- This Toaplan arcade-only shooter is similar to Truxton in weapon and enemy design, but the gameplay feels smooth and intense like Donpachi. The graphics are fantastic, designed by Junya Inoue, who also worked on Batsugun, DoDonPachi, Guwange, and Deathsmiles.
- Completed level 1/10. Big tank boss, more freaky looking than most big tank bosses.
- Completed level 2/10.
- Completed level 3/10. Defeated the disc throwing boss using the blue beam and a bit of dodging.
- Completed level 4/10. Purple Scorpion was defeated on my first try.
- Completed levels 1-4 while streaming to YouTube - for the first time in 60 fps. :)
- The power-up system is pretty cool. Instead of having a limited supply of smart bombs, you have to choose between a single Bomb or an extremely powerful Speed Up, allowing you to dodge bullets efficiently. Weapon types are selected by picking up a floating power-up, but you cannot power up your weapon any further, which is great, but having to wait for the power-up to change to the correct color gets annoying. I would prefer a button to select weapon type instead.
- Completed level 5/10. The level 5 boss was a horrible nightmare: a giant installation shooting spreads of bullets, and a dragon-looking mouth launching 3 hovering blocks that block your bullets. However, destroying the blocks is problematic, since the boss does a screen-filling vertical attack, lethal everywhere except behing the hovering blocks. After banging my head against the boss fight for half an hour without reaching a sound strategy, I reduced MAME to running at 1/5th its normal speed, making dodging the bullets trivial. The solution to the boss became clear: The 'Psycho Beam' weapon homes in on targets in a soft arc, perfect for positioning myself behind one of the outermost floating blocks and hitting the boss without hitting the blocks, and staying safe during the screen-filling attack.
- Completed level 6/10.
- Completed the game on Normal (2/4) difficulty (MAME). That last boss was super difficult! I practiced for a long time, first in 0.4 speed, then in 0.7 speed, then in full speed. It came down to picking the Psycho Beam, and getting really close to the eye of the boss for as much time as possible, only moving back to make a figure-eight dodge around two sequences of bullets. But after beating it several in practice, I went back to my continue point and quickly got it.
2015-11-08
Stage 1-5
