It's 'zany' engrish opening sequence spawned a craze. About 50% of all websites on the net have been infected with the AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs craze. Sadly, this is one of them.
So, to attempt to buck this trend, I'll review the actual genesis game - which I actually own. Hah!
The game is a poor ShootEmUp. As is usual, there are powerups and enemies and boss monsters.
You scroll ever onwards to the right, and after five levels of blasting, return to the start with a slightly higher difficulty level. Whee.
In the tradition of all ShootEmUps? the powerups available are:
Red. Multiway shot. The first red powerup gives you side pods. It is possible to miss this and then play a very much harder game.
Blue. Lasers. They only go straight, and don't do very much more damage than red or green, and are thus useless.
Green. Homing. This is the one that you want.
Speed. Go faster. You want this.
1up. Extra life. Useless, but required (as explained later in 'purple')
Bomb.
All powerups are dropped by a distinctive 'barge' ship, which does not fire and moves slowly across the screen. The powerup dropped is always the same for each barge.
There are three levels to each of the coloured guns. Changing colour keeps the same level. You normally want to get to level 3 before you even consider switching - except that the coloured powerups come in repeatable order (red / blue / green / speed and repeat) - so there is no disadvantage to going straight to green.
Speed is obvious - and you want as much as you can get. There are five levels of speed available.
Bomb is very different from most ShootEmUps - it attaches to the front of your ship, absorbs three enemey shots before going boom - or can be activated manually. You do not want to activate it (as explained later in 'purple')
Like most ShootEmUps the game is practically impossible if you die, since you lose all your powerups. Solution? Don't die. Since your pods are invulnerable and absorb enemy fire, this isn't terribly hard.
Tractor Beam
The tractor beam allows you to capture a nearby enemy ship, and then either use it as a shield to absorb an enemy shot, or throw it at other enemies. Since the tractored enemey takes up the same slot used by the bomb, this is useless.
Purple
There is a fourth level of shot available - given through a giant purple powerup. The key to unlocking this powerup seems to be:
Do not allow any enemy shot off the left of the screen. Mop them all up with your pods.
Do not miss any powerups (except for the ones of the colour you are not using) - additional powerups (beyond level 3 shot and level 5 speed) give lots of points, once you collect enough 1up's are dropped instead - and then (with luck) the purple.
Get the bomb. Do not allow it to explode.
Once you have a purple, you can swap between the level four of the shots without losing it. You'll probably stick with green - but level four red is actually quite good.
Levels
I can't remember the names. Either level two or three is Pleades.
Each level has a half-stage boss and an end boss. They are:
Level 1. Giant star thing that shoots big fireballs occasionally and twenty-four way stars repeatedly. To defeat it, stay almost anywhere on the screen (to the far left, or be crushed) and dodge the incoming fire.
Giant - I don't know. Fire whale? Big laser cannon shoots to the left, and slow moving round blue blobs go everywhere. Vulnerable spot is the eye that sometimes opens (as is traditional) stay up and left and duck in for the shot (or use homing fire)
Level 2. Two smaller stars as per level one - but they fire homing missiles. Stay in close to the enemy, and just above or below its primary forward fire. The missiles will impact your pods (or the scenery) Kill the first one before the second one comes on screen for added ease.
Oversized version of the large blue ship - similarly fires aimed stars and giant forward lasers. Stay back to have warning when to dodge the aimed shot, and just stay the heck out of the way of where the laser will go. Homing makes this much MUCH easier.
Level 3. Midlevel boss is a big rubbish machine thing of some type. It dies before you get to see what it is. It has some big firepower, but it gets about one shot before it falls over. Top left is, as usual, safest.
End boss is a larger version of level two's dual mid bosses. Same strategy applies, but they move around more and you're unlikely to be able to kill one before the other arrives. Try to arrange it so that their homing shot hits each other.
Level 4. A giant train. Nowhere to hide, so just dodge the incoming diagonal fire. Take out the turrets as you would the ground turrets you've had to deal with all damn level - and then shoot the main eye (with the starburst) when it opens.
Score
Graphics: 2/10 - waves are repetitive and although each level is coloured differently they all feel pretty much the same. Sound: 7/10 (for a genesis) - music is listenable and has been remixed to death. I've got [some of it here] Story: 0/10 - what story? It's a ShootEmUp. or 9/10 - Engrish! Yay! Gameplay: 2/10 - It's a ShootEmUp with no additions, and it plays very slowly. Durability: 5/10 - I still fire it up sometimes.
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