This game has no reason to go as hard as it does. In a lot of ways it really reminds me of Thunder Force IV if not quite as good. It's just so intense with certain aspects, I mean this as a compliment.
Obviously from that reference if you didn't know, this is a shoot 'em up. According to Wikipedia the story is:
"Humanity makes advances in space travel and colonization. In the year 2192 however, the colonists near Jupiter are attacked by the independent military nation of Zias stationed on the Olympus colony of Saturn. Zias uses a symbiotic computer system and several mecha factories powered by a device called the GEO as their primary attack force. Human scientists study the Zias technology and, based on the Zias GEO system, became able to build a space fighter capable of fighting against the Zias: the Bari-arm, a space ship capable of using multiple weapons and transforming into a giant robot with the same capabilities as the Zias cyborgs. Bari-arm is piloted by two young pilots with the mission of destroying the new GEO system before the Zias war machines destroy any further colonies and eradicate humanity forever."
That sounds great, not that I had any clue of this from playing it really XD. What I can tell you is the gameplay is simple but very fun. Your ship has four weapons of machine guns, lasers, rockets and homing missiles you can collect from coloured orbs enemies drop to swap between though they aren't plentiful. If you stop firing a charge bar builds allowing you to do an extra strong attack the longer you leave it. In addition to this you can collect power ups that transform your ship into the mecha robot mentioned above. As far as I could tell it was simply a visual flourish that gives you a one hit shield. My only critisicm gameplay wise is that the homing missiles are fantastic...except certain bosses where they auto aim on parts you can't damage. This resulted in the final boss taking forever using my basic front firing gun as the missiles were useless. A bit of a design flaw that.
The visuals are great using gorgeous Sprite work, bright colours and varied levels. The stage clear static animation of the robot turning into a ship and flying off was neat. Like quite a few games of the time it also really pushed the usage of the CD format for it's sound. The soundtrack is fantastic with crazy guitars wailing as you fire away. A friend of mine was with me as I played it and mentioned it on several occasions how good it was.
Overall it's pretty high on my list of shoot 'em ups now. It's challenging in places but not too hard, looks and sounds fantastic and has good pacing without any dull moments.
Obviously from that reference if you didn't know, this is a shoot 'em up. According to Wikipedia the story is:
"Humanity makes advances in space travel and colonization. In the year 2192 however, the colonists near Jupiter are attacked by the independent military nation of Zias stationed on the Olympus colony of Saturn. Zias uses a symbiotic computer system and several mecha factories powered by a device called the GEO as their primary attack force. Human scientists study the Zias technology and, based on the Zias GEO system, became able to build a space fighter capable of fighting against the Zias: the Bari-arm, a space ship capable of using multiple weapons and transforming into a giant robot with the same capabilities as the Zias cyborgs. Bari-arm is piloted by two young pilots with the mission of destroying the new GEO system before the Zias war machines destroy any further colonies and eradicate humanity forever."
That sounds great, not that I had any clue of this from playing it really XD. What I can tell you is the gameplay is simple but very fun. Your ship has four weapons of machine guns, lasers, rockets and homing missiles you can collect from coloured orbs enemies drop to swap between though they aren't plentiful. If you stop firing a charge bar builds allowing you to do an extra strong attack the longer you leave it. In addition to this you can collect power ups that transform your ship into the mecha robot mentioned above. As far as I could tell it was simply a visual flourish that gives you a one hit shield. My only critisicm gameplay wise is that the homing missiles are fantastic...except certain bosses where they auto aim on parts you can't damage. This resulted in the final boss taking forever using my basic front firing gun as the missiles were useless. A bit of a design flaw that.
The visuals are great using gorgeous Sprite work, bright colours and varied levels. The stage clear static animation of the robot turning into a ship and flying off was neat. Like quite a few games of the time it also really pushed the usage of the CD format for it's sound. The soundtrack is fantastic with crazy guitars wailing as you fire away. A friend of mine was with me as I played it and mentioned it on several occasions how good it was.
Overall it's pretty high on my list of shoot 'em ups now. It's challenging in places but not too hard, looks and sounds fantastic and has good pacing without any dull moments.