Adequate port of the original game, yes the game has about 6 frames of lag, I've been able to work well with it at least but I know not everyone is on board with that.
Beyons that, I love the soundtrack options - a good soundtrack is integral the shmup experience. Not only do you get the choice between the PCB original, the soundtrack mastering, the Saturn arrange, and the new Boosted arrange, you can even mix-and-match soundtracks (e.g. PCB for stage 1, Boosted for stage 2, etc.).
Training options leave something to be desired. There's only one savestate, stage practice is incomplete in Special Version since you can only start from the starts of loops, and while it's understandable that you can't load savestates if net ranking is on, you can't make savestates either. At least rewind is a handy feature for retrying problematic sections.
As for the game itself, this is Toaplan's final shmup, and commonly known as the first bullet hell game. It still lacks a lot of the design elements of later danmaku games, but it's getting there. It's a good bridge between classical "dadshmups" and modern bullet hell, keeping the player at the edge of the seat to the end. My only real gripe is that I find the fifth stage to be a bit uninspired, feeling like a generic military base, in contrast to the first four stages (aquatic base, beaches ending in a sky-high battle with a large ship, a canyon where you destroy a multi-armed gun battery, and a high-altitude raid on a giant battleship).
Beyons that, I love the soundtrack options - a good soundtrack is integral the shmup experience. Not only do you get the choice between the PCB original, the soundtrack mastering, the Saturn arrange, and the new Boosted arrange, you can even mix-and-match soundtracks (e.g. PCB for stage 1, Boosted for stage 2, etc.).
Training options leave something to be desired. There's only one savestate, stage practice is incomplete in Special Version since you can only start from the starts of loops, and while it's understandable that you can't load savestates if net ranking is on, you can't make savestates either. At least rewind is a handy feature for retrying problematic sections.
As for the game itself, this is Toaplan's final shmup, and commonly known as the first bullet hell game. It still lacks a lot of the design elements of later danmaku games, but it's getting there. It's a good bridge between classical "dadshmups" and modern bullet hell, keeping the player at the edge of the seat to the end. My only real gripe is that I find the fifth stage to be a bit uninspired, feeling like a generic military base, in contrast to the first four stages (aquatic base, beaches ending in a sky-high battle with a large ship, a canyon where you destroy a multi-armed gun battery, and a high-altitude raid on a giant battleship).