Man, I don't know. Over-designed, maybe? Too complex? For a shmup, at least? I don't know. I felt really out of my element the whole time, not only due to the brutal difficulty but also juggling around things like money management and a level system and a bunch of stuff that doesn't seem so necessary. Is that there in the arcade version? I'm not sure. I didn't like this version much, and I'm not too inclined to check out the others. Kind of disappointing because I did go in with high expectations. Rarely do I see console shmups from this era with averages above 3.5.