Moon Shuttle

Although Moon Shuttle is a little bit more than just another invasion game, it's highly unlikely that the program will ever create a big stir because invasion games, in general, have fallen to the wayside. However, for the true believers, Moon Shuttle is a welcome addition.

Based on the Nichibutsu coin-op, this program features five screens, only four of which are filled with invaders. The fifth screen, which appears before each of the others, is a series of asteroid belts through which the player must navigate his ship. The only problem is that with each successive appearance, more and more of the asteroid belts begin moving.

As stated before, there are four types of invaders: bomb launchers (which look like floating heads wearing sunglasses), expandos (syringes by any other name), man-o'-wars (loose brain matter), and blob men (sunbursts). Each has its own distinctive traits. The bomb launchers, for example, rotate while crossing the screen. The blob men split into two when fired upon.

Although the play-mechanic in Moon Shuttle may be a trifle old hat, the game itself is fairly addictive and well worth a look by anyone who enjoys repelling invaders.

This game has no moon and not much shuttling and I'm not sure why Datasoft released it at all. A nostalgic trip through the ancient times of invader games with a laterally moving blaster, Moon Shuttle has done very little to improve upon the concepts of such games as Demon Attack or MegaMania.
Each round of the contest begins with a cruise through an asteroid belt and this is the only portion of the game where the spaceship at the player's command has vertical motion. The idea is to shoot your way through large and small space rocks and reach the top of the screen. With each successive board, the rows of asteroids become a little more difficult to clear.
Alternating with the asteroid scenes are four invader boards starring Bomb Launchers (they are like mutant roller skates), the dreaded Expandos (hybrid bicycle pumps / hypodermic syringes), Man-O'-Wars (just like in the oceans back on earth) and last, and maybe least, the ever-popular Blob Men (refugee sunny day symbols from the Farmer's Almanac). Each of these guys drift on-screen in random patterns and, except for the Expandos, you generally will see no more than two oversized targets at a time. Some of the cast enjoy lobbing laser shots at your vessel while others are content to merely sink toward you with all the enthusiasm of underpaid hired hands. In a final stroke of genius, the Blob Men actually split in two when struck! That's the kind of creative thinking that makes Moon Shuttle the game it is.
Each invader sequence is timed and the player does not have to shoot all the aliens to clear a board before going on to the next one. You can dodge side to side not firing a shot (except in the asteroid screen) and play this game for longer than you might care to.