Image Fight

Image Fight is an intense vertical shooter by Irem and is the conversion of their own arcade game released back in 1988. The player takes control of the OF-1, a powerful Orbit Fighter ship codenamed Daidalos on a mission to annihilate the Moon defense system which suddenly went out of control. The rather unique feature of Image Fight is the “simulation mode” (called ‘Image Fight’) that precedes the “real battle” (called ‘Real Fight’). The game counts a grand total of eight zones – the first five are Combat Training Stages and happen in a virtual space where the player must at least achieve a whooping 90% destruction ratio. If successful, the Real Combat reveals itself and the player gets launched in outer space and fly through three more stages. Just like with any traditional shooter, the ship can be upgraded by collecting flying capsules. They come in two flavors – the first are colored pods (blue and red) which hang around the ship and either fire straight ahead or in the opposite direction the fighter is facing. Those pods can also be thrown at the enemies to inflict more damage. The other kind are various devices that attach at the front of the ship and greatly improve its fire power – they include Bubble lasers, Homing Lasers, V Lasers or the powerful Drill Laser. Sadly, only one can be collected at the same time and the only way to dispose of them is to get hit. Finally, the speed of the ship can be adjusted anytime during the game and the resulting blast of energy can even be used to damage enemy ships.