Beat on slow motion mode using the red pod laser for the entire game. On the 1st stage I just picked up everything until I realized that it was just switching my weapon. After beating the game I tried out each weapon by upgrading it to the max. Red was a laser where max level spread to both up diagonals. Blue and red/yellow both focused more damage straight ahead while yellow shot blue balls that arced and spiraled around. Yellow was by far the worst weapon because it stayed on screen the longest, thus preventing follow up fire. It was the only weapon that was worse by holding down turbo. The flashing pod gave invincibility, the dome city thing restored hp, and the thin red pod gave the companion thing. The companion also upgraded and used the various shot types but not sure if there was any power difference. It could be free flying, even shooting behind when I moved ahead of it, or attached to the front or back. I used every position depending on which best handled the situation. I always lost it during boss fights because it smashed into the boss. The final boss was the easiest fight because it never approached, I could just stay at the bottom of the screen and shoot away. For every other boss I had to avoid contact damage by circling around it or just strafing out of the way. The bosses were boring and had too much hp making the fights drag on. They all turned invisible throughout the fights which was lame and annoying, especially for every single one. The walkthrough did not mention this so it could have been emulation issue. The regular enemies were all very distinctive, making it easy to tell at a glance what kind of behavior they would do. They were not at all easy to fight though. This game was not really bullet hell, more like enemy hell.

The game felt more primitive than 89 and was a bit of a slog, but the unique enemy movement patterns made it a little refreshing even when compared to SNES shoot em ups.

6.5/10