unreal

sort of same-y, and rather difficult to muster the patience to finish. though i will say it probably has the best classical battle system post-snes.

not as impressive and clean as i’d been lead to believe. upgrade system is mostly boring aside from a few strange weapon combos, i wouldn’t say any of the bosses are “bad” but the strangeness of how they are ordered cannot be overstated. visuals are great, soundtrack is banging, and there are very good moments of high-stress shmup goodness.

what it lacks in third strike’s “lightning in a bottle” disposition it makes up for in complete aesthetic insanity

mechanically its mostly boring but idk the weird polygonal sprites and character reactions are good enough that it ends up winning me over. also donkey kong is my best friend <3