Every Mega Drive Shoot Em Up REVIEWED!

do you love the mega drive do you love shooters if so then you're gonna love this video every single mega drive shooter ever released over 70 games ranked and reviewed using real hardware whenever possible that includes the cd and the 32x now i don't own every single mega drive shooter but i do have a lot and some really good ones but i've played them all just for you the good the bad and the ugly you'll see all-time favorites along with some real turds but most important is that you may discover some amazing obscure games that you've never played or knew existed we've got a lot to cover so without further ado every single mega drive shooter [Music] [Music] of all the sega 3d rail shooters afterburner was my favorite for its crazy fast missile smoking barrel rolling action and it was a solid port on the mega drive capturing some of what made the game fun in arcades given the limitations of the hardware sure the graphics can't even come close with any kind of scaling launch or refuel sequences completely removed but the great sega gamepad goes a long way to making the game feel comfy to play this port was also compatible with the xc1 ap one of the first ever analog home controls and supposedly made controlling afterburner a real treat i reviewed the nec port not long ago in my every pc engine shooter video and compared them side by side long story short i do prefer that version for its smooth 60 fps performance and the more prominent great music tracks though the mega drive port has the much better sound effect and still has good music overall [Music] but we're honestly splitting hairs here as both ports were well done for the time so i give afterburner 2 on mega drive a b just like i did on pc engine as both ports stand toe-to-toe in terms of which version one prefers but wait there was a second port afterburner complete released much later for the 32x and of course it's no contest here with it blowing away the cartridge only ports in terms of visuals the music is also freaking fantastic and really elevates complete in terms of fun factor [Music] but don't go expecting arcade perfect it's still not on the level of resolution and detail compared to the arcade and runs at half the frame rate 30 fps versus not just the arcade but also the older ports that being said it's clearly the best of the bunch and a showcase for the 32x an 8-year port for being as impressive as it is oh baby you know where airbuster is going on this list one of my all-time faves by developer kaneko and one of the better shooters on the mega drive i did a detailed head-to-head comparison of the mega drive port versus pc engine some time ago and despite growing up playing it on the turbo graphics and loving it the mega drive port won me over not surprising given it was ported by kaneko themselves and really this version is possibly better than the arcade while it may give up some detail in the graphics department it still looks great with bright colorful visuals plenty of parallax but the crown jewel here is the music which is damn good using the yamaha sound chip [Music] it stands up to the awesome pc engine tunes overall level 2 notwithstanding but exceeds that version in both graphics and gameplay this port has some loading times between stages to decompress the graphics and fit so much onto the cart loading times the pc engine port doesn't have but the end results are worth it both versions have the infamous space physics on stage four and five where the game decides it wasn't already hard enough and makes your ship move with inertia oh and have fun trying to collect all these power ups that simply explode all over the screen it's like the developers just wanted to piss you off with unusual gimmicks but then make a game that's so cool otherwise you just want to keep playing i ranked it an 8-year game on pc engine and in my opinion it's in a plus on the mega drive and one of the top shooters on the console aeroflash is the first of many mega drive games published by renovation on this list an underappreciated shooter and one that didn't impress me much when i first played it as a kid but i've slowly come around to it since i can remember my initial reaction that of excitement and being impressed with the colorful graphics cool intro and mech designs that reminded me a bit of macross and gundam and it had a really cool mechanic where your special attack allowed you to kamikaze through enemies and bosses but the further i played the less impressed i was with the total package the music was good that was a plus [Music] but the gameplay felt a bit generic and far too easy with slow down throughout my friend rented it for the weekend and i blew through it on the first or second try thinking that was okay and cool i guess but looking back at it now i see it through a different lens as being one of the best for beginners yes my criticisms are still valid if you're a shooter aficionado the gameplay isn't going to keep your attention from multiple playthroughs but for many who weren't so skilled in the genre back then they have very fond memories as it allowed them to progress farther than normal and get a glimpse of what it felt like to be proficient in a shooting game i'd recommend aeroflash to any beginner looking for a mega drive shooter to try out because it does have a good presentation and is solid overall and the difficulty may be just what the doctor ordered so while the game overall is average it's well put together without broken mechanics or glaring flaws making it a great entry point for novices to enjoy [Music] [Applause] atomic robo kid developed by infamous upl known for some cool and other not-so-cool shooters they were known for games with some huge character sprites and robo-kit is no exception unlike the pc engine version which was more of a remix with an added health bar the mega drive port is more faithful to the arcade for better or worse it is a bit easier but not by a huge margin and can still be quite frustrating with clunky controls and one-hit kills even if the time limit from the arcade is removed the music and sound effects can be a bit harsh and grading so how much you enjoy robokid will depend on what you're looking for as it plays nothing like a traditional shooter it's generally linear with a bit of exploration but it just doesn't come together into a fun game that i want to replay now mr helly by irem in both the arcade and pc engine did this concept far better than robo kid but despite this it is unique even if it's not the best executed i gave the pc engine port a b as i found it less frustrating to play and with catchier remixed music so despite being more arcade accurate that's not always a good thing and this port isn't what i rather play giving it a similar but lower c plus [Applause] [Music] [Music] okay calling atomic runner a shooter is a bit of a stretch it's an auto scrolling part shooter part platformer mix that's hard to place but it's also 100 awesome and one of my favorite games on the mega drive released in the arcades by data east way back in 1988 as atomic runner cell knob the later mega drive port enhanced the original in almost every way and turned it into what i consider a criminally unknown classic one of the rare games that can be replayed endlessly and enjoyed every time the soundtrack is brilliant from start to finish upbeat and pumping as you run your way through each level the graphics are on point with detailed backdrops cool designs with lots of variety and plenty of creative bosses but the star of the show is the level design timing is everything with an auto scrolling screen so routing the levels to not miss jumps grab power ups and take out incoming enemies is just as important as any other shooter you can turn around to shoot backwards but the screen keeps moving so there's always forward momentum and no time to ponder your next move later stages will have you bouncing from object to enemy with no ground below all while shooting down incoming enemies because the stage layouts and enemies never change and are always predictable what originally seems overly tough is actually very playable with some basic memorization the best shooting games get you into a zone where you feel like you're playing in rhythm with the game and atomic runner does it about as well as any of them [Music] from its presentation and awesome music to improving on the arcade original and making it the definitive version it really can't be faulted in almost any way and it happens to be one of my favorites as well an easy s-tier choice if there ever was one haven't played atomic runner yet i highly recommend you do [Music] barry arm or android assault is the classic hidden gem not getting much attention upon release since it was on the sega cd it had some of the coolest mech and boss designs of any game that generation along with some of the best overall sprite work some of the stages are truly stunning in both design and execution and need to be played to truly appreciate and it comes with a pretty rock and seedy soundtrack to match with a definite gate of thunder rock vibe [Music] i make that comparison as it looks like a thunder force or gate of thunder style game taking many of their ideas along with other popular games like gradius it also shares some of their features like adjustable speed and instant respawn as well as paying homage to many of those games but it's not often asthmatic and prioritizes your charge mechanic rewarding patience and careful dodging to unleash a fully charged shot instead of holding down the shot button it charges automatically when not firing so you'll often find yourself waiting and weaving unleashing a power shot then doing it all again when fully powered you transform into mech form with upgraded weapons and the ability to take a hit which one you do reverts you back to ship form the mech has a bigger hitbox and isn't always able to dodge dense bullet patterns so timing your charge shots and memorization becomes an even greater priority the bosses are always large and impressive taking a good bit of time to take down in a real highlight of the game just a beautiful looking and sounding game in general with a pretty unique play style all its own it's not as blood pumping as gate or lords of thunder nor the thunder force games but it has its own cool factor and deserves mention as one of the console's best it's fun to play from the opening moments and excellence in execution and far better than many other mega drive shooters that get more attention barry arm is an easy a tier game and a must play for anyone that hasn't [Music] adventurous boy a game you've probably never heard of i sure didn't until making this video turns out it's an unlicensed taiwanese game a shameless rip-off of the much better fantasy zone first impressions are deceiving as it actually looks decent you fly around destroying generators across the state powering up at the shop and once they're destroyed the boss shows up but where it completely falls apart is the shoddy programming if you're into scoring forget it as it resets at the start of each stage your final score will be your score from the last stage rest of the game be damned but overall the game is just lackluster yet despite this it's not very hard and once powered up with plenty of speed many will finish it without too much trouble but it's really not worth it despite it initially looking decent if it didn't have some of the silly glitches maybe it would be slightly below average but in this case adventurous boy is a d saved from a failing grade with its decent graphics and music but failing just about everywhere else but hey at least it's an unlicensed game and not something sega officially approved [Music] all you need to know about battle squadron is right here on this dude's face the eating grin of the sadistic programmer eagerly anticipating your reaction to the torture he's created for you yes battle squadron can be as obnoxious as it is brutal but it can also be pretty cool originally an amiga game you have an overworld stage that loops endlessly and you'll have to enter the underground areas to progress once you do is when the fun begins and you better be powered up if you don't want to get murdered in short order there are three entrances in total getting meaner and nastier to the point of literal bullet helm but if the game was just hard i'd have no complaints no this is where the sadism begins making it extra difficult is an absolute shooting no-no having you and enemies disappear under foreground elements making you guess and anticipate their trajectory aimed shots will come out of nowhere to surprise you obscured by the scenery not just a random shot here and there but tons of them along with the incoming enemies apparently this wasn't the case with the amiga original making it a fair if difficult game one of the best on the system but this developer decided to just throw in parallax foreground elements because they look cool it's a shame as when battle squadron is on and not actively blocking your view it can be some serious bullet health fun there's even a really cool menu option to choose both the max bullet count and bullet speed the graphics are decent if not on par with the amiga original the music is good even if it's the same track looping on itself [Music] and getting your dodge on through this 16-bit bullet health will have your palms sweating but coupled with your huge hitbox powering down two levels upon death and the obscured bullets you'll be seeing commander barry grinning every time the game screws you over making this mega drive port an exercise in frustration so beware or play the amiga version if you can because this one is a c tier on the mega drive if you've never played battle mania known as troubleshooter in the west just put it on your list now and make sure you do soon after the video it's without a doubt one of the most unusual creative quirky and fun shooters on the mega drive think of it like the old anime dirty pair turned into a shooter and you'll have an idea what to expect it oozes that 80s anime style and there's almost no other like it no not choeniki funky but cheesy and loony all of the sprite work and design are outstanding and the music is really catchy and while all of it would be refined even farther in the amazing sequel that we'll look at next the original game is still a wonderful labor of love by the developers who you can tell were having a blast making battle mania everything they wanted it to be now the coolest mechanic in the game is that feeling of playing as two characters at once with you playing as the yellow-haired mania while your friend maria can be pointed in either direction to fire you can also charge a variety of special weapons and use them at will it can be a bit tough getting used to the very large character sprite but you can take plenty of hits and the overall challenge is quite easy you will need to memorize a bunch of environmental obstacles and stages to make it through on a credit but if you don't mind some memo this is a great game for beginners as it hands out a ton of extra lives along with your health bar so battle mania is one hell of a unique game and while a bit too quirky in its execution to be an s-tier game it's still one heck of a fun time and an easy aid with its only real negative being a lack of challenge for anyone experienced but if you're a fan of the mega drive or shooters in general you'd be crazy not to check it out the original battle mania was so fun it deserved a sequel and it turned out even better battle mania 2 isn't just a hidden gem but one of the best shooters on the mega drum and it never made it out of japan the graphics aren't just cool and quirky but now some of the best on the system with tons of effects parallax and ultra creative environmental hazards the music isn't just catchy but again now one of the best game soundtracks on the mega drive elevating the awesomeness of the experience even farther [Music] everything is more detailed bigger badder and more fun than the original one of the coolest stages has maria driving while you fire away at the a giant ghost whale truck and all while these weird flying super mario rip-offs and other homages fly by before eventually blowing off his face and heading inside the stage designs are always impressive and never overstay their welcome you can now choose in the menu whether to play traditional or upgraded four or eight-way multi-directional shooting taking more skill to pull off but also giving you more versatility as you move your angle of shot changes direction