+the level design in this game is so wildly varied between stages, with unique enemies in each stage + environmental hazards that will surprise you even deep into a level. it's all bolstered by the fact that the first stage is yours to choose out of five initial planets
+really great tunes in this one. had a friend in college who kept telling me that this was some of the best music ever, which is definitely hyperbole lol but it definitely stands up proud against other genesis soundtracks
+the graphics are unquestionably amazing, especially in terms of framerate stability and the number of sprites on screen at once. this is a pre-snes game and yet when later ported to said system it performed much worse than it does here. the parallax scrolling is also excellent, and the multi-jointed bosses are quite a sight to behold. technosoft were definitely one of the first to start squeezing power out of the genesis
+the pacing for each level is the perfect length to allow someone to learn a stage without it being too long to get a feel for, while also not trivializing the difficulty. it also helps that you only lose a single weapon (and your options) upon death, so you still have your other weapons to work with

-difficulty curve is pretty flat overall, and honestly I'd say gorgon (the usual second stage) was the hardest for me at the end of the day
-final boss felt a little limp, tho this is a really minor nitpick because I also enjoyed not having to try the final boss more than a couple times

after a few weeks of playing through a genesis game a week, this is the first one that's really unquestionably impressed me. I already knew I liked this game quite a bit after trying it here and there over the last year, but finally playing through to the end felt so rewarding. standout shooter of the era and a reminder of why the genesis was so dominant for shmups