An exceptional horizontal cute-em-up, exclusively for PSX.
I was waffling between 3.5 and 4, as the scoring in this game is both super compelling on its surface and--at times--very annoying to actually execute. It revolves, primarily, around damaging large enemies just enough to almost kill them, and then bombing when a ton of smaller enemies are onscreen to finish them off and cash in on a huge multiplier (which increases for every enemy killed with a single "projectile").
Figuring out just how much damage to do to these larger enemies takes some trial and error, and you'll often overshoot it and frustratingly miss out on a jackpot. Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities, and you get an extra life every 500,000 points, which is extremely generous; so, after some practice, the system becomes a bit more lenient, because with more score comes more bombs, and more bombs equals more attempts at massive cash-outs. (On my clearing run I scored around 6 million points, which is 12 lives on top of those I started with!)
In addition to the addictive gameplay--in which you cycle between four different shots that have four unique bomb types--the sprites, backgrounds, and music in this game are Konami-esque in quality. Beautiful animations, a huge and gorgeous palette of bright colors, massive bosses, silly gags--it's all just as delightful as it tries to be.
There's an English patch out there, and the game actually does have a story, ridiculous though it may be; so check that out if you don't speak Japanese and want to give this a shot.
I was waffling between 3.5 and 4, as the scoring in this game is both super compelling on its surface and--at times--very annoying to actually execute. It revolves, primarily, around damaging large enemies just enough to almost kill them, and then bombing when a ton of smaller enemies are onscreen to finish them off and cash in on a huge multiplier (which increases for every enemy killed with a single "projectile").
Figuring out just how much damage to do to these larger enemies takes some trial and error, and you'll often overshoot it and frustratingly miss out on a jackpot. Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities, and you get an extra life every 500,000 points, which is extremely generous; so, after some practice, the system becomes a bit more lenient, because with more score comes more bombs, and more bombs equals more attempts at massive cash-outs. (On my clearing run I scored around 6 million points, which is 12 lives on top of those I started with!)
In addition to the addictive gameplay--in which you cycle between four different shots that have four unique bomb types--the sprites, backgrounds, and music in this game are Konami-esque in quality. Beautiful animations, a huge and gorgeous palette of bright colors, massive bosses, silly gags--it's all just as delightful as it tries to be.
There's an English patch out there, and the game actually does have a story, ridiculous though it may be; so check that out if you don't speak Japanese and want to give this a shot.