and when you fire it locks static so it does take a bit of getting used to but is very much worth mastering battle mania 2 is also a wonderful beginner shmup as the difficulty is on the easier side and rewards level memorization and practice and it's just so easy on the eyes and ears that combined with its accessibility is one i recommended in my best shmups for beginners video it's by no means a traditional shooter so it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea everything about this game screams love attention to detail and quality making it an easy s-tier game in the mega drive library and one of the best on the system [Applause] [Music] biohazard battle got base one of the most deeply atmospheric and unique shooters on the mega drive there's really not much else quite like it you choose between four bioships and descend into a dark foreboding world invaded by every type of grotesque mutation and heightened by the bass heavy sound effects an incredibly effective impressive soundtrack [Music] the backgrounds aren't too impressive on a technical level but are made up for by the excellent stage layout and super cool bestiary most environments have an eerie vibe like you're infiltrating an alien sanctum with the environment overgrown or subverted in some way [Music] there's also a great sense of progression from stage to stage with you being dropped from your ship and descending to the planet and city then into a forest and underground mine into the oceans and eventually the core the enemies run the gamut remnants of a biological war that raged across the planet leaving it teeming with mutations of every kind and the way many come swarming onto the screen almost darting around giving them a realistic and unpredictable nature is a very nice touch i can't stress how much i love the creativity in this game [Music] it's got the feel of a good b flick not overly fancy and maybe a bit low budget but so out of the norm and interesting you want to keep seeing it through the weapon power-ups affect each ship differently so it's fun to experiment with the different variants along with a satellite that moves in your opposite direction providing more firepower and a barrier from incoming bullets a key part of the gameplay along with a charge shot trust me you'll want this kick-ass orange homing laser in your loadout for a good portion of the game [Music] it starts out pretty accessible but really spikes the difficulty toward the final stages requiring the right weapon loadouts to make it through alive there's also a bit of slowdown here and there when things get busy but you'll almost welcome it and it doesn't take much away from the game so biohazard battle isn't nearly the most technically impressive game on the system but it's one of the coolest and most atmospheric a game doesn't need to have top tier graphics and presentation to be a solidly fun shooter or even be perfectly executed it just has to be supremely original and replayable a memorable game one keeps coming back to for all the right reasons biohazard battle is proof of that [Music] [Music] what in the hell did i just play right now who in their right mind would make a shmup with a giant snail-spaced ship that crawls along the screen bioship paladin more like bioshit paladin that's what most people probably thought playing this for the first time it certainly does not leave a good first impression confusing first-time players with why anyone would make a game like this your ship gets bigger and bigger as you power up you're slow as death your forward shot is weak and it's impossible to dodge bullets did they make this just to piss people off well no not at all this game is another upl special developers of atomic robo kid so the first thing you need to know is you're playing it wrong the whole idea is that your ship is like a giant moving city a cruiser and you're not supposed to play it like a normal shooter instead you leave your ship on autopilot and man the real weapon a super powerful missile command like barrage using the reticle which annihilates enemies far more quickly and cancels most of the bullets on screen bioship paladin isn't so much a shmup as it's a dynamic slow scrolling missile command you can't control your ship and man the guns at the same time so you steer into safe spots on the screen then unleash your main weapon and clear the screen knowing when to have your guns blazing versus packing up shop and moving somewhere else is the name of the game and once you figure out how it's meant to be played you may actually enjoy it or you may also still hate it as it's very much an acquired taste and on the whole they executed their goals well there's a lot of strategy involved in placing yourself in the right positions knowing when to unload and when to move it's decent to look at and colorful even the music has its moments but in terms of shooters it's about as unique as they come it's unusual it's janky and it's slow but it's also again anything but average and deserves kudos for the unique ideas it brings to the table if you like the idea of a very slow strategic and plotting shooter where you can't really dodge and will focus on your placement and mowing down enemies like in a rail shooter then this one may be for you as aside from some technical issues and slow down you'll either like it or hate it but it's really not a bad game unless you just dislike what it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] burning force may be another space hearing or clone but at least it's a good one and probably the least well known oh and that killer cover art damn it has some of the better scaling effects on the system and does a really good job of duplicating the arcade feel no it doesn't come close to technical marvels like panoramicon which you'll see later but it's definitely more technically accomplished than the afterburner port having some cool faux scaling the scrolling and controls are smooth and the enemies varied across stages and plenty of bosses along the way to keep things interesting despite the backgrounds remaining pretty static overall the music is honestly hit and miss with some of the tunes being quite catchy [Music] but others kind of annoy the gimmick is hoverbikes through the first two areas of each stage that eventually upgrade into a full-on ship for the final section and boss giving you more freedom of movement vertically and making those stages the most fun to play there's also the unique heads up display showing your current speed level which can be changed on the fly along with warnings for incoming enemies from behind you have various weapon type upgrades limited missiles and even invincibility extra mechanics that simpler games like space harrier and afterburner didn't have and it all works out into one of the best and most replayable rail shooters on the system now it's not nearly perfect and hits some serious limitations down the stretch on the final level especially in terms of what it can even replicate from the arcade kind of running out of gas toward the end making for an underwhelming finale but it's still an overall good game i was personally never a fan of rail shooters at home feeling like they lose a lot without the arcade machine and specialized hardware that makes it unique but it's as good as it can be given the limitations and a solid port earning itself a b on this list it should come as no surprise that the best thing about super airwolf is the copyright infringed main theme of the tv show that badass tune can make just about any average game into a good one on nostalgia factor alone but even that awesome theme still isn't enough to save this cheap imitation of twin cobra for mediocrity once the cool factor of hearing the airwolf theme subsides you're left with a hybrid shooting running gun that doesn't do anything well the graphics are basic and bland the stages and enemies repetitive and the controls wonky with poor hit detection to boot you start out with a shooting stage then transition to an up-close view over the base followed by a commando style sequence which is even worse then finally flying back out to finish the stage and fight the bugs i give them props for trying to mix all these elements together but none of them really work i admit i never really played this game back in the day i probably wouldn't remember as the us version had the airwolf theme stripped and the game called crossfire removing the one cool thing that it even had going for it but you can understand why the game has even more elements at play like selecting your shot type at the start of levels and even a shot for upgrades it does a whole lot but it does it all in poor fashion making it a weird mess of bad to worse interludes even the sound effects suck look it's not completely terrible and i'm sure some of you have nice nostalgic memories playing this as a kid but aside from the music this game is below average in nearly every way with janky programming and not many redeeming qualities the show was awesome but the game is a d just play twin cobra and blast the airwolf theme from your computer speakers instead this one did not make a success [Music] [Applause] one bad turn deserves another apparently as now we hit what some consider one of the worst shooters on the mega drive though i wouldn't go nearly that far in fact during my research i found an old sega pro set of magazine reviews that gave curse a straight up zero a zero they literally said it's a sad day when a game like this gets released and its only novelty is being the worst ever shoot em up guess they never played deep blue but then again they gave burning force a crap score too so i don't listen to that rag anyway first off it's got a really competent soundtrack with some stages being quite good second the graphics and art design isn't bad at all the game has plenty of parallax and bold colors almost psychedelic in a way and that cover art is awesome so it starts off on the right foot and is certainly no zero but i'll admit it falls apart quite a bit from there as the programming is straight up terrible the frame rate is bad to the point where you can see layers chopping along in the background and the slowdown can become downright obnoxious it also pulls completely amateur mistakes like not being able to tell whether some objects are obstacles or not but it's completely silly some objects you can shoot through and enemies will pass through so you'd think it was a background object but nope when you try to fly through it it'll damage you it'd be sad if it wasn't so comical which is a shame as there's potentially a decent game hiding in here somewhere and if you can overlook the shoddy frame rate and poor design and memorize the jank i've played far worse games in terms of aesthetics music and outright fun curse can be somewhat fun sometimes but it's certainly not good either not a zero not an f but it is another dud and more of a curiosity than something worth playing [Music] the cursed knight is a brand new mega drive game just released in 2022. can you believe it and one of my favorite channels stika already did a great review for it so for this segment let's do something a bit different and show you some choice clips from his review take it away buddy the game is a mix of a shmup and a platformer with the platformer bits being heavily inspired by metal storm for the nes well actually the cursed knight has a lot of different genres mixed but i'll get to that in a second so in the platformer sections you can run jump double jump shoot and slide the controls are kind of like mega man in that regard and my first impression of the game is that uh yeah i'm uh i'm not loving this it's a competent shmoop i guess but it's also kind of slow and boring couple dead with these slow enemy bullet speed and the relatively low number of enemies on screen and it all just feels kind of bland to be honest even the visuals are kind of not really doing it for me but now here's the thing this game gets better once you reach level 3 and onwards it's like the game does a 180 flip you also have more enemy variety more health and weapon pickups and you even get a third weapon pickup which can also be upgraded making both the on foot and the shmp sessions more fun as you switch between weapons ready in silver gun style not to mention the bosses get more interesting with more complex patterns and gameplay mechanics hell even the music got good all of a sudden and then you keep on playing even more and again gets even better and look at this now you're even further inside the beast fighting these monsters within and then you get to this boss fight and what is going on here the first two stages were long dull and uninteresting and then it becomes an okayish gang then pretty interesting and suddenly it gets really awesome and then after that you have the best schmub stage in this entire game what is going on i'm so lost right now i don't know what's happening anymore like remember that akira bike we saw before yeah you actually get to write that which is pretty awesome and you get to view it from the side and the back and some of the bosses look like they could have been the cover art for a heavy metal album so is the game any good well a third of it is not that great a third of it is pretty good and the final third is amazing overall the cursed night is a mediocre good and amazing game all at the same time it's an inconsistent experience that is honestly just shy of true greatness thankfully the good parts more than make up for the bad ones [Music] insects in space started with galaga and revisited ever since i was surprised to learn that dangerous sea was actually meant as a sort of sequel to the classic turned into a vertical shooter though the graphics initially come off as a bit primitive there's a lot of creativity and effects throughout the stages along with a host of insect and alien themed bosses the music is also quite good and accompanies the fast-paced gameplay [Music] it tries to be unique with a sort of terra crest alike system where you gain new attachments to your ship as you progress through levels each can be swapped into the lead changing your firepower and strategy it doesn't have nearly the impact of the cresta games but does serve as a way to take extra hits before death in fact the game can be pretty easy overall with each ship giving you three hits and with three ships stacked giving you nine add in the very generous bomb drops throughout and it's a casual playthrough as long as you can remain mostly sped up and powered up you can bomb and coast through much of it and melt most bosses in no time so the combination of easy sometimes repetitive and simple gameplay won't appeal to everyone but i admit that i dig it it's nothing sensational but solid fast shooting with good variety and catchy music almost reminds me of an early pc engine style caravan shooter with a bit of crest of flavor [Music] but not as polished or accomplished but because of its simple look and nature it's a game that doesn't get nearly enough love and at its core can be straight-up fun a lower b-tier game in my book even if not particularly memorable it's worthy of checking out [Music] darius extra version is bar nut the best and coolest home port of the original darius around and rightfully so given it's a new project only released in 2019 what started as a fan made game got picked up by taito and m2 and ended up being a fully fledged amazing mega drive port first released on the mini then given its own physical release on cartridge extra version now has three modes old new and extra with old being the arcade original along with the tankiest bosses while new tones it down a bit but extra mode makes it the most accessible integrates respawns instead of checkpoints reworks enemy patterns across stages changes up to bosses has multiple difficulty modes and actually gives you three credits to learn the game versus the originals not having such mercy like the pc engine port you get all 26 bosses now including those from darius ii and the cart even has boss rush modes for every one of the versions along with other typical m2 quality of life features including the ability to change up the massive boss roster something you'd of course never get on an original mega drive game i'll be honest the original darius was never my favorite simply because it was so basic and limited in stage variety and yet it still had tons of branches and bosses to explore and this extra version makes it the most fun it's ever been there's no denying its classic status and influence and this is as good as it gets it's