I was taken speechless by the chaotic world of Ryu Hayabusa from the instant I booted up the game as a kid and was greeted to an anime cinematic of a samurai styled single stroke battle. This game set a gold standard for vidya cutscenes for ages to come and I absolutely love its sense of challenge and level design, having speedran it over a hundred times. 4-2 and 6-2 can turn boys into men.

For a long time this was the shmup that got away from me when I was just getting into 1ccs; I spent ages and ages practicing it but could never get past the halfway mark of stage 4. Now that I finally 1cc'd it this year, I'm proud to call it an absolute fav of mine. The background effects are fucking stunning for an 8-bit game and the technique of Contra styling rendering the explosions at 30 FPS instead of 60 to save the rest of the game from slowdown was genius.

Unironically possibly my favourite final act in a video game. The fact only the gear portion collapses when Drac is defeated instead of the entire castle to represent his heart dying is peak cinema.

Best jarpig on the system. The jump physics are still so satisfying lmao.

I truly miss when we gave 0 fucks about copyright. The sampled music, character creation system with anime character parts such as Astro Boy or Gundam, and bosses like Santa Claus all capture the spirit of my inner child's dreams. When we are kids, we come up with silly ways to explain how the world works. For me, it was the sun turning blue when it snowed outside cus the sun was cold. The seas being made of milk pouring from giant curtains in the sky and such truly speak to me on that level.