Look: 8/10 Good consistency to the look of the enemies, creepy eye enemies (those darn running eye ones ha). Plus, always like a woman lead character in an action game. Let's see if she gets sexualized at some point...bikini reveal perhaps? For the most part, just run-of-the-mill colors and look, especially since it's supposed to be earth "but future". Still, nicely consistent theme to the enemies and overall "good" is how I would describe it ha.

Sound: 7/10 At first I didn't notice the music and sound effects, but the boss fights really add some awesome flavor. Plus, after that, I noticed the nice driving bassline and hype music playing throughout.

Play: 7/10 At first just felt like another run of the mill run n gun vertical scroller shoot em up. Like usual, it was best just to focus on dodging the onslaught of enemies and bullets (right off the bat too!) and spam shooting. I was quickly wondering how many stages/how long the game is, which isn't a good sign. But I also quickly noticed how the power-ups worked, I especially liked that they also served as an "additional armour" sort of like in spaceship shoot em ups where your power-ups are extra parts that fall off before you die-die, as in, in Soldier Girl Amazon, instead of dying when you get hit with a power-up, you simply lose that power-up. Plus, I just liked the big breadth of the power-up. Allllso, that moment when you realize you can hijack the enemy vehicles... tho they seemed slower than your normal character, an additional piece of armour is always good. Tight, responsive controls though--as one should expected from arcade games. I don't looooove the 8-directional style shooters, but this one achieves it well (and let's be honest, it's better than 4 directional ha). It just always feels a bit awkward though. I also didn't love that you couldn't shoot through obstacles/things, but the enemies can. I know I keep whining about GnG influence, but that type of mindset that derives, imo, from the microcomputer "harder is better" world wasn't a positive for 86's shift to the "nintendo hard" era. "More fun is better" is my motto! With a caveat of "with sliding scale difficulty settings and/or replayability factors and/or optional side stuff as a way to appeal to better gamers" :-p

Feel: 7/10 It looks like there are 8 stages, seems doable enough. I kept saying in the reviews of the two 1986 arcade platformers I recently played (Quartet and Rygar) how I was disappointed in 1986 action arcade games taking influence from the awful Ghosts n Goblins game, with clunky character controls but smooth and swift enemy mechanics. It seems that plague only really struck the platforming world, because I am delighted to say this game had the tight arcade controls I expect from arcade games. (Not to mention, shoot em ups have grown on me during this chronology project. I used to see no point to them, but as long as there is a set number of unique stages, I surely do now haha. I've never been a hiscore chaser though.) But yeah, gotta love those last minute dodges or shots (if only you could shoot away enemy projectiles though, I always love that for last minute saves).

In no time at all, the first boss fight came along (good sign for the length of the game) and bam! I love that sound effect and change(?) in music! To be honest, I hadn't even noticed the music or sound effects before it lol, just classic shoot em up vibes I guess, but yesssss to this funky boss fight music. I hope that happens at every boss. I do wish there was more strategy to the boss fight, perhaps I didn't realize I was hitting a specific spot or something, but from what I gathered it was Quartet-style shoot-till-flashes-red-oh-then-continue-to-spam-shoot.

Lame that you don't keep your vehicles between stages, but I was cruising in a vehicle soon enough. And had a new wave-gun type power-up. Dig it. And yessss, the 2nd boss fight had different sound effects/music but it was sooo good too. But dang... this 2nd boss fight is way too hard. Maybe there's a strategy I'm missing here? (Nope was just spam hit). And at last! I beat the 2nd boss! But to think there are 7

Attachment: 7/10 I really really wish you could shoot away enemy projectiles. And I wish it were clearer what things you can and can't walk through (since enemies can pass through everything apparently). The bosses always have such cool sounds with them, I still kept thinking that even as the difficulty level was getting to a point I was thinking I can't get past.. Holy crap the third boss took me so many tries lol. This game seems more like a spaceship type shoot em up just in a different setting/concept heh, and well, it's as hard as those :-p I mean my goodness, I was all proud that I managed the 4th boss on my first try (halfway there at last... sad I was counting down... and it didn't feel as good as with 1942's countdown heh, my go-to shmup comparison) and the weird red enemy that spawns purple enemies when you hit it proved to be harder than the boss! Frustrating! I managed to do it but that was frustrating. I was going to call it quits after that but next thing I know I was at the next boss. But my goodness. I liked the four skulls mechanic, and the classic shmup bullet hell, but then the boomerang guys were spawned in the 2nd phase and I wound up in some inescapable situations enough times that I figured it was time to call it quits. 1942 was insanely hard too, but it had something about it that got you to push through. Or maybe just cuz it was an early example, now it's just too frustrating. If you could hit away enemy projectiles, a lot of these inescapable moments would be able to be escaped with skill. As it is, it just ends up too much a bullet hell without the means to combat that (for a player like me).. and to think there were 3 more unique bosses!

Bahaha! Ugh! I wrote all that and then accidentally killed the boss. I guesssss I'm pressing on. (One positive I noticed in the 5th area that most enemy projectiles do get stopped by the obstacles you can't walk/shoot through at least it's fair with that.) Annnnnd then I got to the boss of that area and the sound was familiar... so was the boss. It's the same as the first boss, just harder/faster/etc. I guess I feel fine stopping here cuz I'm exhausted from it. Good game, but not one of my favorite shmups.

Completion: 4 Captured, 116, 200 Score Playtime: ~40 mins (lots and lots of deaths, really could be up to an hour tbh)