Okay, so this is a very odd review to post on Christmas, but here it goes.

Despite being a tad bit of a shmuphead I've only dipped my toes oh so much into the danmaku/maniac shooter genre, I'm not entirely sure the exact reason, but I feel like it's because I'm just really attached to using cute spaceships and enjoying having my ass kicked by mean-spirited R-Type stage design. Just call me "Paleozoic Pete" or something, but it's a genre that always kinda flew over my head, and I never made a big effort to indulge myself. I'm more than prepared for your barrage of fresh fruit.

Given I've only gotten a single clear on ESP Ra.De. it feels a tad icky to make a review of it already given the nature of these games and their reliance on repeated playthroughs in order to make your personal numbers go up and knock Jackass Joe's hi-score off the number one leaderboard of the cabinet, but it was the Backloggd Game of the Week, so my hand is forced. Either way, my only big complaints aside from my own lack of skill is that the second boss is way too complacent on pretending to be the final boss and never giving me a moment's peace as to kindly die, and the final stage having enemies that scream like Jerry Mouse for some god forsaken reason that annoys me greatly as I mow them down. Probably minor stuff, but regardless.

I guess it's probably good, but as of this moment I only feel impressed by the backgrounds and sprites which are unfortunately covered by bullets most of the time, and the cool boss music that felt like it took up half the game for me. I'll probably need to give it some more goes another time and see if it grows on me, but for now it's kind of a "that's nice I suppose" kind of game. It can rest easy knowing it's at least better than a certain someone's game, who recently clogged my toilet and threw out my plunger.