Horizontal shooter. Drops the two player support of the arcade version and adds the ability to select between eight weapons at the start of each stage or at each continue use instead of four. Also changes some stages and enemies, and removes the ending plot.

You can swap between three speed levels, though I never felt a need to go under the max. As you gain score your weapons level up to five and get stronger, you always have two option weapons you can change between four different modes as you level they both do damage to enemies they touch and destroy some types of enemy bullets. You first have the ability to have them inside your ship or to spin more defensively around you while firing and as you level up you get the choice to have them act more independently as they split up and move around based on your movement and finally you unlock a more aggressive mode that has them both move together locking onto enemies and staying right in front of the until they are destroyed. Some weapons are more viable as you level up like the grenades and some like the homing shot or s laser are great all the time (except for the final boss where they auto aim at an unkillable target). You can take three hits and dying allows you to continue at the start of the stage but you keep your current level progress. Decent music, nothing too interesting about the backgrounds or enemy design but not bad or too repetitive. Solid shooter with a fairly easy normal difficulty (depending on weapon choice, and ignoring the final boss).

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1676354381384675329