Silpheed

Silpheed is a vertical-scrolling shooter video game. It is presented at an oblique view camera angle, with enemies and other objects becoming smaller as they move towards the top of the screen. The player assumes the role of a starship named the SA-08 Silpheed, deployed by the Yggdrassil supercomputer to destroy the Xacalite terrorist organization. The Silpheed can freely move about the screen.

In each level, the player is tasked with destroying various enemies while avoiding their projectiles. By shooting down red-colored orbs found throughout levels, the player can acquire one of five different weapon types, each with their own unique behavior and strengths; these include homing missiles, an auto-aiming shot, and a "phalanx" spread-shot laser. Weapons can be attached to either side of the Silpheed.

In 1989, Dragon gave the DOS version of the game 5 out of 5 stars, concluding that "Silpheed is highly addictive, extremely colorful, and requires hours of enjoyable practice to master". Computer Gaming World gave the same version a positive review, praising the original music for the game. The British gaming magazine ACE gave the game a score of 905 out of 1000. Compute! called Silpheed "classic arcade fun with a little more depth than you'll find in many action-oriented games", but criticized the simple sound effects.

The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly found it to be a "rather mundane" and "simple shooter", but the "gameplay is solid" and the backgrounds are "some of the most stunning visuals in a video game". However, they criticized the unimpressive bosses, mediocre powerups and especially the lack of reciprocal interaction with the backgrounds as the game's biggest problems.

A sequel was released, Silpheed: The Lost Planet, for the PlayStation 2 in 2000. It was developed by Game Arts alongside Treasure.

A space combat simulator game was released by Square Enix in 2006 for the Xbox 360 titled Project Sylpheed. It is not directly tied into the Silpheed storyline, but was instead billed as a spiritual successor.