almost unfair to rank because you're looking at a modern m2 release and not a classic mega drive game but it really can't be anything but s tier as the best og hardware poured around it has too much love poured into it from the original developer all the way to m2 taking it to the next level darius extra is the definitive 16-bit port of darius just as it was meant to be [Music] now darius ii is an original mega drive game and not a modern remake and while clearly not as inclusive as the original extra version is still a solid port of what in my opinion is the best of the original games prior to the amazing darius guide it takes everything that made the original a classic and improves the graphics variety and bosses yes it still has that don't die style of gameplay as ending up with a basic peashooter will most certainly spell your doom and have you starting over it takes so long to fully power up that once you finally do it's kind of a reward to see the destruction it causes thankfully this home port isn't nearly as brutal as the arcade so many will find it more accessible to enjoy and learn aside from the lack of co-op versus the arcade it does a very faithful job of recreating the experience given it's limited to a single monitor the problem for me is the pc engine port super darius 2 has been my favorite of them all for some time as despite being less arcade faithful on purpose it adds so much of its own and becomes a game i like even more by not completely powering you down at death yet still remaining quite challenging having great remixed music tracks that i enjoyed and a ton of new bosses shoved in due to the extra storage of the cd it was a wonderful port packed with more content and my favorite version to play despite being less arcade accurate a game i gave a b grade to in that review by comparison the mega drive port is certainly more like the arcade so if you're a purist that'll be your choice but darius 2 is excellent no matter how you play it and i'm giving this solid mega drive port a b as well [Music] bet you've never heard of darwin 4081 and one look at these graphics will have you thinking oh god here comes another cheap dud but believe it or not you'd be mistaken okay not about the graphics they're pretty lame but that's because the game is actually a port of data east's super real darwin back in 1987 so the visuals are actually quite faithful to the original the music isn't bad either actually improved over the arcade and fits the game quite well [Music] but most importantly this game is fun and well put together the scrolling is smooth and there's no slowdown to speak of so it plays fast its gimmick is that you evolve your ship with power ups as you progress watching both your weapon upgrade considerably and your ship grow and change shape but all future evolution is timed so if you don't pick up the next evol item you'll devolve a level and so on along with getting hit of course which will knock you back there's even a second level of evolution called beevo applying another upgrade based on your current state that along with ground bombs making you play a good bit like xevius only faster makes up the core gameplay another feature are these dna pickups which depending on how many you can stalk will actually power your ship right back up after death so you're not stuck with an immediately weak ship as usual data east has a lot of cool ideas going on now that's not to say darwin 4081 is a top tier shooter but it's far better and more solid than it looks so there's lots of enjoyment to be had if you can look past the lackluster presentation but a b-tier shooter for me and worth checking out if you value tight gameplay above all else [Music] looking for some uh hentai with your shooters then you've come to the right place just don't expect a good shooter to come along with it not sure what the story is exactly but i believe you go around rescuing these ladies and then they do a striptease for you as gratitude tame by today's standards but you gotta remember this was pre-internet where finding a glimpse of any action was scarce at least without raiding your dad's stash of playboys but if you mowed lawns and saved pennies to finally import this unlicensed turd you were gonna be disappointed unless you really only cared about the cutscenes in between as the game itself is rubbish amateur or ugly presentation can be forgiven when the game behind it is solid like the cool darwin 4081 i just reviewed prior but in this case it's all downhill you get no power ups at all in the game with your weapon simply upgrading as your score increases which means after death it's another slow slog back to a decent shot the enemies are boring and repetitive and there's no satisfaction to blowing them up bosses are one note and repeat the same single pattern endlessly and the attempt at colorful graphics and the weird parallax only ends up being an eyesore and hard to look at to the point of distraction the sound is also bad and just grating [Music] the only positive if you can call it that is that the game is on the easy side and once it does get harder you'll likely have acquired a good bit of extends so you won't be beating your head against the wall or enduring tedium and frustration trying to slog your way through it'll be a quick boring experience probably like your first lady or at least that's what she said divine ceiling is simply amateur lazy low effort and unfun an absolute f if there ever was one and you know what i'll add in a plus for the naked chicks but that's all it's getting from me maybe if i was my 12 year old self it'd rate higher for the sheer novelty but if you want at least a half decent shooter with some hentai play steam hearts on pc engine instead oh god make it stop there's worse games than divine ceiling on the mega drive the earth defend may be one of them or maybe not it's kind of hard to decide the graphics here aren't nearly as offensive but just plain simple and low-tech and some of the tunes are actually halfway decent but they're ruined by some extremely annoying sound effects whether it's the chirp of your shot or the grating sound of your aeroflash rip-off attack it makes the game hard on the ears and ruins any enjoyment from the music but the big offender here is the shoddy programming inducing constant slowdown triggered easily without almost anything happening on screen the scrolling and frame rate will constantly fluctuate from okay to choppy any time the screen gets remotely busy like they forgot to enable the blast processing switch on the inside dash if you were a mega drive owner that wanted to get a taste of playing some of those early slow down ridden super nintendo games the earth defend was the one to pick up only some of those super nes shooters were still really good games despite their crippling slowdown with gorgeous graphics that slowed the system to a crawl in earth defend there's nothing to justify the slowdown and it doesn't take much to have you playing like you're flying through molasses the bosses are either easy and die quickly when powered up or take forever and get monotonous if you happen to die and are trying to kill them with no power apparently this company real tech has a reputation for making some crap unlicensed games so be warned if it were just lame and boring i'd be willing to cut it some slack but the ridiculous slowdown shoots this one down into f territory i've played worse but it doesn't deserve a passing grade there's games with good music there's games with great music and then there's games with god tier music and elemental master is one of them a ground-based shooter by technosoft with arguably some of the most incredible music of the 16-bit era elemental master simply rocks [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the music alone in this game puts it into the a tier even if the rest sucked thankfully it doesn't you might say the graphics are the least standout part of the game at least in terms of what we're used to from technosoft but even then they're solidly above average that doesn't include the cool intro and ending which really adds to the game's story and character and is still memorable today but elemental master is truly great because of its fast paced fun and fluid gameplay while rocking out [Music] i mean really what else did we need in a great shooter back then you get to choose the order of the initial stages and completing each one grants you a new elemental power with the ability to cycle through them at will like in any thunder force game the a and b buttons let you shoot bidirectionally either up or down making the entire screen part of your play area and all of the upgraded weapons have a charge shot that's an integral part of the gameplay i also love the magic mirror item that creates shadows trailing your moves and boosting your firepower until you take a hit once you've worked your way through the first four stages you're a properly powered badass and ready for the final stretch much like thunder force 3 the game is on the easy side which is great for novices i would have loved to see an amped-up more difficult sequel to this game like they did with thunder force 4 but alas it wasn't meant to be it's not perfect in many ways and i've played technically better ground-based shooters without the soundtrack elemental master is a b-plus tier shooter but much like lords of thunder the soundtrack is just so damn good that it elevates this b-plus or a-tier game into s-territory for me making it when i can replay near endlessly and enjoy it just as much every time [Music] [Music] eliminate down is the mega drive shooter that you absolutely need to play put it on your list right now and make it the next shooter you try as it's one of my top three favorite shooters on the console and that's saying something eliminate down takes the coolest aspects of some of the best shooters out there from irem to konami to toa plan and combines them into a near perfectly executed 16-bit blast it's got the dynamic angle switching of hellfire as an integral part of the gameplay but folks this game is better than hellfire first are the impressive graphics and the plethora of set pieces some of the best on the system with a variety that'll make it hard to go back to other games afterward huge sprites and constantly changing scenery is the order of the day along with some cool grinding chiptunes that match the atmosphere of each level check out the attention to detail in this asteroid field where the floating spacemen hide an alien worming their way out of the corpse and yes that is a pulsating face growing out of that alien's crotch and launching green gobs at you but ed isn't all spectacle with the gameplay being absolutely on point it does happen to be one of the most difficult shooters on the system but in a very fair way everything about the challenge is perfectly executed with echoes of both r-type and thunder force approaches to game design the kind of game you can enjoy learning and improving upon wanting to see farther because every new stage in boss is just so damn cool it does require memo like some of the best clearly programmed by a team that knew how to make a great shooter the developer apronet is a complete unknown so i always wondered who they had on staff to put out such a great game sure there are moments of slow down when things get very busy but that was par for the course in the 16 bit days and is almost welcome when the bullets are that dense a small price to pay for these incredible visuals the physical cart is so rare it goes for over a grand these days and it's one of the rare cases where at least you get a game that delivers the goods in every way the music is possibly its weakest point having some standouts while also having some less memorable tunes and is the only reason you don't see a plus at the end of this score but aside from that eliminate down really couldn't have been much better and is an easy s-tier game in the library [Music] [Music] there's no getting around it fire mustang is kind of fugly the colors are bland the image is grainy and the stages are basic despite them going out of their way with tons of parallax to make up for it the music has some mildly catchy tunes but nothing overly memorable but the gameplay is fluid fast paced and solid without nearly any slowdown unlike most horizontal shooters it has no environmental obstacles to speak of and because it plays fast and fluid is a perfect game to get your dodge on and have some fun if that's what you're looking for so it's a hard game to rank because it's actually a decent casual play and exactly what it sets out to be without any flair it's also one of the easier games on the system and pretty chill until you get quite a bit farther without death where the rank will suddenly kick up and make it a fun dodge fest in the final stretch even the controls are simple and straightforward with a single type of shot that upgrades a few times along with a downward firing bomb and a typical panic bomb that clears the screen no unique mechanics to worry about just pick up and play it takes a very average but decent game for me to not have much else to say that's just fire mustang in a nutshell kinda ugly not very memorable yet a decent shooter that you can play any given evening and not hate yourself for picking up a straight up c grade shooter on the mega drive but a decent one [Music] fire shark just one of many tora plant mega drive ports still to come and it's a good one [Music] you may even find yourself preferring it to the incredibly brutal arcade version with a difficulty not even a mother could love fire shark on mega drive takes everything that's cool about the arcade original and makes it accessible for the masses the music is still torplan badassness the graphics are without a doubt a step down and can't match the arcade yet still look good with a lot of color and effects throughout and of course the iconic flamethrower is here in full force and more powerful than ever compared to the arcade yes compared to the arcade this port is downright easy but in the grand scheme of things the overall console difficulty is average and a good fit it's really hard to complain when torplan themselves do their own port and are able to not only capture what makes the arcade cool but adjust the difficulty to something most can enjoy and still find challenging the slowdown is minimal until things get really hectic and the cut down vertical resolution to fit a 4x3 screen doesn't feel like it makes the game unfair and yes it still retains the incredibly annoying bouncing power ups which can sometimes fill the screen that you'll find yourself dodging along with bullets far too often waiting for them to finally leave fire shark isn't on my list of total plan favorites simply because i was never into the more realistic war type shooters preferring games like truckston and slap fight but in terms of that style it's my favorite of the bunch your ship speed is fast the music by masahiro yuge is killer [Music] and the game gets properly hard once the rank gets up there this is a great port and an easy a in the mega drive library [Music] forgotten worlds is a capcom classic that most of us old enough played a ton in arcades with its unique rotary stick being a key part of the gameplay the graphics were phenomenal for the time and it was a great two player experience with a friend not just bi-directional shooting but the ability to rotate 360 degrees to aim made the game fun if not quite the challenge to get a handle on so the transition to consoles was a bit clunky having to use buttons to rotate back and forth while moving around as i grew up playing the later and superior pc engine super cd port which had better use of color and graphics all the stages intact and great cd renditions of the music as long as you had something better than that stock two button pad to play with this port was the way to go by comparison it was an early port on the mega drive so memory was limited to a four made card and the graphics were quite watered down with missing backgrounds and shortened stages the difficulty is also watered down considerably versus the pc engine port which is a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it the one bonus the mega drive port does have going for it is a two player mode important for this game which is the one glaring flaw of the pc engine cd port so if you want to play with a friend the mega drive port is the way but after playing the great looking and sounding complete version it's hard for me to go back to this one it was decent for such an early