I used to play this a lot as a kid. It's nothing special, but it's decent. Good intro to bullet hell for someone young who's never played one before. You get to see a lot of DP characters appear, too, and the unique chapter title cards are neat.

Baby's first bullet hell. It was really fun but short.

this is one of the worst things i have ever played. and yes, i have beaten sonic forces.

i can't blame anyone for looking at this on a shelf snd thinking it's nothing special but i assure you this is a great hybrid of shmup styles (gradius gameplay with ikaruga shield-switching) with bangin tunes and a boss rush mode made out of bosses that do not remotely appear in the campaign.