standard laser sword-wielding mooks. Unlike them he'll try to slash you with his weapon instead of attempting to impale you with it.
- Laser Blade: Some Mooks as well as the boss of Cleemalt Soa/Saturn carry them.
- Lethal Lava Land: Guwld Soa/Mars.
- Life Meter: Or rather the armor's damage gauge meter.
- Man-Eating Plant: The large Rafflesia-like flowers of Lagto Soa/Venus are more than mere plants.
- Mini-Boss:
- The dinosaur that you find in Lagto Soa/Venus (it's a Mini-boss In Name Only)
- The floating head of the Cleedos Soa/Jupiter temple.
- The Mothership: Halfway through the game while you're in space, you'll have to fight the Empire's mothership. It's so big that it scrolls through the screen and except for its central part is invulnerable to your shots.
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Nintendo Hard:- Guwld Soa/Mars. Geysers, volcanic bombs, a lava lake that will insta-kill your character if you mis-calculate your jump, and just one power up in the entire stage that you lose if you die after the part where it appears.
- Kworal Soa/Neptune. Enemies, be the planet's lifeforms or the Imperials, galore especially the latter at the end.
- The Dristarg fortress up to eleven, with enemies pretty much elsewhere and being a quite long stage.
- Not the Fall That Kills You…: While Xain can jump from very high heights without taking damage, the Bottomless Pit and the lava lake inside a volcano present halfway through Cleemat Soa/Saturn and Guwld Soa/Mars respectively will kill him.
- One-Hit Kill: Partially averted. Xain's armor can take several hits before being killed and colliding with an enemy will destroy him and will remove half the armor's health. However, the enemies who carry Laser Blades will kill you with one hit; touch either one enemy vehicle or a boss and you die; and any hit or collision taken with your spacecraft will destroy it.
- One-Man Army: You're a space soldier who along his spacecraft has to fight alone an entire space Empire and its fleet.
- One-Winged Angel: The boss of Lagto Soa/Venus is a large Walking Tank. Destroy it and it will release its pilot, which is considerably harder to fight.
- Planet Spaceship: The Empire's movable fortress.
- Powered Armor: Xain's armor, who allows him to resist from the lack of air to be in the depths of an ocean.
- Power-Up: Kill a type of enemy who sees you and runs away and he'll left one. You'll get at random your standard shots but accompanied with grenades, a two-way attack that can hit enemies located high, a three-way one, or another that will kill several Mooks with just one shot.
- Sandworm: In Cleedos'/Jupiter's temple, between the temple and the Imperial base you'll find some large holes in the ground. If you fall into one you'll end up stuck on it until double-jumping. Otherwise, be prepared for a nasty visit from the closest one.
- Shout-Out:
- The already mentioned Darth Vader-like head that you find on top of Cleedos'/Jupiter's temple.
- Also there, the sand worms are likely a reference to Dune
- An inverse example: Xain's helmet◊ resembles the one of Master Chief.
- Single-Biome Planet: Cleemalt Soa/Saturn is your typical airless, irregular-shaped world, Lagto Soa/Venus a lush, jungle world, Cleedos Soa/Jupiter a desertic world, Guwld Soa/Mars a Lethal Lava Land, and Kworal Soa/Neptune an oceanic planet.
- Skippable Boss: The very end boss can be skipped by jumping on your ship and leaving, assuming you can last until it appears. Given that you'll spend most of those 60 seconds to arrive there it could be the best
- Spheroid Dropship: Or better said spheroid fighter. Most of the enemies that you'll fight in space are sphere-shaped fighters, that can also be seen leaving while you take-off from a planet after clearing it.
- Stone Wall: The large blue mooks carrying big guns mentioned above. They're slower than their smaller brethen -if you double jump over one, it will take roughly a second for it to change direction- and their weapon is despite its size actually weak. However they are tough to kill.
- Streaming Stars: Pretty much everywhere in space; at the beginning of each planetary stage, with your ship approaching to the planet and in space both while fighting and once you've cleared it and are speeding away to your next destination.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Everything dies exploding, or for Dristarg Mooks as well as you, something that looks like that.
- Super Drowning Skills: In Lagto Soa/Venus, when crossing the river after the mid-stage dinosaur miniboss, fall into the water and see what happens.
- Time-Limit Boss: Due to the next trope, each boss has as time limit what one remains when you reach the Imperial base. If it's not enough to kill them, bad luck. Try again with a new life.
- Timed Mission: Every planetary stage. You begin with 60 seconds, that are renewed each time you reach a checkpoint, and once the boss has been defeated you've given 10 seconds in the final stage, you put a bomb on the Fortress' reactor's core and are instead given 60 seconds to escape to jump on your ship and leave. If time runs out in any of those cases, you lose a life.
- Video Game Geography: An odd example on the planet's selection screen. Move beyond the left or the right borders and unless you've cleared all the planets the ship will disappear from view, to re-appear again if you bring it back. Do the same up and down and you'll appear on the opposite side of the screen.
