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Metal Black
Developed and published by Taito | Released in 1991

Metal Black[a] is a 1991 scrolling shooter arcade video game originally developed and published by Taito.

The plot summary of Metal Black is explained further through supplementary materials. In the year 2042, a companion star of the planet Jupiter appears a few Astronomical units away from the planet and propels the asteroids along Jupiter's orbit towards the Earth, creating a wave of meteorites. As the Earthlings struggle to survive, extraterrestrial cybernetic invaders from beyond the distant star use the meteorites as cover to invade Earth with little resistance, intending to plunder Earth for inorganic materials needed to sustain their forms. Both the aliens and the star they came from are quickly named 'Nemesis.'

What resistance the aliens face from Earth's combined international defense forces is quickly obliterated by the aliens' powerful beam weapons. Earth's scientists study the molecules that power the alien weaponry, which have started to litter the Earth, and the molecule is given the name 'Newalone.' With Newalone in their hands, scientists quickly begin Project Metal Black, focused on developing at least twenty-thousand human spacecraft capable of wielding the same beam-weaponry as the aliens. The spacecraft is known as the CF-345 Black Fly, named for its method of Newalone energy use.

However, ten years after the invasion, Earth's remaining diplomats pass a treaty with the Nemesis forces outlining a peaceful surrender, which promises to keep all of Earth's remaining forces from attacking: This applies to Project Metal Black, preventing the Black Fly spacecraft's use. With the planet's population thinning and natural resources depleting, a rogue pilot commandeers one of the Black Fly craft in violation of the treaty, intending to strike back against Nemesis and save what remains of humanity.

The events within the game itself unfold over six stages as the Black Fly pilot travels to Jupiter, confronting powerful Nemesis ships along the way. In the final two stages, the pilot breaches Nemesis itself, earning a crucial chance to defeat the invading forces once and for all. From this point, there are two possible endings: If the player gets a Game Over on the final stage, the pilot's death incites a military coup d'état of the global government, and 20,000 Black Fly craft are dispatched to Nemesis's apparent origin point. Otherwise, the pilot confronts the leader of Nemesis in a rapidly-shifting dimension, the battle apparently culminating with the Earth being split in two; it is left unclear as to whether the Earth's destruction and the events of the game as a whole ever actually occurred.