There's something to NMK's Raiden-like shooting game, Thunder Dragon. At its core it couldn't be simpler -- one ship option, four shot types to switch between (with falling, numbered items--collect consecutive items with the same number to power up) and 8 brutal levels to clear -- but there's all kinds of tight design and attention to detail that lift the game above its many brethren.

Damage feels balanced perfectly, enemy spawn patterns are interesting (especially in later stages), and there's great variance in the feel of, and optimal strategy for, each stage. Every weapon, I found through agonizing trial and error for a 1-ALL, has a distinct purpose.

I limped to the end of my eventual clear, barely snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and came away with only two major complaints: bullet visibility sucks shit sometimes, especially when wielding the powered up #2 weapon; and the game simply shouldn't be 8 stages long. The first two stages are fluff -- make it a tight 6, starting at what is now 3, and I would've been even more thrilled than I was already to play over and over again.