release and the game itself is quite good so please do play it somehow but having given the pc engine port in a rink in my review the mega drive port is a b rank at best by comparison simply for being so cut down in content versus the arcade [Music] gadget twins was meant as a kids game that turned out to be terrible for kids it's got cute colorful graphics a bunch of variety in its visuals and a ton of large bosses it even has some pretty catchy tunes especially at the start i could totally see myself as a four or five year old picking it up and being mesmerized but don't be fooled as whether a kid or adult it won't take long for you to utterly hate it that's because instead of a cute accessible kids oriented game it turns out to have one of the most weird unintuitive and complex control schemes around to start off you don't really shoot but more like punch and throw various objects in different directions you get a single button to constantly cycle through four weapon directions to attack and it's clumsy as hell making the game an exercise in frustration the weapon variety is there with a ton of options which you can buy through shops but it never becomes intuitive to use basically the control scheme and mechanics make the game hard and frustrating to learn and play not for kids but it's also not a very good game clumsy and janky in its hit detection the difficulty balance is off seeming hard and frustrating at first but then getting easier as you upgrade it's like it could have been a good game but poor programming and execution made it anything but so it's not really fun for older kids or adults either you can tell they put effort into it as it's certainly not lazy in terms of all the unique art assets bosses and designs there's a lot going on but none of it is well implemented so you end up with a game that looks great for kids but is anything but below average and not really worth your time [Music] [Music] guyaris is number one hell yeah it is or at least top five in terms of best shooters on the system it's the complete package with some of the best graphics and effects on the console incredibly well done chiptunes and a core gameplay mechanic that keeps the game feeling fresh even after decades of playing it not to mention a really solid challenge as one of the harder shooters on the system it even has some of the most in-depth and extensive story scenes of any game in the genre all packed into a cart that's worth its weight in gold gaiaris is a perfect example of how effective it was to weave creative set pieces into the gameplay having stages constantly change scenery and direction to keep things interesting where shooting games weren't just about technical skill and mastery but about creating a sense of awe and telling a story with each level one of my favorite moments in the game is weaving around wormholes in deep space as they suck in debris particles and approaching enemies the boss designs are top notch with some being a serious battle of attrition learning their deadly patterns and remaining patient but the star of the show is the weapon stealing mechanic where you shoot out a satellite that can take away nearly any enemy's shot type making it your own opening up all sorts of combinations and strategies to play with the only downside is the early stage 2 octopus enemies that carry such a powerful weapon that simply stealing it a few times to max level gives you an overwhelmingly powerful set of beams capable of carrying you through the rest of the game the longer you manage to keep them the easier time you'll have even the performance of this game is near flawless despite the graphics with nearly no slowdown to be found guyaris is an example of the very best mega drive shooters without any real negatives aside from its very steep difficulty and gets a rare s-plus rating because it's literally about as good as 16-bit horizontal shooters get [Music] with thunder force 4 even besting it in some ways depending on your preference konami snubbed sega so they never got any gradius ports but gaiaris is right up there with them if you love the early gradius games this is a must play it's not just the best of the mega drive but of the 16-bit era as a whole and one of my favorite of the generation [Music] galaxy force ii was the pinnacle of sega's arcade super scaling tech taking the visual presentation from the earlier space hero and afterburner to the next level in 1988 it was something to behold so it's no surprise that 16-bit consoles of the time couldn't even approach replicating it but uh what the hell happened here afterburner 2 was a pretty damn decent port and a solid job and so was burning force by comparison galaxy force 2 on mega drive is an outright disappointment look at that slow and choppy frame rate ultra low res artwork and slow-moving ship the goal with these ports was to at least retain the gameplay and fun factor while sacrificing the graphics but in this case they were all slaughtered at the altar along with everything else the problem is there's no sense of speed and everything feels like it's dragging along making it kind of boring so the biggest problem wasn't that the mega drive couldn't keep up but it could have been done so much better had the porting company been up to the task one positive aspect is the music which does a good job of channeling the arcade be warned this game has no continues so it's a one credit clear or nothing which will take a lot of practice given the way lives are handled where you have a fuel gauge that's always counting down and taking hits will knock it down faster it's not a terrible game and plays okay but it's just not on par with the other well-converted rail shooters on the mega drive this is a c minus for me personally as i'd much rather play any of the other conversions instead [Music] [Music] glay lancer is one of the best beginner shmups a novice can pick up if they're looking to get into the genre not only because it's generally quite easy on its default setting but also because it's cool enough that it'll keep you coming back it'll immediately wow you with its visuals in parallax from the opening stage and it keeps it up through most of the game with stellar levels and tons of variety with only a small handful of slower less successful moments along its 11 stage journey yeah that's a lot of stages for a shooter it'll also keep you engaged with its knockout soundtrack [Music] that while not on the level of the mega drive's best has some really good chip tunes with a lot of variety [Music] and to top it off it controls and plays like a dream with no slowdown to speak of you even get a cool intro and some cutscenes throughout the game at the outset you can choose your option configuration from a list of several with the homing search option being a good choice for beginners and when i say it's pretty easy i do mean that so if you're an experienced player don't expect to take more than a few playthroughs to grab an all clear but for an entry level player it's simply perfect as it's not that easy and will make you work for the clear without feeling insurmountable the checkpoint system is also really well done with locations that are rarely difficult to recover from so glee lancer is a top-notch game and great for most skill levels to boot i admit it's a bit slow paced for my personal taste but it's still another a-tier game in a loaded library and a must play [Music] granada is really really damn fun it takes the simple concept of rolling around in a small tank and destroying everything to the next level and busts out some of the catchiest tunes on the console while you're at it [Music] not only is the music great but so are the effects with your weapons and explosions sounding properly meaty with lots of mid-bass at first glance it'll remind you of the overhead stages in thunder force 2. only granada does it a lot better every stage is like a mini maze with enemies and obstacles but instead of having to search around aimlessly for your targets you get a map and can choose the order to take them down you're on a timer though so there's a sense of urgency and learning the best way to run through each level most efficiently is part of the fun being a tank you can easily lock a direction in straight with a variety of weapons that let you pull off cool tricks like shooting around corners to avoid direct fire once you take out all your targets on each stage the boss appears usually sporting some cool rotation and scaling effects the graphics are decent and well implemented though it's clearly the weak point because everything else is top-notch including the lack of slowdown while dodging through some massive volleys of bullets and some of these bosses are just awesome well designed and requiring you to figure out various tricks to damage them instead of getting old or repetitive granada just keeps getting better the farther you get pulling out new tricks obstacles and surprises with nearly every stage even the terrain affects your movement and how you play you always want to see what the next level has in store your first time through it may be compromised in the graphics department compared to the sharp 68 000 original and the sound isn't on the level of that awesome computer along with just a wee bit of slowdown here and there when things get crazy but any game that gets me this pumped to play it is deserving of a top score granada is pure grade a chaos and i love it [Music] anyone that follows my channel knows i love v5 aka grindstormer the arcade original is one of my top three favorite tour plan games alongside tatsujin and outzone and i gave it an s-tier rank in my every total plan shooter reviewed video tsuneki ikeda's first game with toa plant and an early look into his style of bullet health that mixes the old school with something fresh and new the spread and focus shot of dompachi controlled here by locking your options in place based on movement two styles of game the original v5 with a gradius-like power-up system and grindstormer with a simplified bomb-only setup art design by naora yusuke a final fantasy fame and a kick-ass soundtrack by masahiro yugi so how does the mega drive port stack up not bad at all actually and i'm a fan in fact it's quite a technical achievement trying to replicate the arcade and often buckles under its own weight trying to pull it off the graphics take a hit which is expected though they're not bad by any means the sound however is a bit of a mixed bag as you'd think it would replicate the yamaha sound of the pcb really well but something about it is extra shrill and harsh much more so than the arcade the music itself by yugesan is awesome but the way it's implemented on some stages here is borderline hard on the ears [Music] however it's in the gameplay where it often buckles even with the toned-down number of bullets and graphics the game can really slow down trying to keep up now to its credit it never becomes unplayable or more importantly unfun in fact this port is still a blast to play it's absolutely hard as hell the toughest game on the console next to twin cobra as the original was no joke either it's unrelenting and trying to duplicate the arcade no matter how often it trips along the way throwing wave after wave of enemies on screen and a ton of bullets your way the high-speed sections still scream along at a breakneck pace basically grindstormer is a shooting masterpiece and the mega drive port is a technically hampered yet somehow faithful and fun representation so i can't give it an s or even an easy a as not only does it struggle to keep up but it somehow lessens the quality of yugisan's excellent music with an overly harsh rendition yet despite those flaws it's still a phenomenal game and the mega drive port still captures much of that magic [Music] for biting off more than it could chew and still coming out solid i'm giving this one an a minus as despite its flaws it's still one of my favorites on the system you know a game is going to be a visual feast when it's by the same designers who made the early choi nikki games just one look at the art design should tell you how much gainog or wings of war in the west looks like the original choi nikki you'll be hard pressed to find any game with more diverse enemy design and wilder bosses and despite not having the same homoerotic theme of the former don't be surprised to come across some eyebrow-raising moments along your journey visually guy noob never gets old with a bestiary out of someone's most disturbed dreams while it's not nearly as colorful and often muted compared to the pc engine games given that console's much larger color palette it compensates with multiple layers of parallax and creative effects making each level feel dynamic guy noog is also chaotic constantly throwing enemies at you with nary a dull moment and you'll be surprised by how smooth it all runs in the late game with so much firing on screen it's backed up by typically excellent music common in any messiah developed game making this one badass play through a trippy world [Music] in fact there aren't many mega drive games that sound quite like it with a cool combination of sound effects that throw back to the sega master system 8-bit days i could never quite put my finger on it until a review by the great youtuber stika who explained that the master system sound chip within the mega drive was also used here combined with the main chip to create this cool combination [Music] in terms of gameplay gynuk is more technically accomplished than choniki making for a more balanced and satisfying experience it's more difficult overall especially toward the end but starts out very fair and lets you get accustomed to the game blue and red orbs power up and modify your main weapon while several special weapons that you grab can be stocked into three slots gynuk may be a bit rough around the edges and not the knockout the very best mega drive shooters can claim to be but it's in my opinion one of the consoles most unique and best sitting in the a tier of the lineup [Music] [Music] heavy unit wasn't very good on the pc engine and it's not very good on the mega drive either only for completely different reasons the graphics here are much better with larger sprites and more colorful overall while taking design liberties with the stage layouts themselves in fact the game is quite a bit different from the arcade which was a brutally tough but cool game by kaneko the mega drive port is far easier which again isn't necessarily a bad thing but it's easier to the point of boring there just isn't that much going on or bullets to dodge at the same time the balance is all over the place with some areas suddenly being frustrating then going back to sparse again your mech sprite is huge with a large hitbox so you do have to make good use of choosing the right ship mode for different areas and bosses but it's all over the place and the gameplay is slow and lacking it completely loses everything that made the arcade original volcanico such a fun game to play on the flip side while the pc engine port was ugly and that's putting it nicely the gameplay was faithful to the arcade almost to a fault it was extremely tough from the opening stage with a serious learning curve to overcome yet its leaps and bounds more fun to play for that reason you've got tons of bullets coming your way and is a game that experienced players can sink their teeth into and enjoy if they can ignore the pretty terrible visuals so it's a better game on technical terms and as a shooter so as i said before neither are good i gave the pc engine version a c and i'm giving this one a c as well as despite the much improved visuals and even improved sound it's just wasted potential on what's otherwise a slow and below average shooter a shame considering how good it could have been with the right team behind it as if they'd stayed more true to the arcade and kept it interesting simply toned down the difficulty they could have had a winner on their hands [Music] [Music] time for more torah plan goodness on the mega drive with hellfire another fantastic port that in some ways even bests the original this was toll plant's first ever horizontal shooter and they famously had a rough going of it during development learning trial by fire that building in ori is very different than their typical vertical with the graphics being on the simple side and a bit disjointed and the controls a bit twitchy especially once grabbing too many speedups and ending up crashed into walls but despite hellfire being a learning process with some warts to endure tour plan's