I have to commend Ratalaika games for giving this niche Shooting game a good port on modern systems, turning a game where even the Reproduction cartridges cost $200 into something pretty much anyone can play legally for $5 in a pretty good way.
But any mystique it built up of being this really rad, extremely rare gem, is quickly shattered by actually playing through it and finding out it's an ridiculously conventional console STG, even in the context of it's time.
At it's core, it's very similar to the Thunder Force games of the era. But kinda just worse. It's poorly paced above all else, with long periods of dead air, way too many stages, and just really not enough bits where you're actually dodging bullets or being under really any challenge at all. It's a pretty easy STG overall, thanks to the game giving you a million lives, but harder sections are just dropped into stages among minutes of simple stage hazards and simple enemy formations which you can mostly speedkill before they can present any difficulty.
So the strength is in the presentation right? Nah, not really. The game does feature these pretty nice pixel art CGs between stages 3, 6, 9 and after 11 (btw, a STG having that many stages is a red flag in the first place), but they're short, very sparse, and give very little context to the events of the game until the very end where it's revealed that the plot is literally the earth federation defeating "aliens". Great.
It does have nice stage backgrounds and is generally quite pretty, but its nothing special compared to say, the Pretty great Thunder Force III. And boy, does this game make Thunder Force III and IV look great in comparison. Of even better, even if you dont want to leave the console space, MUSHA Aleste, Super Aleste, Super Fantasy Zone, Bio Hazard Battle and a myriad of pretty decent arcade ports of things like Tatsujin, Hizousame, Darius 2. And if you're prepared to play arcade STGs, god help Gleylancer.
The mystique of this game shatters with high availability and low pricing, frankly, which is pretty pathetic. It's a game that cribs an awful lot from the Thunder Force games of it's era, whilst playing a lot worse and having less character or really, lacking any hook to be worth playing beyond some occasional great backgrounds and art cut ins you see every
20 minutes - which by the way, some of the games ive mentioned above handily beat it out on anyways as well.
God help the people that spent $500 on this one.
But any mystique it built up of being this really rad, extremely rare gem, is quickly shattered by actually playing through it and finding out it's an ridiculously conventional console STG, even in the context of it's time.
At it's core, it's very similar to the Thunder Force games of the era. But kinda just worse. It's poorly paced above all else, with long periods of dead air, way too many stages, and just really not enough bits where you're actually dodging bullets or being under really any challenge at all. It's a pretty easy STG overall, thanks to the game giving you a million lives, but harder sections are just dropped into stages among minutes of simple stage hazards and simple enemy formations which you can mostly speedkill before they can present any difficulty.
So the strength is in the presentation right? Nah, not really. The game does feature these pretty nice pixel art CGs between stages 3, 6, 9 and after 11 (btw, a STG having that many stages is a red flag in the first place), but they're short, very sparse, and give very little context to the events of the game until the very end where it's revealed that the plot is literally the earth federation defeating "aliens". Great.
It does have nice stage backgrounds and is generally quite pretty, but its nothing special compared to say, the Pretty great Thunder Force III. And boy, does this game make Thunder Force III and IV look great in comparison. Of even better, even if you dont want to leave the console space, MUSHA Aleste, Super Aleste, Super Fantasy Zone, Bio Hazard Battle and a myriad of pretty decent arcade ports of things like Tatsujin, Hizousame, Darius 2. And if you're prepared to play arcade STGs, god help Gleylancer.
The mystique of this game shatters with high availability and low pricing, frankly, which is pretty pathetic. It's a game that cribs an awful lot from the Thunder Force games of it's era, whilst playing a lot worse and having less character or really, lacking any hook to be worth playing beyond some occasional great backgrounds and art cut ins you see every
20 minutes - which by the way, some of the games ive mentioned above handily beat it out on anyways as well.
God help the people that spent $500 on this one.