Cleared on March 17th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 58/160)
For a game that tries to match the gameplay of its predecessor on the Arcade in 1988 on the Sega Genesis, it has aged better than it's partner in crime Super Thunder Blade as the openness of the game makes it feel more suited to an arcade port as you don't find yourself being distorted with incoming obstacles nowhere near as much. The game can seem pretty choppy with its frame rate, but after playing it enough, I learn to get used to it. At least it actually stays consistent throughout the game.
The game is a 3D perspective shooter where you can collide with the ground to run across the battlefield at high speed, or fly in the air to hit enemies in the sky and avoid ground attacks. There's nothing much else to it. Just shoot and dodge. The controls do handle itself well as I never really felt like it was working against me, and the speed isn't too slow that it makes the attacks unavoidable, but not too fast that you just accidentally crash into something.
One thing I find odd about the game is that it doesn't follow the usual conventions of distributing music. Most games will have it so that every stage has its own level, but the boss themes are shared across most bosses in the game (usually aside from the final boss theme getting its own theme). However, this is a case of the same song playing across the levels, a really long song, but every boss in the game has its own theme. It's odd, but in retrospective, it made the boss rush towards the end a little more bearable.
The bosses are relatively simple once you get them down. Really most of them amount up to keep moving so you don't get shot although some of them such as the cat do try to make things more interesting. There's 12 before you get to the final boss, and you will have to fight them all once you clear all 12 levels with significantly less health before you can take on the final boss. I know people really hate boss rushes because they are always there to pad out gameplay although personally I've never really minded all that much. As for the final boss, he is really hard, especially when he transforms into a spiraling fireball and charges at you, and he just attacks really fast in general. And everytime you hit him, he will teleport.
For what it is, I thought the game was fine. Dare I say, with enough practice, I think it could actually be one of the easier games in the Genesis lineup.
For a game that tries to match the gameplay of its predecessor on the Arcade in 1988 on the Sega Genesis, it has aged better than it's partner in crime Super Thunder Blade as the openness of the game makes it feel more suited to an arcade port as you don't find yourself being distorted with incoming obstacles nowhere near as much. The game can seem pretty choppy with its frame rate, but after playing it enough, I learn to get used to it. At least it actually stays consistent throughout the game.
The game is a 3D perspective shooter where you can collide with the ground to run across the battlefield at high speed, or fly in the air to hit enemies in the sky and avoid ground attacks. There's nothing much else to it. Just shoot and dodge. The controls do handle itself well as I never really felt like it was working against me, and the speed isn't too slow that it makes the attacks unavoidable, but not too fast that you just accidentally crash into something.
One thing I find odd about the game is that it doesn't follow the usual conventions of distributing music. Most games will have it so that every stage has its own level, but the boss themes are shared across most bosses in the game (usually aside from the final boss theme getting its own theme). However, this is a case of the same song playing across the levels, a really long song, but every boss in the game has its own theme. It's odd, but in retrospective, it made the boss rush towards the end a little more bearable.
The bosses are relatively simple once you get them down. Really most of them amount up to keep moving so you don't get shot although some of them such as the cat do try to make things more interesting. There's 12 before you get to the final boss, and you will have to fight them all once you clear all 12 levels with significantly less health before you can take on the final boss. I know people really hate boss rushes because they are always there to pad out gameplay although personally I've never really minded all that much. As for the final boss, he is really hard, especially when he transforms into a spiraling fireball and charges at you, and he just attacks really fast in general. And everytime you hit him, he will teleport.
For what it is, I thought the game was fine. Dare I say, with enough practice, I think it could actually be one of the easier games in the Genesis lineup.