brilliance still shines through it introduced the directional shot swapping mechanic with the ability to cycle through forward rear square and diagonal shots while making it a key part of the gameplay and a necessity to master a novel idea that would be copied many times over including the earlier reviewed eliminate down every stage is thoughtfully designed for memorization and every checkpoint is recoverable with proper routing and practice the mega drive port improves on the arcade by color coding your ship based on weapons selected making it even easier to know your current weapon the music is of course typical toe plan goodness with the opening stage theme a classic burned into our memories [Music] so it's no wonder that hellfire on mega drive is still a nostalgic favorite for sega fans growing up during the 90s hellfire also retains its trademark difficulty being one of the harder games on the system yet never unfair or insurmountable with a reputation that in my opinion exceeds the reality i did a detailed head-to-head of this game in another video versus the solid pc engine port and the mega drive port is the winner in my eyes hellfire isn't a perfect game and definitely not for those who shy away from slower paced strategic memo heavy shooters like r-type but for those who do enjoy it the mechanics are well executed and a joy to learn hellfire on mega drive is an a-tier port that's as fun to play as the arcade original [Music] the odd thing about insector x is how it doesn't take much advantage of the mega drive's graphical strengths not that it looks bad but it's so flat looking for a mega drive game it's kind of surprising how often do you see one without a single layer of parallax to its name yet that's the case here ported from the much more cartoony arcade game all the insect designs and backgrounds are colorful with the bosses standing out the most just don't expect any impressive effects along the way what you do get is a pretty run-of-the-mill but solid shooter that doesn't do much aside from its theme to stand out developed by the same studio that made the really fun cloud master which i reviewed on pc engine and sector x doesn't do anything nearly as interesting in terms of bi-directional gameplay or mechanics you literally fly left to right on every stage without any change in direction with an occasional change in scenery until reaching the boss and i'm not sure if it's for beginners or not as though it can be pretty easy once powered up and maintained messing up mid-stage will have you pelted from all angles and your peashooter lacking and with a pretty large hitbox to add insult to injury again you know a game is pretty average when there just isn't much to say and that's in sector x nothing overly offensive controls well enough but just a sea tier game that coasts on its cool insect theme and bosses without too much else to offer [Music] coming up next ko5 squadron chapter 1. dr phone ship attacks push to start the sega cd didn't get too many shooters but what it did get were almost universally good ko flying squadron is like a mix of corune and pirodius cute on the outside but a well-oiled shooting machine under the hood okay it's not on the level of parodies but you get the idea your dragon spot actually resembles koryun and you can also spawn baby dragons to do your bidding by not firing for a few seconds and by do your bidding i mean get set off to die in a kamikaze attack but don't worry they'll come back after a cool down period and otherwise follow you around like options until you unleash them most players won't have much trouble in the early going but about halfway through the game gets serious so come prepared to both practice and memorize it's not an overly hard game but the kind that an untimely death can easily spell your doom despite a handful of extra lives that you may have saved up so suffice to say the gameplay is nuanced and on point while both the graphics and music are top notch the enemy designs especially are a standout with this being one of the most visually creative games on the system one to show off to friends at the time it does come at a bit of a cost as the frame rate can drop and the game struggles under all the sprites being thrown on screen but it never becomes excessive or interferes much with the game it's also a long one with lengthy stages where if you also watch the story and cut scenes could take nearly an hour to get through and i do recommend you enjoy them dubbed the first time through as it's actually cheesy well done and charming top it off with a cd soundtrack that's quite memorable [Music] reminding again of parodius with light-hearted and whimsical tunes and you've got one of the better shooters on the system though a bit slow paced for my taste it looks great and the cd soundtrack is a highlight but it puts it all together to create the best cute em up on the console offering a balanced challenge that'll let you progress early but start to punish you midway and beyond until you learn the game it doesn't cross into s-tier but is easily another a-tier game on the mega drive just don't try and look up the price of the us physical game unless you're ready for a sticker shock that'll likely dwarf the cost of your entire collection [Music] from sega cd to 32x calibri is what you'd get by taking eco the dolphin and turning it into a hummingbird shooter some levels let you roam freely focusing on exploration and discovery as you shoot your way through while others are more traditional and auto scroll as you zip around the screen it's quite the hot bird no pun intended but it also comes together to make a cool and worthwhile game it doesn't quite have the other worldly magic of eco but it certainly tries with moments that establish the game and its story letting you take in the colorful backdrops and providing a really nice atmospheric soundtrack that matches the game well [Music] but there's no text to speak or direction so don't expect another eco game you'll be finding your way through stages by trial and error without much guidance and don't expect the typical shmup but also expect a very long game about 20 stages and plenty of content thankfully the game has a password system so you can pick up wherever you left off while it does put a heavy focus on shooting and dodging it's not the easiest to control by design since you are a hummingbird and never static but always slightly buzzing around it definitely takes some getting used to with the later stages being quite challenging to maneuver another issue is the occasional slowdown which while expected in most games isn't really acceptable on the 32x without all that much happening on screen but if you're playing calibri it's not for the traditional experience anyway it's for this combination of exploring shooting and just enjoying the sights and sounds along the way that make it unique and on that front it certainly succeeds not really a great shooter per se nor really a deep action game like eco but it's cool atmospheric and unique and a game i'd recommend trying if it looks interesting for the record i'm a fan of eco and would have ranked that in a despite its flaws but calibri is at the low end of the b tier for me [Music] [Music] lords of thunder baby one of the baddest original shooters of the 16-bit era to see it is to want it to hear it is to rock it at least that's what i called it in my pc engine review one of the most killer original shooters on that system developed by the same team that brought you thunder force 3 and gate of thunder but that was the original game whereas the sega cd version is a port so how does it stack [Music] up in terms of graphics and sound pretty freaking fantastic i did a detailed head-to-head comparison long ago in a separate video but in short the graphics are close not quite as colorful or detailed as the turbo original with some nuances and effects missing but it compensates with extra parallax and effects the original didn't have in general it's a fantastic looking game and the soundtrack well no gripes there they took the original amazing music and remixed it for higher fidelity where the original was raw and harsh the sega port is refined and studio-grade and while i may prefer the original for nostalgia sake there's no argument at all that these sega tracks are amazing and just as good [Applause] [Music] to the point where some have hacked the turbo original to play using the sega cd music suffice to say it rocks hard and is really a matter of preference the sound effects are toned down not nearly as loud as on the original game letting the music take center stage it does lose some detail in the process with many effects sounding low and muted by comparison but you gotta pick your poison and in this case letting the music shine is never a bad thing [Music] amazing right here we go s to your game all the way not so fast my friend it's the gameplay where in my opinion the sega cd port drops the ball [Music] they took the original balance difficulty never an overly hard game to begin with and made it as easy as possible for mass appeal first by making your sword for melee attacks overpowered then it pays to just rush most enemies up close and ignore your shot the second was by adding invincibility frames after taking damage making it much harder to get power down or die making a game accessible is one thing but on the normal difficulty you practically have to go out of your way to die on most stages it takes the balance designed into the game by the original thunder force team that developed it and puts on the training wheels so no of this i'm not a fan yes the pc engine original has faster tighter and more challenging gameplay but that doesn't make the sega cd port chopped liver it's still a great looking game with god tier music i of course gave the original version an s-tier ranking and i'm giving the sega port an a for that god-tier soundtrack and excellent graphics paired with a flawed b-tier shooting experience if you can try playing the turbo original use the sega cd music hack if you prefer the remix tunes but if you can't this sega cd port is still no slouch [Music] magic girl is another unlicensed game brought to you by gametech the same team behind the subpar adventurous boy and follows directly in its footsteps this time a vertical shooter with some seriously odd choppy scrolling and movement the graphics aren't half bad colorful with some added effects and the music is alright though the sound effect of your constant shot gets pretty annoying and interferes with any enjoyment you'd otherwise have but it's that choppy motion and frame loss that makes it awkward to play and likely to even look at the clouds and rain clearly chop along the screen almost jumping around instead of smooth movement but the real problem is the bullets do the same which tend to sneak up on you faster than you'd expect and takes getting used to that also includes incoming enemies which can easily ram you without notice especially coming in from behind so magic girl is a game that looks decent on the outside but is otherwise kind of dull and repetitive in terms of enemy waves and design on top of being a bit of a mind screw as you struggle to adjust to the way the sprites move which is a bit of a shame as if that one glaring technical flower fixed you'd have an unremarkable but at least average cute em up something the mega drive has in short supply though you play as a witch cotton this is not it's ultra rare and the physical game is practically impossible to find for collectors magic girl isn't horrible and if you can get used to the frame rate actually playable but it's a d tier game nonetheless [Music] if you think unlicensed games are the worst of the worst of the mega drive library think again as master of weapon is official released by title no less and to me it's an absolute stinker right off the bat is the lethargically slow speed of your ship something i usually despise in shooters but to make matters worse getting to a decent speed is a chore the item drops are random so you could easily be waiting an entire stage or more to even grab enough of them god forbid you die and lose them all hoping to get lucky and pick up a few again based on the random drops the game throws a ton of power-ups and items in your direction it is called master of weapon after all but unfortunately many aren't very good so you'll be forced to avoid them with your slow-ass ship as they circle their way down the screen and i wish that were the only annoying thing about the game as you can add both the grating music and sound effects to that list [Music] just eating away your eardrums as you play it's like they designed this game to just irritate you from the opening level in every way they could think of [Music] at least the graphics don't do anything irritating aside from being pretty bland and pedestrian but given it's based on an older arcade game i can't fault it for that some of the stages and bosses are actually pretty cool from a design standpoint and the game has its technical merits playing like an enhanced xevious with your ground weapon for bombs you can even use your rear booster to damage enemies once you've grabbed enough speedups it's a game that one can actually dig into and has quite a bit of gameplay depth if you can get past how incredibly annoying it is to actually play as on gameplay merits it's not a terrible game but the maddening design choices random items excruciatingly slow and almost equally excruciating music and sound effects makes it a game i have to tolerate to play as opposed to what i can enjoy that's a c minus in my book only escaping a d-ring for being a challenging game and playable if you can manage to tolerate it [Music] mega swiv or how i'll call it mega swift is a successor to the awesome silkworm where you can play as either a chopper or a jeep or bring a friend and tackle it together which is really where the game came into its own released on the super nintendo a couple years prior that version wasn't all that impressive either as aside from keeping the chopper jeep theme and letting you play together it's not nearly as interesting as the original nor as strategic as how you'd play it with a friend it plays alright if you're okay with large sprites and big hit boxes which to be honest don't always feel all that accurate in terms of hit detection but really it's just not all that interesting the graphics are basic and bland especially for a game in 1994 and while the music can be pretty good in places with a nice bassy thumping opening theme [Music] the sound effects are grating and generally poor the chopper is immune to ground enemies while the jeep is immune to the aerial and can fire in eight directions but has to navigate around all the ground obstacles so you can get a different gameplay experience with each any game is usually better with a fret so maybe it comes into its own then it's okay but just not anything memorable and gets a bit boring and repetitive to be honest megaswave is just above average a c plus for me but potentially better when played with a friend [Music] musha allesta compiles masterpiece on the mega drive considered by many to be one of the best vertical shooters of the 16-bit generation and they're not wrong is peak compiled when they were at their best and had their top staff that would later leave and form rising taking advantage of the hardware like few other developers could musha is a graphical and oral tour de force that was only ever equaled on the system by thunder force 4 a full two years later and i'd argue that on technical merit and performance alone it's the more accomplished gain because of the blistering speed it runs despite the killer graphics all the effects and tons of parallax you'll rarely notice any slowdown compiles claim to fame from the metal soundtrack and opening stage it never lets up in how fast creative and fun it is to play there's a reason musha blew our minds way back in 1990 as we'd never seen anything like it it became the benchmark against what other shooters would be judged [Music] exciting from the opening title and intro to the final boss in credits paced near perfectly from start to finish and not overly long like many of their other games the difficulty curve is excellent accessible for most players and only dipping its toes into hard territory toward the end where in typical compile fashion losing a life and responding with a peashooter could have you chain dying and running out your lives sounds like the final stage of blazing lasers to me the gameplay is a big departure from traditional