Over Horizon is a pleasant surprise for the Famicom. When this came out in 1991 there were already much powerful hardware doing Shmups at the time. So to see someone still doing it for the Famicom is pretty cool. So how does it hold up, well it's actually pretty good!

This is a 6 stage romp of the horizontal shmup variety. You can shoot forwards and backwards and you can use up to three weapons to fire at opponents. The first is a simple laser, then there is a homing projectile, and finally bombs that explode on contact hurting anything in the small explosion. You also have two options to help you shoot that you can put in two different positions.

The stages are pretty unique for the time having stuff like ice blocks to push or water pushing you a lot. They can be pretty fun though I personally think it can kind of drag a little though maybe I'm just impatient. I do like the attempts at some creativity though. I should also say the game isn't too hard so if you want a challenge, this won't be it.

The bosses are pretty big and can be a challenge if you don't know what you're doing. Though sadly some are pretty easy if you know the pattern and they also take a lot of hits. When you finish them off though it's like this really cool explosion, I like it.

One really cool mode about this game is the Edit Mode. You can change your options to be at any place you want here if you don't like the default places they put them in and you can even edit your weapons to have properties of the other weapons. Don't like just shooting bombs forward? Well how about homing bombs then? It's a pretty cool way to add some replayability and its nice considering the weapon variety is limited.

The game looks pretty nice though it unfortunately leads to a lot of sprite flicker and slowdown though usually if you're powered up. It's not the worst ever but I still had to bring it up. The music is nice though I would need to listen to it more to see if it's any catchy but it's some good stuff.

Over Horizon is worth a playthrough if it interests you. Surprised it's not really talked about much, it's always crazy finding games I never knew existed that are pretty good. This game would get a release in the PAL territory though oddly only in Germany, why only there? Sadly it never came here in the States but I don't really think it would have sold well anyway. The game ends on a cutscene showing there will be more but sadly, no sequel was ever made.

Horizontal shooter. Varied stages with unique enemies and hazards, some of the stages involve manipulating the environment or your enemies doing so and a big point in the game's favor is this is one of the few shooters that I've played where enemies and their bullets don't typically go through solid objects that you can't pass or shoot through. Good music. Limited weapons of a homing shot, laser, and bomb but before you can edit each by assigning five points into the two other weapon slots (max of five points to each) to give them properties of other weapons. Can shoot in front and behind you. Select toggles ship speed. Can pick up two pods that shoot in the direction you are shooting, can block shots, and you can cycle between two formations with an edit option that allows you to alter their placement in those formations before the game starts. For a better offense or defense choice depending on the situation.

An alternate graphics code done on the menu changes your ship to a samurai and your option pods to two horses.

Easily of one the best shooters on the NES.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1584331145810149377