Review GigaDeathNullGolem 4/5 · Jun 15, 2023
Really good but not perfect. (I personally liked the third one more than this)
Wow. Let me start out by saying this is one hell of a game. I remember really loving the third installment of this series. And a lot of what I played I recollected while playing this (about a year later) The basic mechanics work similarly. You dont constantly upgrade a weapon like Gradius, you collect them all! and you …
Wow. Let me start out by saying this is one hell of a game. I remember really loving the third installment of this series. And a lot of what I played I recollected while playing this (about a year later) The basic mechanics work similarly. You dont constantly upgrade a weapon like Gradius, you collect them all! and you can switch to use them in a tactical situation (I.E. Boss fights!) I really like this and it makes the boss fights interesting. The problem is when you die, you lose your weapons! Also, all the weapons are cleverly designed and do have their purposes. You have a snake bomb (which shoots straight up and down) a reverse laser) and some other things, so, wherever the enemy is, you have an attack vector.
Unfortunately, this game (like the last one, haha) is really hard. IT is actually so hard that I don't think I could ever complete a SINGLE level of this game without using save states or emulator tricks Now, considering there isn't an arcade version of this (that the game is ported from) there's little excuse to make the game so difficult. IMO, this is a flaw. I might well be tempted to give it five stars without it. Because the game is really fun, beautiful, and smartly designed otherwise.
This game really does look good. And sounds good. It's every bit as good as the last in these departments, unfortunately though, it does have slow down. and a LOT of it. And its heavy slowdown too at times. It's too bad this is the case because considering its a genesis exclusive (terms that didnt even exist at the time?) i'm actually tempted to dock it star for that alone. The slow down really is terrible and is going to turn many people off.
Honestly though, thy made it so hard, the slow down is a boon (when playing in an emulator especially in conjunction with that handy dandy rewind feature) this hardly good design though, I would venture to argue...
I really did like the weapons in this game and thought they were some of the best designed weapon concepts for the game that they are in. All your attacks really do serve purposes in different situations. The only problem is its' a chore to scroll statically from left to right through them to get the one you're looking for.
Overall this is a great game. Like the rest, it's a very strong series for the Genesis worthing looking into.
Also the 'ultimate weapon' is a second upgrade of your options that seems to shoot more stuff combined with another super weapon. The way you fire it is restrain from shooting, waiting about 4 seconds and then you can fire a really powerful laser with a fixed beam range and two seeking energy waves that do quite a bit of damage. Very helpful in the boss fights you face after getting it. It does save time.
and the boss fights are pretty cool. They are all pretty tactical fights actually and its a game of finding the weak point, whittling them down then finding the next weak point.
A really well diesngned, strong and ideal SHMUP, i just wish it wasn't so hard!