allesta aside from some homages like the falling power-ups here you get configurable options with your special weapons as well as them offering extra protection allowing you to take some hits before death and unlike old alaska games which gave you a ton of weapon choices it's streamlined to three here there's a good several things i could nitpick that the game could improve like many of compiles games but don't get the idea that i'm giving lucia anything but an s-tier rating as one of compile's best [Music] [Applause] musha is top tier mega drive not overrated and yet an s-tier game night striker is easily the ugliest looking rail shooter on the console at least in terms of resolution a port of title's cool arcade game they chose to make it as faithful as possible by blowing up small sprites as large as possible and just squeezing everything in and i guess they succeeded as it does play smooth and though i'm not an expert on this game seems to be quite accurate it's got the music from the original as well as an arranged mode in this day and age these ultra low res graphics almost have a charm to them like a modern indie game that was purposefully looking as pixelated as possible but upon release it was absolutely lambasted as a cd game looking inferior to even cartridge games like space harrier the real problem is it's so pixelated and fugly that it looks like a jumbled mess it's often hard to make out what's what and comes off like the screen is just vomiting pixels in your direction making it hard to play now if the game was incredible i could get past this but it's simply not it's no better actually worse than space harrier and afterburner only with a cool blade runner vibe and branching paths going for it now the saturn port was near arcade perfect and is the way to play this game if you're a fan and the fact that this was a cd game means it could have been so much better one quick look at a game called soul star which you'll see later in this video is proof of that so night striker does a good job of replicating the arcade gameplay and of course the music is spot on [Applause] but the laziness of the graphics doesn't get a pass so if you find this looks charming there's some fun to be had but not for me and night striker barely gets a passing grade [Music] omega blast was one of the greatest surprises i'd had of the last couple years coming out of nowhere by an indie dev and turning out to be just like its name implies an absolute blast and it's not even a complete game but just a short caravan score attack mode from the moment i played it i knew it was something special and both myself and a group of friends just couldn't stop playing it we had a competition for high score over the course of a week and we had so much fun i made a video about it then we had another competition on my discord that people absolutely love because it gets everything right about what makes a frantic fast-paced and technical three-minute score attack so much fun a straight-up homage to the pc engine style caravan modes of the soldier games it requires pinpoint precision through the enemy waves not missing a single score bonus not losing a single light and then smoking the final boss so you can rack up extra points for time left on the clock you play it over and over perfecting your route late into the night getting the perfect run all to a super catchy tune that gets stuck in your head for the rest of the week this is what caravan goodness is all about omega blast is good very good omega blast is short very short and omega blast is free downloadable from the developer site which i included with a link in this video's description if games like soldier blade and super star soldier have s-tier caravan modes this small single developer game comes so damn close it's scary and every mega drive fan owes it to themselves to try it i don't normally rate indie games in these videos and just mention them because they're usually not that great and i just want to spotlight the folks still making new games for old consoles but omega blast is so good i can't not rank it in 8-year caravan mode and as far as i know the only game on the mega drive with a dedicated scoring mode like it omega blast is awesome it'll make your palm sweat and your heart race omega blast play it [Music] panorama cotton is without a doubt the most technically impressive 3d rail shooter of the generation making the ports of afterburner and space harrier look like yesterday's tech with the exclusion of the far more powerful 32x of course no other ports come close and what's more impressive is that it doesn't sacrifice the traditional cotton mechanics in the transition the crystals spell options fairy familiars and shooting them at enemies it's all here being a technical showpiece and coupled with the game's rarity it's no wonder the physical game costs a small fortune there's as much charm here as in any of the series and the stage variety is fantastic where similar games repeat the same tiled floor and ceiling endlessly with a static background the first stage alone takes you from the skies to a zigzagging river through a waterfall and into a tiled corridor through a short cave and into the boss followed by the usual tea time only in three dimensions and the stage variety continues throughout as skies make way to castles and an endless army of interesting enemies and bosses some stages even have you stop and scroll sideways and vertically before continuing forward outside castle walls then back inside what they pulled off on the mega drive will astound you even the music is excellent and appropriate along with the fantastic and varied sound effects [Music] you can even play as silk instead with a straight up butt shot staring you in the face the entire journey there's even alternate paths on some stages to find and explore with all that being said and technical merits aside is it a good game and the answer is again absolutely yes assuming you like playing this style of game i find 3d rail shooters like this a fun distraction but they'll never replace the gameplay of a traditional shooter for me so if i had to rate this game on a personal level i'd give it an a for just being so damn impressive and charming and somehow managing to wrap cotton into a faithful 3d shooter but this isn't just about my preference but trying to rank it fairly within its given genre and when it comes to rail shooters on home console panorama is an s-tier piece of work giving it anything less than that would be uncivilized [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'm a sucker for offbeat themes and shmups especially if it involves high fantasy or mythology so filios had me pumped when i first played it as a kid the opening stage starts strong with you riding pegasus out of the ruins and over a scrolling landscape below suddenly picking up speed as the parallax layers of clouds float by and the great opening theme plays in the background enemies fly in from all angles as you charge shot dragons with your sword until finally reaching the boss structure and descending down to do battle with medusa it's an easy opening stage yet gets you properly hyped with some nice choreography and variety it's an early game so the graphics aren't anything to write home about but the stage is well executed and that's what counts after defeating the boss and every boss they're after you fly over a pool showing artemis your sister lover chained up and scantily clad waiting for the rescue i'm ready to see what's next unfortunately the game just couldn't keep it going and it's all downhill from there you get a much slower stage with drab colors and backgrounds completely losing the energy that it built up prior to its credit the bosses are generally pretty cool the typical assortment of mythological creatures and there are some more levels that speed things up and have creative use of imagery and parallax like the very next stage three and it's rushed through parabolos but every time it gets going with a cool section it regresses to another slow or less interesting stage not just graphically but simply slow to play kind of boring especially with the game being on the easy side through them at least with every boss you kill artemis somehow gets skimpier stage six picks up again with some faster paced action and a cool water effect and a large impressive boss at the end but then i don't know what the heck happens on the final level but it almost looks like it could have been done on an 8-bit console and it's again slow and lame especially for a final stage that you just spent all this time working up to the payoff just isn't there now i know many have nostalgia for filios but it's been done so much better check out compile sylfia on pc engine super cd a much better game in every way that i gave a b ranking at the time but looking back likely deserved a b plus as it's quite fun filios by comparison is no comparison and because it's so inconsistent a c plus is the best i can give [Music] the original ryden one of the most popular both loved and hated classic shooters of all time it's so badass you just can't stop playing it yet it's so damn hard you want to crush it under your boot only you're the one that ends up crushed in the end ported to nearly every console and computer imaginable it's always a heated debate among fans which version is the best the pc engine alone got not one but two ports of the game and on mega drive it's been renamed to ryden tran as far as appearances go despite being a later port the graphics are somehow inferior to the pc engine versions super basic bland and lacking animation you even have a static river on the opening stage without any movement and it mostly remains this way throughout with it looking okay but muted and lacking the absolute opposite is true for the sound effects which the mega drive completely nails and blows away the hue card the hits and explosions are super bassy and meaty what you'd expect from right and make so much of a difference it's scary but the most important aspect the gameplay is as faithful as can be expected with the different aspect ratio unlike the arcade you're now dealing with checkpoints which doesn't make the game any easier and while it may still be easier than the arcade in general that's not a bad thing for such a brutal game brought home just don't even think about dying late game and trying to recover with a peashooter cause ryden ain't having none of that if anything i'd say this port feels a bit more faithful as the pc engine version seems to play a bit different with a faster overall speed in bullets a brutal combination on a short screen the later super cd port fixed this and made ryden the most accessible of any home port around but the mega drive port aside from the more muted and simple graphics that lack animation does ride in justice both in gameplay and the incredible sound and music which is of course very important with writing [Music] it even has the special hard stage at the end for those that can manage to reach it i rank it squarely in the a tier only held back from greatness with its lackluster visuals as it's otherwise a great port of a classic game [Music] ranger x is one of the most innovative games of the entire 16-bit generation and criminally underrated doomed to obscurity on release it sits along games like the insane alien soldier as one of the most complex and rewarding games on the console and if you've never played it or heard of it you're about to after what you see in this review if after playing ranger x you'd have told me it was developed by then treasure i'd have believed it as it's just as complex nuanced technically accomplished and requiring of mastery as many of treasures best the obvious are the visuals some of the coolest you'll see on the mega drive no matter how intense the action gets or how full the screen becomes the game runs great without nearly any slowdown and it does get intense because ranger x is no joke this is one tough game and requires absolute mastery of the controls and mechanics no different than you later see in classics like radiant silver gun and nikaruga in fact playing it properly requires the six button controller because three just doesn't cut it the main three buttons control your shot direction left and right along with your special weapon while the d-pad your movement allowing you to walk in any direction while firing the opposite holding up uses your limited jetpack letting you fly and hover until you run out of power and need to recharge the second set of three buttons controls your vehicle left right and special weapon so you can move it independently of your mech it has its own life bar and is like an extension allowing you to stand on top for faster movement or even cooler merging together for increased firepower and speed and when not controlling it it'll just follow you around until you need it just the amount of gameplay options available is immense and every one of them gets put to use with areas focused around learning and using your entire loadout that includes learning to manage your power bars to not run out of flight as you scale areas and buildings or run out of firepower and special weapons it sounds complex and it is which will put most casual players off but like the aforementioned treasure games it's a brilliant complex with it perfectly worked into the game's stages mastery of these controls results in one of the coolest and intense action games of the generation ranger x isn't for everyone it's hard with a control scheme that demands time investment but reaps huge rewards like alien soldier or sekiro or any such game that demands much from the player but then rewards them with amazing gameplay they couldn't otherwise achieve ranger x is amazing and if you put in the time and s to your game in the library [Music] how do you live up to musha considered by some the greatest shooter on the console and one of compile's best games you don't but you do your damnedest put it on cd and hope that it's worthy of the original actually a prequel to musha taking place in feudal japan it doesn't so much share a story as it does the motif the visuals still mix ancient japan with mecca and it remains a great combination when denon is at its best it's still as cool as the original with some really well-designed stages and attention to detail unfortunately by the time of its development the compile team had changed and much of the original talent had left to form rising so the results are more of a mixed bag you have moments of brilliance many in fact where you're in awe of how cool this game looks mixed with a handful of static and flat backdrops and not much detail wondering how it belongs in the same game when contrasted with the moments that exceed expectations the dull points stand out that much more denon is much longer than musha but not all the content adds to the experience and it loses the kinetic energy that made the original such a wild ride the music is excellent with some great compositions but is also more laid back to suit the game's overall slower pace [Music] what denon alessa does offer though is completely reworked gameplay and mechanics a departure from musha yet again that some may actually prefer it ramps up the difficulty being a good bit harder now killing you with a single hit versus being able to take some damage and lose weapon power like in the original and requires you to master the new controls and weaponry the enemies are generally much tankier and it's important to use your new shoulder options to deal big damage and take them out quickly it takes getting used to and isn't as easy to pick up and play denon is definitely a more strategic shooter in that sense where careful play is required and mistakes are more heavily punished where musha made even novice players feel like a badass for the opening stages dannon has a steep learning curve from the outset and will punish you you do still get the falling power chips to slowly upgrade your shot but it's now on the weak side as you'll mostly be relying on your power ups in the form of shoulder attachments to deal damage you can also freely toggle your speed with no less than eight freaking levels come on guys was that really necessary like many compile games denon has rank at the same time the difficulty can be inconsistent so denim can be really good and it can also be just okay as you work your way through the long game so there's a lot to like and clearly a labor of love with just a ton of content taken on its own merits without comparison to the original denon is still excellent it's not an s-tier