It's actually insane how a game like this exists on an 8 bit console without making the system spontaneously combust. That being said, it's ambition and insane amount of bullets results in a lot of gameplay flaws that makes the game kind of a fundamentally rough experience.
The biggest thing is with all shmups of the 80s, dying and losing your powerups is IMMENSELY unforgiving, but it might be some of the worst in this game. In order to fully power up your main weapon, you need to collect nearly FOURTY P-chips throughout the levels, and while these come in groups of 4, grabbing them while taking out this games swarms of hundreds of enemies is no easy task.
Next comes subweapons, which it's awesome how there's 8 of them, but I feel like most of them are pretty bad due to the fact that you will be dealing with an absolute swarm of bullets, so you want one that can protect you. From my experience, 2 and 8 were the only ones worth using, with 2 being my go-to.
2 covers you from the front which essentially makes the major threat being shot from the sides or behind, or an enemy ramming into you, which with how many enemies and bullets are on screen is absolutely possible.
Recovery just feels nearly impossible in this one once you do slip up and die, and the game feels like it was designed around weapons that protect you from the front, because otherwise you're playing a bullethell without the predictability of boss patterns.
I can't say the game is bad due to just how sheerly impressive this is for an 8 bit console game, but it's rough.
I reccomend playing the game on the M-2 Aleste Collection for Switch if you can, I played both the original Master System version and the Collection on Easy which basically just allows you to keep powerups on death, which made the game a pretty fun 1CC.
The biggest thing is with all shmups of the 80s, dying and losing your powerups is IMMENSELY unforgiving, but it might be some of the worst in this game. In order to fully power up your main weapon, you need to collect nearly FOURTY P-chips throughout the levels, and while these come in groups of 4, grabbing them while taking out this games swarms of hundreds of enemies is no easy task.
Next comes subweapons, which it's awesome how there's 8 of them, but I feel like most of them are pretty bad due to the fact that you will be dealing with an absolute swarm of bullets, so you want one that can protect you. From my experience, 2 and 8 were the only ones worth using, with 2 being my go-to.
2 covers you from the front which essentially makes the major threat being shot from the sides or behind, or an enemy ramming into you, which with how many enemies and bullets are on screen is absolutely possible.
Recovery just feels nearly impossible in this one once you do slip up and die, and the game feels like it was designed around weapons that protect you from the front, because otherwise you're playing a bullethell without the predictability of boss patterns.
I can't say the game is bad due to just how sheerly impressive this is for an 8 bit console game, but it's rough.
I reccomend playing the game on the M-2 Aleste Collection for Switch if you can, I played both the original Master System version and the Collection on Easy which basically just allows you to keep powerups on death, which made the game a pretty fun 1CC.
Reviewed on Mar 31, 2023