Revisited this after playing the other PCE Star Soldier games and it's hard not to feel this is the apex of the TurboGrafx Hu-Card library; it's both the most visually-exciting and tightly knit of its trilogy. Something as simple as having a rival who boasts 'I'll Be Back' after eating shit adds so much raw power to an already exhilarating run. The difficulty curve is rock-solid (until the last stage), the option-bomb system is handled perfectly, and the soundtrack has an 'oomph' that surpasses most other HUC6280 by miles.