game but it is a tier overall even if not all the time it's the very definition of a mixed bag where less could have been more it doesn't approach the brilliance of motion nor the graphical superiority of spriggan on pc engine but it is a compile game and still better than the majority of shooters out there one i highly recommend you try as who knows you may fall into the other camp and love it as much as the original and you wouldn't be alone [Music] [Music] is a cd game that i wanted to play so badly as a kid and just couldn't find a way to do it instead of the lame grainy fmv games the sega cd turned out in its early days sylphy took the polygonal approach and was a highly underrated shooter for its time [Music] or at least it looked polygonal at first glance as it turns out it was all streamed video yet it pulled it off so well that it had all of us fooled into thinking we were looking at honest-to-goodness polygons from the opening intro and launch sequence it's cinematic in the best possible way with all the pop and circumstance we love in a space shooter after a cool but somewhat tame opening level you're treated to an extended and fully voiced story sequence before letting you select your weapons and dropping you into the next level full of asteroids but it's not until the third level that sill feed starts to show off what it can do with large cruisers floating through space as you swoop around them from various angles this may all look primitive by today's standards but to see this on a 16-bit console at the time was nothing short of mind-blowing lest you think they're merely window dressing it's only a matter of time before you're zooming into them for trench runs taking out ground targets and winding your way through mazes of impressive polygonal structures it satisfied the craving for truly feeling like you're flying through massive space battles and part of the action even if it was on rails it's also a long game with a dozen stages yet manages to maintain creativity throughout don't confuse selfie with a 3d rail shooter as though it may look like one it's a vertical shooter at heart and a decent one at that the enemy waves start to come fast from various angles and may start to remind you of gyrus with lots of variety in their patterns and formations if you're expecting a watered-down shooter with lots of window dressing still feed may surprise you its one weakness is an actual enemy variety as the incoming ships all tend to look alike and the stage bosses you encounter are often the same or variations of a typical ship at least until you end up battling the actual cruisers in the game which was definitely a sight to behold so you've got a properly cinematic game an epic and upbeat soundtrack to back it up and a ton of voice over as you play but never annoying or obtrusive all to the tune of a solid if not simple shooting game while not the most novel or diverse shooter at its core it avoids falling into the trap of being all spectacle it takes practice adapting to the tilted angle of play learning the invisible walls and how to avoid some cheap deaths at the expense of all the spectacles surrounding you and it's actually quite a tough game to see through to the end but in my opinion still feed is a better game than it's given credit for and a solid b plus in my book after finally waiting so many years to play when i finally did i was pleasantly surprised to find a competent shooter waiting beneath [Music] [Music] how often do you get a home port of an already excellent arcade game that's so good that it exceeds expectations and is even better than the original i can count them on one hand and slap fight mega drive is one of them toa plans second ever release after tiger hill it's still one of my all-time favorites the rare case of a port being handed over to an outside company but then shown so much love by that developer that it couldn't have been done better not only does slapfightmd contain a faithful port of the arcade but it goes above and beyond by adding a special mode taking what made the original great in creating all new levels and music that stand on their own as a top tier shooter [Music] the music especially is on a god tier level composed by yuzo koshiro and dare i say it's some of his best work [Music] [Applause] it's hard to believe it's coming from a mega drive sound chip slap fight slaps when it comes to its chiptunes [Music] [Applause] slap fight is also brilliant in its gameplay with a combination of mechanics that few have managed to copy or improve upon since it uses a gradius-like power-up system where you pick up stars and select your loadout dynamically however unlike gradius slap fight forces you to constantly change loadouts because segments of each level are best tackled with different weapons not only that but the game is filled with hidden secrets and only specific weapons can uncover them it's crafty in design to where the proper weapon to uncover the secrets is also the ideal weapon to tackle that area's enemies [Music] as you upgrade your ship it gets larger and larger making it harder to dodge but also much easier to keep the screen clear of enemies so the whole idea of slap fight is finding and learning the best loadouts for each area maintaining your firepower superiority and finding all the bonuses i did a very in-depth review of slap fight in my every tour plan shooter reviewed video more than i can cover here but suffice to say it's a favorite and i gave it an a the mega drive port takes it to the next level by making a great game even better despite losing the vertical screen infusing it with upgraded special levels as nuanced as the original and then adding in multiple soundtrack variations including those god tier compositions by yuzo kashiro that makes slap fight md an s-tier game and one of the most outrageously good home ports ever created it goes for several hundred dollars in physical form and is one of the rare cases where one could argue it just might be worth it [Music] solfis was developed for the sega cd by wolf team the same dev behind the awesome granada and while not nearly as unique or insane as that game it's a solid shooter that flew under the radar the production value is top notch with a cool story intro and an extended action cut scene before hitting the title screen the opening stage has a fantastic soundtrack which pretty much continues throughout the entire game one of the game's highlights the primary gameplay mechanic is how weapons are used the three options vulcan laser and missiles able to attach to the upper lower or body of your ship touching them to a specific part of your ship will place them accordingly so you can have any three or the same for all three in any combination and you can adjust the trajectory of your cannons by not firing moving forward or back as they open or close firing again to lock them in place a mechanic that was later used in grindstormer to great effect you can also select your ship speed but oddly only from the start menu instead of giving you a button to cycle mid game the biggest surprise with sophie's that it never goes beyond just being a cool shooter to separate itself from the pack given wolf team's reputation it's a solid challenge well put together and executed but not any more memorable than many other above-average shooters of the era part of the game's problem is aside from the music and the cutscenes it didn't particularly take advantage of the hardware in fact a near identical cartridge version was released later in the us called soldiers which sports some excellent chiptune versions of said music by the way [Music] but also shows that it could have easily been done on the base hardware and not need the cd but don't let that sway you from trying it mainly for the cool soundtrack [Music] soul star possibly the most technically impressive game on the console and yet few have ever heard of it no this isn't the 32x game you're looking at but on cd few developers ever took full advantage of the power of the cd attachment but core design was at the forefront a hybrid rail and free-roaming shooter it even puts panorama cotton to shame with its scaling and effects it's only a shame that it feels more like a tech demo of ideas and gameplay concepts than a properly focused shooter as when it's on the game is a blast the traditional rail segments are by far the best part not just visually impressive but play and control well had the entire game consisted of just these levels it'd stand as easily the best of its kind on the console as to back up these great segments you have a phenomenal cd soundtrack that gives soul star an epic field [Music] unfortunately it's the slower free roaming sections that bog the game down in clunky control confusion and poor design making for an overall uneven experience how to play and progress through some of these stages can be extremely obtuse almost as if the developers knew what to do and assumed the player would too so you're often left flailing about until you figure out what the game wants you to do i can see what they were going for and there's huge potential it simply feels like these stages needed more development time to work out the kinks and streamline the levels so they weren't so tedious so soul star is a combination of truly incredible graphics work near equally impressive music but two different games one that i'd love to play over and over again and the other that i probably shelf and rarely touch again as much as i'd love to give it a higher score for technical reasons alone it's not nearly the fun overall experience that it could have been s-tier presentation mixed with c-tier gameplay good but not great and a b-tier game overall but still a game that every mega drive fan should experience [Music] space harrier 2 was a very early release so while not as good as the original it does a decent job as a pseudo sequel it's certainly way better than the quite terrible super thunderblade which you'll see later in the video not a disaster by any stretch yet we're clearly looking at a time where developers were just learning the new hardware so there's plenty of to trip you up like incoming shots that don't approach evenly suddenly catching you off guard without a way to gauge their speed but compared to thunderblade it's a solid effort and quite playable easier to complete than the original or the pc engine version by far it also adds some cool bosses along the way spicing up the end of each stage i do wish they'd kept some kind of cool remix of the original space here your theme that classic tune is always missed but overall space hearier 2 is a solid early effort but take it on its own and compared to later ports like burning force or even the super smooth and fast playing pc engine port it's basically average which was fine for such an early release but hold on there welcome to the fan of youtube get ready [Music] as the original space harrier did eventually get a port to the mega drive on the powerful 32x and just like the afterburner port it's astonishing for a 16-bit console and a testament to the potential of the hardware while it may not be arcade perfect in terms of resolution and running at only half the frame rate may be dropping some frames when it gets busy it still looks incredible and is a blast to play i'm by no means a space harrier or rail shooter expert so there could be other differences as well but to me the game still looks sounds and plays great and really what else needs to be said about space harrier at this point one of the easiest pick up and play arcade games in existence and this 32x port does it proud and easily belongs in the eights here along with afterburner complete as a near perfect arcade conversion [Music] space invaders 91 isn't your grandpa space invaders wait what am i saying i'm practically old enough to have played the first space invaders in arcades sometimes i forget that i'm the grandpa to tell you the truth i'm actually a bit too young to truly appreciate the original coming in at a time where it's a bit too slow basic and old school for my taste i need something with a bit more flair to keep my adhd at bay so it's a good thing that invaders 91 ups the end i'd never played this release before and the first thing that jumped out was the excellent music if i'm gonna have to scroll back and forth on a 2d plane at least let me do it to some great tunes and invaders 91 delivers [Applause] [Music] the next thing i noticed is the sense of urgency and the need to start taking the waves out really fast as they start so close to your ship already and move fast that's a bit of tension i wasn't expecting from an invaders game and is a plus in my book they shoot diagonally and more in general making for a pretty hectic game they're special weapons varied and fast-moving aliens with all forms of attacks and even angled terrain on the later stages i have to admit that i came into this with a side not looking forward to another tired old invaders port and ended up really impressed with what's been done right up there with the excellent and innovative galaga 88 on the pc engine another fantastic game in port the graphics could have been even more interesting and are a bit bland but when the music is this good and the game exceeds my expectations no lower score will do making an invaders game fun again isn't that easy so invaders 91 was a big surprise and without a doubt an 8-year experience on the mega drive [Music] space turtle battleship the heck is that i sure never heard of it before turns out it was only ever released in korea and published by samsung maybe even developed internally by samsung and what an interesting game it is certainly better than all the weird unlicensed games i'd played so far you're in fact flying a giant battleship apparently a real thing from korean history used to defend their waters from japan during invasions and it did in fact have the look of a turtle with a dragon's head that they'd place at the bow large enough for a cannon to fit inside now that's what i'm talking about turns out the physical for this game is crazy rare and you're impossible to find so luckily a rom exists with the size of your ship i expected the controls to be cumbersome and bullets hard to dodge so i was happy to find out that that's not the case once powered up you're actually quite fast and maneuverable and the bullet spreads give you sufficient room to maneuver it's a surprisingly hectic shooter given the theme and while the graphics are initially pedestrian it picks up as you progress with some decent effect parallax and unusual stages to reach they're kind of all over the place with no real rhyme or reason that i could figure out but what's there is at least interesting i especially like this stage with the fireballs and flaming pillars jutting out from the sides with even the music being pretty catchy alright no it's not some brilliant hidden gem but it is cool when you discover something so unknown and it turns out to be pretty good you can even see the influence in homages from other games whether toe plan or compile in various stages and enemy patterns it's a very simple game but pretty well executed with a lot of variety and stages even if they don't necessarily make any sense from the historic to the modern to the abstract samsung takes you on a journey and one that surprised me space turtle battleship is an average shooter but still leaps and bounds more fun than any of the unlicensed games and even a good handful of the licensed ones go play it and be one of the few to know it exists [Music] [Applause] [Music] steel empire is a game i featured in my best shmups for beginners video and for good reason because a good choice will always hook novice players first with their presentation and make you want to keep coming back and the visuals and sound and steel empire are pretty kick apps the steampunk theme is used to full advantage with airships galore and the stages are constantly created with plenty of verticality transparency effects and parallax it may not be in the upper echelon of shooters in terms of graphical prowess but there weren't many steampunk themed shooters at the time so it really stood out you can choose your ship at every stage between a smaller hitbox and more nimble plane or the beefier airship to absorb more damage with a larger hitbox both are plenty fast with some speed ups so it's more a matter of loadout and hitbox than actual movement speed as some levels are easier with the upward firing bombs of the larger dirigible both have a forward and rear shot along with unique bombs each have their uses