It's Galaga, but they made the aliens cute and the backgrounds pretty. There's an end-stage now, and multiple endings based on performance. Love the cocktail-jazz tune that plays when you lose. That's Galactic Dancin'

Breathtaking for a single-dev effort. Kicked off the "indievania" craze and became the blueprint for that kind of environmental storytelling. Remarkably well-balanced for keyboard play, feels almost awkward with a controller.

Pretty fun Capcom beat-'em-up even if it gets a little too visually busy for its own good. The purchaseable upgrades between stages add flair and variety without restricting the core gameplay. Neat stuff.

As with every single RE game the final stage is bad, but apart from that this is just incredible. Tactical survival-action with beat-'em-up mechanics and some of the best set pieces, boss fights, and overall pacing, ever.

Amazing how much 3D graphics can do for After Burner's legibility. The sense of speed is a head rush and the feature-unlock system is sweet. One of the great works of SEGA's late-arcade golden age.

Really delivers on the cinematic front. The first few hours of this game are enchanting, and the setting is so unique. It kinda falls apart towards the end. The combat I can take or leave. The OST is fantastic.

As usual for Irem it's got an outstanding, gritty look, but that can't save it from being a somewhat cheap and annoying beat-'em-up, especially towards the end. Still, it does look really cool. Love to smack a mutant with a concrete beam

This game is garbage, but the first stage is pretty nice and unfortunately I have a major weakness for 3D Sonic's coastal ruins, sunbathed cliffsides, vivid green walkways, etc. Just play the first stage and walk away.

Simpler than its successor, but much more effective (and fun) as a game about predicting and countering blows. Nice branching paths, and incredible atmosphere: proper dreary dark fantasy. Too long, and a bit cheap.

What sets it apart is its melancholy, cinematic style and very cool, laser lock-on feature. It's fun to train yourself to pay attention to two planes at once, but I wish shoot-able and laser-able targets were clearer.

As cinematic as RayForce, but trades the stately space drama for vibrant, uncanny, full-3D spectacle, and it works beautifully. Remains shockingly legible throughout. Love the icy, subdued soundtrack, too.

The sleek theatrical presentation and the Rube Goldberg-style touch puzzles are great. I just wish the story didn't take up quite so much playtime (though I didn't dislike it). A pretty fun time for a non-puzzle fan.

It would be a neat little co-op experience were it not for all the insufferable "art-game" trappings. The art style is curiously very corporate for a game that's supposed to be so "out-there." Justly-forgotten slop.

These games had a ton of issues but I was touched by how they gave the player a sense of closure with the whole Mt. Silver climb. Pokémon never did that again because it's a self-consciously iterative series now.

It's like a Parodius of 90s fighters, but the parody goes beyond visuals and onto its writ-large mechanics, cartoonish launch physics, and hilariously over-warned ultra-super moves. Sunny and fun, a pretty good time.