Hellfire

Hellfire is a science fiction-themed horizontally scrolling shooter where players control the CNCS1 spacecraft through six increasingly difficult levels in a surprise attack effort to overthrow Super Mech, his army and the Black Nebula space matter. Each level has a boss at the end that must be fought before progressing any further. As far as horizontal scrolling shooters go, the title initially appears to be very standard, as players control their craft over a constantly scrolling background and the scenery never stops moving until the stage boss is reached.

A unique gameplay feature is the weapon system, which features four main weapons at the beginning that can be upgraded by picking up "P" icons. The player can switch between them by pressing the change button, with each one shooting at a fixed direction no matter which way the player moves. Other items can also be picked up along the way, such as speed increasers and "B" icons that grant a number of points, which are crucial for reaching high scores to obtain extra lives. The Genesis version introduces the titular main weapon as a bomb capable of obliterating any enemy caught within its blast radius, as well as a shield and a satellite "option".

The plot summary of Hellfire varies between each version. The story takes place in 2998, where humankind has reached a great point in intergalactic travel and space colonization with the help of a peaceful society. However, a mysterious space matter known as Black Nebula appears and begins engulfing different stars before reaching the latest galaxy colonized by humans. It is eventually revealed that the force behind this matter is Super Mech, a mysterious robot dictator from the farthest regions of space, with the only intention to destroy any resistance that it and its massive space armada faces.

Captain Lancer, a member of the Space Federation, decides to initiate a surprise attack against Super Mech by piloting the only available space fighter craft, the CNCS1, loaded with Hellfire, the strongest weapon in the galaxy. In the arcade and Genesis versions, Lancer returns safely to Earth after having defeated the Black Nebula, while the PC Engine CD-ROM² version features a more poignant ending where the character Kaoru takes her own life in a heroic act of self-sacrifice in order to save the Earth.

Hellfire's creation was helmed by Tatsuya Uemura, a former video game composer whose previous development works at Toaplan included Tiger-Heli, Flying Shark, and Twin Cobra. Serving as Toaplan's first horizontal shooter, Hellfire was developed in conjunction with Truxton as an experiment to translate Toaplan's vertical shooter gameplay in a Gradius-style format. However, the team faced several issues during the development cycle due to lack of experience, among other factors.

Uemura and members of the team struggled with various aspects of designing a horizontal shooter that proved to be frustrating for them, like the terrain and collision detection; their previous experience with vertical shooters did not carry over a horizontal format. Kōetsu Iwabuchi, who previously worked on Twin Cobra, was responsible for the artwork, stating in a 1990 interview with Gamest that he had no limitation when creating the designs. Uemura also requested for the project to have a puzzle element to be integrated. Both the single-player and co-op versions were also created from the beginning of development due to pressure to make two-player games at the time. Despite the difficulties and changes during the creation process, the team managed to finish the project.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Hellfire as the 14th most successful table arcade unit of June 1989, outperforming titles such as Wrestle War and Strider. Den of Geek noted it to be "a rare foray into the world of horizontally-scrolling shooters" for Toaplan. The Genesis version was well received. MegaTech magazine said it was "a slick and very good looking blaster which oozes playability". Mega placed the game at number four on their list of the "Top Mega Drive Games of All Time".

After the initial release of Hellfire in arcades, Toaplan would go on to develop their second and last horizontal shooter Zero Wing, which was released the same year and shared the same game engine. The rights to Helfire and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin, a company named after Truxton's Japanese title, which was founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge; the company has been part of Embracer Group since 2022.