Preliminary: I jumped into this under the impression it was like a Hogan's Alley--shoot enemies not foes, etc. At first it was so overwhelming, especially when I first headed toward the town which is a bit more confusing of a screen, I wasn't sure who was bad and who was good. Over time, as you will see below, it became quite obvious: the obvious adventurer looking party that wanders from left to right is your team to help protect (they sometimes vaguely fight back and defend themselves, but never rely on that), everything else can be shot. Focus on those enemies and obstacles that will harm your adventurer, until you are good enough to go for higher scores/unnecessary kills/etc.

Look: 8/10 Wow, I wish it were easier to get screenshots from the arcade game. The adventurer sprites were amazing; the bird in the Drawbridge screen was great; most the sprites in general were well-done tho relatively unremarkable; but almost every background/setting/screen was decidedly remarkable. Each fully encompassed their setting, whether desert volcano town etc. This helped translate the potentially bad juxtaposition of an action light gun shooter with an adventure game concept, and it all culminated in a very smooth, enjoyable vibe. Maybe when I replay this on the PC someday to try different routes or to cover each screen and still beat the final boss, I will add some screenshots here. Oh, and I love the scroll that appears for hi scores. To at least give you some idea of the Look and Sound, you can watch here (tho it seems a slightly different version from the arcade machine I was playing):

Sound: 7/10 I lovvvvve the scream of the woman character dying. I know that's awful to say, but those type of death screams are about to become so common in the late 80s and 90s with Mortal Kombat etc. and I've always found those so epic. Anyway, most the ambient sounds were laughable with my brothers but enjoyable and well-done. Some of the sound effects could have been annoying, but luckily the game is fast-paced enough you don't have to fret too much about that. The jingles that exist are good, too.

Play: 8/10 This is basically an adventure game that has action light gun shooter gameplay, hard to explain. Instead of being the adventurers you see, you're apparently the guy in the background shooting a crossbow? to protect the adventurers in what feels like a separate adventure game. It's almost like you're watching someone play an adventure game, not being good at it, so you're in the background playing your action shooter game to help them achieve their goal lol. But regardless, gotta love the idea of you helping adventurers get the treasure and cross safely. The collision masks and target execution are accurate and tight, as to be expected with an arcade game, tho it was frustrating getting to know where to hit enemies/projectiles (but that's not a criticism, just a part of learning the mechanics of the game). I wish it were clearer what path you're taking, the colors don't necessarily correspond to any logic I see. (Thank goodness for this guide showing my brother and me the fastest path to the end, tho we were enjoying the game we did wanna finish it that night after all!) l do wish I had a proper light gun to shoot for it (Arcade Legends machine adapts it to one of those Golden Tee roll-y balls).

Feel: 9/10 I love the concept and "world map"; I love the scroll sound and look for hi scores; I love the "you will die" voice; and most importantly, my brother and I simply had a lot of fun playing it. The colors and graphics and screens are excellent, and contribute to the overall good fun adventurous feel of it. It was nice having my stepdad and brother both glued to the screen too, my brother had tried it but couldn't quite get past the Castle level (at first he got further than me, then vice versa, etc. fun to go back and forth), so in the end it was fun having us all there excited to get through the game. Needless to say, despite having a busy night with family, I kept pushing through despite the usual difficulties and frustrations (sheesh at first the Castle level seemed impossible! let alone the onslaught during the final boss.. pro-tip: your character/s needn't survive the final boss, just shoot both his eyes ASAP when they turn red and you still win, tho I'm sure the survival bonus would be worth getting some day) I wanted to get an image of the ending screen at least, .. this was my 2nd playthrough of it, a little bit lower score, but I managed to get my phone out in time haha

Attachment: 8/10 Wound up beating it twice in that same night (once you get it down, especially the difficult Drawbridge and Final Boss segments, it was quite easy to replicate when my stepdad was curious about it). That says something -- being willing to replay a game at all, let alone immediately. Plus, with the variety of Paths I could have taken (instead of the fastest route), the potential to go for highest score rather than just win, the possibility of multiple or different party members surviving till the end (I only ever had one survive to the final boss, and never had my character survive--just managed to shoot both eyes then we both die lol. Would be worth replaying to see if I can manage to beat the boss while also protecting my party member/s), and it being an arcade game so you can compete with each other--all this accumulates to a lot of replayability.

Completion: Beat the Final Boss twice; Score around 500,000 each time Playtime: ~1 hr