| Taxan USA published Star Soldier for the NES in North America, made under license from Hudson Soft; Nintendo's list of licensed NES games dates it January 1989. In May 1989 Taxan's newsletter, whose introduction its product manager, Ken Lobb, signed, called it Taxan's first title. | back cover (image 9) | Publisher |
| In the North American manual, Starbrain, a giant computer programmed only for destruction, threatens the Galactic Empire from an enormous space station guarded by enemy ships and robot creatures, and the player, the Star Soldier, flies Caesar, the latest fighter in the Galactic Fleet, against it. | image 2, The Storyimage 2, The Storyimage 2, The Storyimage 2, The Story | Manual |
| On the NES pad the control pad moves the ship forward, back, left, and right, A or B shoots, and Start pauses the game and resumes it. | image 3, Operating Instructionsimage 3, Operating Instructionsimage 3, Operating Instructions | Manual |
| In the manual, shooting a P-mark brings out a capsule, and each capsule caught adds power. Without one the ship is slow and fires one bullet at a time; one capsule gives many bullets at once, two turn Caesar into a ship that also fires backwards, and three give five-way fire and a shield. The shield stops bombs and bullets but not a crash; one hit cuts the fire to three ways, and five take the shield away. A fourth capsule lets the ship destroy any flying enemy. | image 4, How to Playimage 4, How to Playimage 4, How to Playimage 4, How to Playimage 4, How to Playimage 4, How to Playimage 4, How to Playimage 4, How to Playimage 4, How to Playimage 4, How to Play | Manual |
| The manual's game has 16 stages. In each, a space station appears after a few seconds with ground enemies, and the ship can fly under it to avoid enemies. Starbrain waits at the end of each stage and dies to 32 shots in its center; destroying it warps the ship to the next stage, and failing to, or letting it escape, means playing the stage again. A Big Starbrain, whose four power cells must be shot before its center, ends stages 4, 8, 12, and 16, and destroying the one after stage 16 completes the mission. | image 4, Progress of the Gameimage 4, Progress of the Gameimage 4, Progress of the Gameimage 4, Progress of the Gameprinted p. 6 (image 4), Progress of the Game, read on the page imageimage 4, Progress of the Gameprinted p. 12 (image 7), Starbrain and Big Starbrainprinted p. 12 (image 7), Starbrain and Big Starbrain | Manual |
| The manual leaves scoring to discovery: Zagu, Dalaco, and Lazado hold the secret of the highest score, and a secret enemy is there to be found. Game Player's Strategy Guide (June-July 1989) gave some of it away: finding every hidden Zagu in a level is worth an extra 135,000 points, and shooting Lazado, the flying head, before its pieces join is worth 80,000. | printed p. 12 (image 7), High Score Tipprinted p. 12 (image 7), High Score Tip | Manual |