Eliminate Down

Eliminate Down is a horizontal scrolling Shoot'Em Up for the Sega Mega Drive developed by Aprinet and published by Soft Vision in 1993. The game gave players immediate access to three directional-based weapons that could all be powered up as they fought strange alien enemies through eight, enormous levels. The game was never released outside of Japan.

Reminiscent of Hellfire, the player's space ship, the Steel Pyron, had three firing directional weapons all ready at their disposal: a forward firing blaster, a rear laser attack and diagonal, four-way firing bombs. The forward firing attack also had the Super Crash Shot, a small white straight-firing rocket, that with upgrades would change into a long white laser beam that could fire through foreground objects. Unlike Hellfire however, the game had no checkpoint system, though the game made the players restart a level once they lost all of their lives. Extends were set at every 100,000 points.

The weapons were upgradeable by collecting Power-Up icons; obtaining a certain number of Power-Ups would level-up the size and strength of the player's weapons, but the weapons were upgradable to just 3 Levels. The only other defenses the players had was a shield pick-up called the Barrier that protected the ship for at least two hits. The A and C buttons allowed the player to switch among the three weapons. Players could also change the speed of the ship by pausing the game and adjusting the speed level on the pause screen. Eliminate Down also had a mini-game that was playable at the main menu similar to Concentration where players had to find the right image under a certain time limit.

Not to be confused with Border Down, a relatively more recent shoot 'em up game made by G.Rev.

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Tropes used for this game:

• Advancing Wall of Doom: Stage 6 had an advancing lava wall of doom. All it did was to limit your movement space.
• Attack Its Weak Point: ALL the bosses are like this.
• Battleship Raid: Your second boss is a giant mechanical battleship oarfish.
• Big Damn Heroes: Done with in the ending. You ship is incapacitated and floating outside Earth's atmosphere when a wave of mooks approach and try to capture/finish off your character. They get eliminated down with a laser barrage from your mothership before that happens.
• Body Horror: The first Mini Boss of Stage 6 (here). Stage 4's boss counts too in its final phase.
• Boss Arena Urgency: The Mini Boss of Stage 4 had tooth-like walls that slowly shut behind your character after a set time passed, limiting your movement space.
• Continuing Is Painful: Your three directional weapons all get downgraded once, but the real pincher is that your regular shot drops all the way down to level one. The energy capsules you needed to get to upgrade your regular shot into a piercing laser aresn't easy to find either.
• Crosshair Aware: Stage 5's Mini Boss will use a green targeting crosshair. Don't stand anywhere in between or else a pulsating lightning beam will attack the entire area between the boss and the crosshair.
• Every Ten Thousand Points: It's 100,000 in this game for an extra life.
• Exact Time to Failure: Done against the final boss. You have 100 seconds to destroy this bionic thing, or else you will burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
• Excuse Plot: Erm... you're fighting aliens which are attacking Earth?
• Explosions in Space: LOTS of them indeed.
• Final Exam Level: The final stage contains different enemies you've faced from stages 1-6. And that includes the floating faces from stage 3.
• Go for the Eye: The weak point of the Final Boss. Better destroy that eye quickly...
• Invincible Minor Minion: The Techno Wreckage section of Stage 5 has trash machines. While their armaments can be destroyed, they themselves cannot.
• I Thought It Meant: No, you are NOT trying to destroy soft feathers or Down's syndrome in this game.
• Justified Tutorial: The first stage forces you to use your weapons effectively- it pits you against slightly durable Mooks coming from the front (use the front shot), missile-shooting ships that come from the top and bottom (use the vertical-firing bombs), and after that a group of ships that encircle and close in on the player (get out of the circle, then use the back shot).
• Kick Them While They Are Down: In the ending, your ship is badly damaged by the Big Bad's explosion. The enemy senses this opportunity and sends a wave of Mooks to try to capture (or destroy) your ship. Your mothership blasts the little suckers down.
• Mini Game: Plays like Whack-a-mole.
• Nintendo Hard: Especially Hard Mode.
• No Export for You: The game was only released in Japan, hence its obscurity.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Although you can get shields to help you survive three extra.
• Power-Up: Collect five of the "P" powerups to power up your regular weapons.
• Reflecting Laser: The back shot, when fully upgraded, has these. Stage 5's boss uses this with Beam Spam.
• Roboteching: Stage 3 has an enemy and the boss that shoots homing lasers, Stage 5's boss has a arena-circling energy shot that tries to drop on the player as it passes over, Stage 6's boss has a laser that creates crystals, etc.
• Secondary Fire: Your three directional weapons.
• Segmented Serpent: The Mini Boss of the first stage is one of these.
• Space Zone
• Spread Shot: Your back weapon becomes a 3-way, while your front weapon starts off like this.
• Subsystem Damage: Some of the bosses have various parts that can be destroyed.
• Techno Wreckage: The start of stage 5 is like this. Be careful of the wreckage machines, they are Invincible Minor Minions!
• Time Limit Boss: The final boss is this... you're fighting it while going down Earth's atmosphere, and must kill it before you burn up.
• Weaponized Exhaust: There's an enemy in stage 2 that tries this on you. It looks more like lasers, though.
  • Stage 2's boss is a straighter example.
• Wall Crawl: You 4-directional missile weapon gets this trait.
• Womb Level: Stage 4.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Despite all your attempts, the enemy aliens succeed in reaching Earth's atmosphere... You have to shoot the leader down before it's too late.