Moon Cresta

The player begins the game with a small spaceship armed with a single laser cannon. After successfully completing the first four waves of alien attacks, the player must attempt to dock the ship with the next 'stage' of the ship. This second stage has two lasers in addition to the original one. Each docked stage is one of the player's "lives".

After successfully clearing two more waves of aliens, the player must again dock with the third and final piece of the ship, which also has two more lasers (giving the player five lasers in total). The trade-off for this is that the entire ship is a much larger target. Failure to correctly align the stages during either docking sequence causes the destruction of the stage being docked with.

Moon Cresta helped propel Nichibutsu into the video game business, and it was one of their most successful arcade games. In Japan, it was the fourth highest-earning arcade game of 1980, below Pac-Man, Galaxian and Crazy Climber.

Computer and Video Games commented on the game's visuals for being bright and colorful, and its gameplay for being captivating. Game Machine felt the same way, recognizing it as a sure-hit for arcades because of its gameplay and mechanics.

Moon Cresta spawned a series of sequels, spin-offs and alterations. Gremlin Industries released Super Moon Cresta, a modification kit that allows the enemies to fire back at the level and changes some of the text. Nichibutsu itself created Moon Quasar, a spin-off that gives the second ship more firepower and a brief "refueling" segment, where the player must dock their vessel into a mothership towards the center of the screen.

Moon Cresta became the first installment of the Cresta Series, which spans into 5 installments and two spinoffs. The first sequel to Moon Cresta was released in 1985, titled Terra Cresta. It is a vertically scrolling shooter where players collect different ship pieces that each provide a new weapon. The first spin-off game in the series, UFO Robo Dangar, was released in 1986 that was similar to Terra Cresta, where the player controls a giant mecha instead of a starship.