The player controls an insect-sized warrior named "Kai", who takes on a vast army of cyborg insects to free the insect world from the dark ruler queen. The game uses two buttons: an upgrade-able main shot and a seemingly random selection of secondary weapons.
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A serviceable sidescrolling shooter with a cutesier aesthetic than the title implies.
Very easy side-scrolling shoot-em-up with an insect theme. Five basic as they come levels, about a dozen different enemy types, and some bosses that can be beaten by staying still and holding down the button. Not awful, but nothing special either.
It's ugly and feels bad and has cheap checkpointing. I don't know why I felt compelled to re-verify that. Hell, audio flat-out stopped working after stage 3? Idk why
There's a reason it's one of the only Genesis shmups you'll find for a bargain, relatively speaking
There's a reason it's one of the only Genesis shmups you'll find for a bargain, relatively speaking
I actually completed this on the NES/Famicom, but there appears to be no option for it here.
The Famicom port is a simple, breezy cute 'em up that non hardcore shmup players can appreciate. It does use a Gradius style checkpoint system (yuck) but the game doesn't really suffer from Gradius syndome even towards the very end. It's very easy to become overpowered and just wreck everything before it even has a chance to fire, and there's even a "PP" (insert beavis and butthead laugh here) icon that will allow you to save all of your hard-earned powerups upon death, although normally you lose everything just like that highly overrated Konami space shooter.
The bosses, while having simple patterns, are probably the highlight of the game. They're big, cartoony and all based around various insects such as spiders and moths. Upon beating them, you'll see them all bruised up and waving a white flag and this is honestly pretty charming.
Besides being insanely short (like sub 20 minutes if you know what you're doing), the only other major flaw this game has is its soundtrack. As much as I don't like Gradius, one thing I'll give it credit for is having amazing music. Sadly, what's here is only marginally better than the garbage you'd find in Action52.
As for the Genesis version, I didn't beat it but found it to play worse than the Famicom version despite appearing to be just an edgier reskin.
The Famicom port is a simple, breezy cute 'em up that non hardcore shmup players can appreciate. It does use a Gradius style checkpoint system (yuck) but the game doesn't really suffer from Gradius syndome even towards the very end. It's very easy to become overpowered and just wreck everything before it even has a chance to fire, and there's even a "PP" (insert beavis and butthead laugh here) icon that will allow you to save all of your hard-earned powerups upon death, although normally you lose everything just like that highly overrated Konami space shooter.
The bosses, while having simple patterns, are probably the highlight of the game. They're big, cartoony and all based around various insects such as spiders and moths. Upon beating them, you'll see them all bruised up and waving a white flag and this is honestly pretty charming.
Besides being insanely short (like sub 20 minutes if you know what you're doing), the only other major flaw this game has is its soundtrack. As much as I don't like Gradius, one thing I'll give it credit for is having amazing music. Sadly, what's here is only marginally better than the garbage you'd find in Action52.
As for the Genesis version, I didn't beat it but found it to play worse than the Famicom version despite appearing to be just an edgier reskin.
Cartoon bugs in techno-Egyptian ruins. Sure.
It's a shmup but with insect themes. Eh. Wish it had a better gameplay because the theme is quite interesting.