Sky Fox


 * Not to be confused with Skyfox, the computer game by Electronic Arts

Sky Fox also known as Exerizer (jp. エクセライザー), is an arcade game created by Nichibutsu and licensed by Jaleco in 1987 as a sort of semi-sequel to Exerion (1983).

The music from the game has been included in the 1988 soundtrack compilation Game Sound Jaleco -G.S.M. Jaleco 1-.

Story
A "super rocket ship" is sent to defeat a fleet of giant female aliens, led by the titular evil "SKY FOX", before they conquer and colonize the planet Earth.

Gameplay
The gameplay is of a vertical shooter in the style of Gorf, but with 8-way movement across the screen. At the player's disposal to fight the approaching enemies, some of them made in pseudo-depth 2.5D graphics, is a small space fighter capable of firing two types of projectiles: slow rockets (unlimited) and fast energy shots (limited, but draining the ship's energy).

The game features several types of waves (stages) and the player progresses through most of them by either exterminating all enemies or just surviving their attacks for long enough time: one of them has a more typical Space Invaders-style gameplay against rows of space monsters (here led by a Sorceress-like enemies ), another puts the player against female ninja-type enemies riding the backs of either giant serpents or centipedes, and still another features a flight through an asteroid field. The boss stages include a flying saucer, a mother ship that is launching groups of fighter aircraft, a female warrior on a winged dragon, and finally an enormous flag ship spacescraft. The player's ship can be upgraded by collecting bonuses appearing after destroying certain enemies.