I wanted to like this game more with the cool premise of adding rogue-like elements to a scrolling shooter. I'm not a very seasoned player of these games and have only had a limited experience but here's what I found (but YMMV)

Lots of initial choices to outfit your ship. You get a choice of two weapons and they both fire at once. You can supposedly unlock ships later that have different special attacks (bombs) you start out with two.

Ships have stats, your weapons consist of different weight classes (think mechwarrior 2) it's not that complicated because you will simply go for the lasers or maybe the missiles if you really are a crackshot. The novelty of a variety of weapons doesnt last that long. You can upgrade weapons and unlock more as well to 'bigger' versions but in general i find that doesnt really happen due to the weight requiresments of your ship. (You can add those weapons later in a game session at the merchant, if you have the required RAM slots which you could add as you play) At first I thought oh cool this is going to be like Brigador. It was hardly like that at all.

Second element is the cartridges and mission 'challenges'. You unlock a NES styled cartridge at the end of each round if you meet one of the challenges. Therefore you can earn three, and spend them on your next run. They give small bonuses and really seem to do very little. Rarity seems to make no difference, as it seems random really. Most likely this was an idea that was to include achievement like system in which the player redeems some kind of reward but it just dont feel right and wasnt as neat as it looked (not with the rarity and all)

Round end Bonuses/Options (those side cars from R-Type) again these are random, some are great and some arent. and a few will just get you killed, and you have no idea what any of them do! You may unlock one at the end of every round, or you receive another bonus. IMO all the other bonuses are junk compared to the options. And there are actually some super cool ideas too. Discovering what kind of options I had access to was the most enjoyable part of the game, becuase it really does add variety and new elements to it. You can get an option that follows you and shoots a variety of the weapons, or you can get one that acts as a kamikazee with a shield, there is even one that will heal you if you get close to it. Best thing is, they do not die if they get hit. There is even a powerup that will double all the options you own, and another that will double the weapon output of your ship. Unfortuantely there are bonuses that really dont help and IMO are harmful. And you dont know what they do, the flavor text is cryptic. You have to rexperiment and hope for the best, which is frustrating if you finally get something good going then just die because you picking up the bad burrito or gas leak. In the end though whatever you do, you simply must be boosting your attack power.

Which brings me to the fourth element which is the ultimate deal breaker here. I can imagine it is tricky but it has to work somehow, and this game doesnt scale and is otherwise unbalanced to the point it doesnt play the way a shooter ought to. You dont upgrade your attacks for whatever reason you will simply be stuck and waiting to kill even the smallest of minions. If you could endlessly grind and pace yourself this would be no problem, but you can't do that, and the runs are small. on these playthrough where i didnt get a good option or load out and i would get stuck like this i woudl just give up and start over. Man! That really is a drag -_-

which brings me toa fifth element, you dont have to kill most enemies, only certain uniques that spawn (which arent really unique but there are about 3-4 enemies which you have to end before you can clear a stage). There isnt any score or live earning so you dont really have a reason to engage enemies. I do not know why they didnt have a quota system. no shooter i've seen plays like this, and imo, no shooter should play like this. while its intense to fly around, there isnt a necessary reason to fight back in maybe half the level.

next is the fact that it's an unusual play style. mostly it is a slow paced one, things can get thick but things dont move terribly fast and you do have a rather nice ability to do a dodge roll which is quite nice but the tactile control is a bit lacking in the sense you cant end the roll until it's spent, you can however keep moving it while you are in dodge mode. this isnt so bad but it felt a bit awkward at first.

audio and visual are another aspect of the game i had mixed feelings. The initial music is pretty good but it plays every level except the final one. every song is the same. this soundtrack gets old fast. To make it worse, every level also looks the same. there are only 5 maps in total that have a different sprite set. the enemies as well do not really add much to the mix. There are some unique bosses about 9 or so i think, But they dont really look as cool as the old classsic r type bosses. they also dont have violent deaths or explosions or anything of that sort or segmented body parts and such you shoot off. this idea of minibosses is also a bit of a ruse, basically if you encounter one (i havent) it's going to be one of the main 9 that is a weaker version it would seem (so it's not like castlevania rondo of blood) there are little to no audio cues to assist the player. you wont know when a key enemy on the far right is destroyed as you are dodging everything. the explosions and sounds are very muted compared to other sounds. you also wont know when 2 shots kill you or when you have full 38 health or 1.5 in a single hit! Really a decent cue system could have been done better and the nature of this gameplay seems to warrant it.

No ending. No real reward. does the game get longer after a first win? not sure, i dont want to play it again though.

I would suggest not playing this one unless you really like thse kinds of games and play them all and have played the old ones over and over, even then there isnt much variety here either unfortuantely. The game had a good premise, and a lot of that premise was done okay, but its not the best execution or balance, and even with some of that improved it would be strangled in the current system because the real trouble i had was this game suffers as a shooter. I have played R-type gradius contra, darius twin, d-force aero fighters. All those games blow this away by delivering new stuff every step of the way, having unique enemies, changing music interesting bosses, etc. Stellar Interface reminds me of Vanguard for the 2600 with it's whopping 2 levels that alternate over and over until you get to the boss at the end, then start over! it's hard to imagine most picking this up again and playing it after the initial run. This game simply doesnt trump the well known classics via gameplay, sound, or visual elements. I would think anyone who had played lots of these would find some novelty in this game maybe, as it's different. But would of course find a lot of what I was saying as well. again YMMV , maybe you'll unlock something i didnt or maybe updates to this game will overhaul it. but the replayability of this game (which is main prejudice i wnet in with) isnt quite there.