It's far from the best of what the Pc Engine could offer, but I still had a great deal of fun 1CCing it thanks to that quirky (and distinctly Namco) flair. It plays similarly to Thunder Force 3, but borrows the item shop from Fantasy Zone and also has a gambling system for additional powerups. Most of the time, you'll just be stuck with the standard (but serviceable) pea shooter as all of the aforementioned powerups are on a timer. Some of them are ridiculously overpowered and will allow you to speed kill bosses (referring to the missiles) and some of them are absolutely useless (avoid stock bomber like the plague).

Difficulty is surprisingly moderate in comparison to most shmups, which are blisteringly difficult in many cases, although Stage 7 is pretty obnoxious and clearly designed to eat up lives like tic tacs without prior knowledge of how the environmental hazards work.

As far as Namco shmups in general go, I enjoyed this one a little more than Dragon Spirit but not nearly as much as Phelios.

Here is my 1cc of the game for those interested- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqUbTFtVnYk&t=1440s