I’m one to give many shmups a shot because they can just be pretty addicting if they’re really good. I saw a video for a series covering every Game Boy game out there and when I got to this one, it was rated a four out of five. I had never heard of it before, considering it has one of the worst names I’ve seen for a shmup and I was excited to try it and…I hated it a lot.

You’ll go through five stages in this game with the gimmick of being able to change ship type at the beginning of the level. Don’t get too excited though as the only differences are where the direction of bullets fire, they don’t have unique stats or weapons. Just stick with the default as the game isn’t really well thought out with the others. The game’s main gimmick is being able to lower yourself closer to the ground to hit enemy targets. Though sadly there isn’t much depth to it as only one enemy type is used for this with different graphics each stage There’s also a lot of terrain that will do collision damage down there as well making it something you only want to use to get rid of enemies down there as they also give powerups.

When you’re not down there, this is one of the most repetitive and boring shmups I have ever played. What feels like you’re going through the same formations of enemies over and over again and what even feels like the stage is constantly looping until it feels like taking you to the mini boss and then later the main boss. I’m not sure if there’s some invisible mechanic for what triggers these bosses or they really make you do laps around the stage but it’s so boring. There’s not a single good stage in this game.

The game is notable for having a lifebar but it feels like all it does is give the devs an excuse to make a lot of messy cluttered projectile formations for you to avoid. Bullets don’t do too much damage to you and you even collect an E item to restore some energy back to you. The only challenge from stage 4 and 5 is just how many bullets they throw at you and again there’s so many samey patterns still that you’ll see over and over again and I just wanted it to end so badly.

Mini bosses are very easy and honestly not even worth talking about but the main bosses are a weird bunch. They are huge and they have such odd movement patterns, it feels like nothing I’d expect from a confident shmup. I’m sure I’m forgetting some are also guilty of it but while they’re easy, the erratic nature of their pathway of movement just feels not well thought out. Once you see the way you move, you’ll probably win if you have a good amount of energy left. They also don’t really even bother making use of the two sections you can be in, in fact it seems just going low only just makes your hitbox smaller so it’s recommended you do that. It just makes me question the perspective more than anything. That's really all there is to this game for the whole experience.

Graphically I’m mixed on it. I think it can look nice at times. However it has weird color problems. I don’t know if it’s an emulator issue but two stages just mess with the color palette of stuff like your ship to make it white and gray which is weird. A couple of times I got hit by a bullet due to the background blending in with it which is just dumb. The bosses are also on a white background and might have the worst death explosion I’ve ever seen in a shmup. If you can name a game with a worse explosion after defeating the boss, I’d love to hear it. There’s also a girl on the pause screen and ship selection theme which is neat I guess though I don’t really get why. The music is quite alright but it all just kind of sounds like noise to me. That’s probably more of a me issue though. Still this presentation is probably the only thing not horrible about the game…okay at least the controls aren’t bad so I can’t really be that harsh.

This game just doesn’t really do anything fun to me. I’m sure to some it may seem more mid than anything but I just couldn’t enjoy it at all. I honestly wish others would try it to see if maybe I’m just in the wrong but this is down there in the shmup rankings for me. I really can only recommend it if you just wanna review it to see if you feel the same as I do, otherwise just stay away as there are better games on the GB if you’re looking for a shmup. Now I just wanna go play that 2nd Gradius game on GB after this awful experience. Have a good night.

A neat little Game boy shmup that lets you jump between two layers. If you press select on the title screen, you can choose between three playable ships. This just alters where your powered up shots go though. I like that it uses a health bar instead of lives because you can take different amounts of damage, and recover health from one of the powerups. It does run into the sprite limits on the game boy though, and occasionally something important might turn invisible. It also features two anime girls so this is a must play.