and do better on some stages versus others making it worth experimenting the music isn't overly memorable aside from the opening track but it's good enough to not take away from the game but aside from the unique visuals the real standout here is the accessible and fun gameplay perfect for novice players because of the generous health bar even having health pickups throughout the stage it's on the spicy side of entry level and will make you work beginners won't necessarily find it easy but manageable with some dedication and practice most importantly the game is just fun it's a game i enjoy coming back to as well which does a lot for its longevity the biggest downside technically and what often hampers the fun for me is the slowdown which is much more noticeable here than in most mega drive games and can get pretty bad as things get busy making it great for beginners and a welcome respite but a bit annoying once it's no longer welcome for me it's a constant hamper on an otherwise quick and easy rob whenever i'm in the mood to pick it up so steel empire isn't oh my god incredible but it is highly underrated and a good time with only the excessive slowdown keeping it in the beats here for me but anyone looking for a great novice shooter on the mega drive need look no further [Music] [Music] subterranea is a fantastic game that's completely misunderstood and unfairly maligned and for its difficulty complex controls and physics it's actually one of the coolest shooters on the system i use the term shooter loosely as the core mechanics and complexity aren't related to shooting anything but in the gravity physics of your ship and managing fuel to complete the stage but i'll tell you right now subterranea is one of the most unique and fun to play games on the system with some killer music and art style that'll remind you of an amiga game it's all about learning the physics here using your thruster in perfect bursts to avoid hitting obstacles and walls navigating the levels rescuing minors and meeting objectives all while conserving your fuel and not running out every mission is unique with its own objectives and often special weapons needed to proceed no doubt getting used to the mechanics is the biggest hurdle and why many casual players will just suck at it and give up as it can be initially frustrating and does take practice and patience but it's not a matter of clumsy controls or physics but actually pretty brilliant ones that once mastered make the game incredibly fun your fuel is finite and the more and faster you thrust the more you use up forcing you to play efficiently and find the best routes there aren't a ton of bosses and they're mostly there for the cool factor so the real trip is the variety and levels the game gets even more creative as you progress with more challenging obstacles altered physics from being under water or environments with stronger gravity and increasingly varied tasks like using mirrors to redirect laser fire to clear obstacles not only is the music along the way great with a 9-inch nails like vine but the sound effects are also good with nice meaty effects that complement the game's atmosphere i can totally understand why some would outright hate subterranean the poor decision to not offer any continues makes the already high initial difficulty even more frustrating it's the kind of game you progress a bit farther every time and then start all over but it's also not the kind of game you have to one cc or progress through completely to enjoy as once you're comfortable with the gravity and controls simply navigating the levels faster and faster while blowing up just becomes a good time and i can easily see how speed running through the stages can become a thing if you just want a typical shooter clearly this game's not for you but i personally find it an underappreciated gem on novelty and execution alone [Music] the moment you see sunsoft flash up on a title screen you already know you're in for a treat with super fantasy zone being the best fantasy zone you'll ever play it takes everything that made the original a cute and fun game improves the graphics adds catchy music typical of sunsoft and enhances the gameplay it's in every way a super version of fantasy's own and not just an upgrade but a completely new game with a ton of homage to the original i never did think that fantasy zone needed a detailed backstory let alone such a dark and sordid one for a cute game where you come upon your father's smoking corpse and set out on a revenge mission to avenge his death um okay guys the basic formula is unchanged where you freely scroll through looping stages left or right taking out 10 generators before revealing and fighting a boss you can land stop walk or speed up the scrolling by flying closer to the edges and there's always a shop with special weapons and items to purchase all of which are cool and worth playing with on your first time through for all the grief the mega drive gets for its limited color palette sunsoft shows that it's less about the hardware and more about the developer behind the game with one of the brightest and most colorful shooters on the system every environment looks fantastic with great use of color and plenty of added effects the third waterfall stage is a standout with a soft pastel look that could be mistaken for a super nintendo release the sky on some stages has a wonderful transition in hue and the game is an overall pleasure to look at possibly even more impressive is the music typical sunsoft excellence without a bad track in the bunch with the boss music being an awesome standout i was never a big fantasy zone player but this version is one to come back to and at the top of the a-tier in the library [Music] super thunderblade is notorious for being the worst of the genesis launch games and a substandard port regardless of graphics a 3d rail shooter needs to be fun a slow moving chopper and poor frame rate is not fun it's cumbersome and frustrating and this port takes most of the fun out of thunderblade it also takes out a lot of the content completely removing the top down opening of each stage when you do get some top down segments to fight bosses you're mostly pegged to the bottom of the screen without much range of motion but the worst part is simply the shoddy control and execution clumsy and slow super thunderblade is hard but for all the wrong reasons the pc engine hue card port isn't perfect but impressive for its time and an absolute work of art compared to this train wreck it actually finds a way to incorporate the opening top down stages runs at a much smoother frame rate and is actually decent to control and play by comparison the mega drive game is so cumbersome it's really for masochists only and anyone that gives it a pass based on first impressions hasn't actually tried to make some decent progress to see how many roadblocks of shoddy programming it throws up as you go i could go into details of how bad art them but we've got better games to play for being an official release and launch title that screwed the pooch and made sega's new console look bad super thunderblade gets an f go play any version but this one [Music] task force harrier x is another shooter on the system i'd never played before this review and i can't say i was missing out on all that much i admit based on appearances i thought it'd be worse as there's no way around the game's ugly monotone visuals possibly one of the least visually appealing games on the system its first few levels are nothing but static gray backdrops and lack any variety combined with their generally easy nature it makes for a boring start to an otherwise half-decent shooter when you finally see some blue water to contrast to that endless grey dreck it's like a breath of fresh air and it slowly improves as you progress actually flying over carriers and more diverse environments so why it started out so bland i can't explain the music fares a little better though it tends to repeat across multiple levels and become samey while the effects are either passable or annoying but what really blows my mind is how after all this low-tech nonsense it manages to pull off some of the cleanest best voices on the console direct hit target destroyed [Music] you heard that right listen to how good these samples sound operation completed it could practically be on cd it's like they saved all the storage on graphics and put it into the killer voice samples instead all that being said you have a decent shooter mechanically beneath the hood at least once you get past the first few levels you get some firepower that feels satisfying to use along with a couple support jets as options which you can arrange in various formations not only do they add firepower and block bullets but affect the speed of your plane an interesting mechanic you also have to worry about bombing the ground targets separately which can be pretty tanky until you upgrade your bombs some stages are ground focused where your main shot can also destroy them while aerial missions are strictly focused on your main weapon so task force harrier x turned out to be better than i expected though not anything noteworthy beyond that an average shooter taken down a notch for its bland presentation it's a c minus for me yet solid enough to not deserve anything below that [Music] [Applause] finally the moment you've all been waiting for the thunder force games by technosoft considered by many to be the pinnacle of the mega drive and while three and four get most of the attention i was always a fan of the second game as well especially when it launched with the system ported down from the much more powerful sharp 68 000 computer it simplified the graphics and sound but also balanced the difficulty better to make it my favorite version to play unlike the sequels it's known for alternating between free-roaming overhead stages and side-scrolling shooting the former taken from the original game it couldn't have come at a better time as being the best of the launch games it put a spotlight on both technosoft and shooters in general proving extremely popular and setting them up for even better sequels now not everyone jived with the top down sections some commenting it was their least favorite part of the game but i actually liked the variety it was more the implementation that felt a bit rough as you can't stop the forward momentum of your ship so you find yourself flying back and forth over and over to kill enemies while also trying to bomb ground targets xevious style they were easily the hardest part of the game down the stretch and i can't say that them being removed wasn't for the best but at least for this entry nostalgia i suppose it wouldn't feel right without them the side scrolling was far more straightforward and what really impressed already standard was the cycling weapon system that became the series trademark along with the claw satellites that block bullets and add shots of their own already on display was technosoft's prowess with the hardware with easily the best graphics that the console would see for some time fast scrolling and not a hint of slowdown the well-paced choreographed stages that would define the series was already here along with what's for many the defining aspect of the series the music [Music] yes technosoft knew no bounds when it came to their soundtracks and every game in this series is a banger thunder force 2 has its flaws but it was also the first step into greatness for technosoft by eliminating checkpoints and making it an action-packed console-friendly game they opened the door to a much larger audience thunderforce 2 is an a-minus for its already fantastic side-scrolling sections mixed with cool but quirky overhead areas but it was only a taste of things to come [Music] if thunder force 2 put technosoft on the map then 3 made them a household name [Music] the same team behind part two who'd later go on to create both gate and lords of thunder crafted their mega drive masterpiece and what some even consider the best in the series okay maybe not visually as no game measures up to the insanity of part 4 but in terms of level design and performance as nothing in part 3 takes a back seat to the gameplay or puts visuals over control no matter the effects or sprites on screen you won't find a hint of slowdown here everything is in service to the action and speed of the game and yet thunderforce 3 is still one of the most vibrant and beautiful games on the system from lava and fire effects to streaming waterfalls there's no shortage of moments that left us in awe the first time playing scrolling would happen forward backward and vertically changing directions throughout the level you could also now select your starting levels from a map the music was of course phenomenal yet another step forward from the second game with some of the most memorable tracks of the series [Music] what really sold the game to the general public was its accessibility gone was the uneven difficulty of the second game making way for an easy to pick up and play sequel that showed mega drive owners how accessible and fun a well-made shooter can be no not overly easy as it still required plenty of memorization at the outset but never unfair or frustrating outside of those gotcha moments and since you could respond the pain of checkpoints for many was no more death no longer resets your weapons but only the one you were using to this day it still remains one of the best memo oriented beginner shmups of the time and while this programming duo would later move on to make gate of thunder for hudson saw an amazing game that i enjoyed even more so their legacy on the mega drive was established thunder force 3 was technosoft's first s-tier shooter and easily one of the best on the console [Music] turns out lightning can strike twice as despite losing the original team technosoft doubled down and created what's undoubtedly the most eye-popping gorgeous visual and oral tortoise force on the system not just the shooters but period there isn't a single 16-bit shooter out there that can dethrone thunder force 4 for sheer spectacle if the third game had us in awe the fourth just made us wet ourselves with pure joy the sprite work was out of this world with endless parallax vistas stretching multiple screen heights and massive bosses making grand appearances all while effects swirl in the foreground it was a sight to behold and despite the marketing if there was one game that nintendo truly couldn't thunderforce 4 was it [Music] in fact the biggest flaw of the game is that in many of the craziest moments sega can't quite do it either unlike the third game some performance had to be sacrificed to achieve these levels of awesome and you'll encounter plenty of slowdown across various stages never to the point of ruining the experience in some cases even being helpful but a clear change in design philosophy over the third another sacrifice was some bullet visibility with some getting lost in explosions or backgrounds catching new players off guard and taking time to get used to now it's hard to say that it wasn't worth it as the game just looked so good he wanted to cry but that incredible presentation did come with a bit of sacrifice but putting the nail in the coffin is that absolutely god-tier soundtrack the most incredible metal chiptunes ever put to cartridge rivaling even the mighty lords of thunder on cd with its insanity there's really no words to describe how blood-pumpingly insane the music is in thunder force four but it also has diversity slowing things down with jazzy and atmospheric melodies when appropriate [Music] the soundtrack is simply beyond reproach and along with elemental master also by technosa some of the most incredible work of the generation the difficulty is a serious step up from the third game addressing criticism that the third was too easy weapons return improved and well balanced with the need to cycle them regularly throughout the latter half of the game introduces the lightning saber a charged blade attack that's so powerful it pushes you backwards from the inertia and you'll need it as this is one long game with not only a lot of stages but some seriously tough bosses that refuse to die especially if you don't have the right weapon to take them down more effectively thunder force 4 isn't perfect the very best and most memorable games rarely are but despite its few flaws none of it is enough to make it anything but a masterpiece of the mega drive and one of the most memorable gaming experiences of the time [Music] thunder force 4 is at the top of the s tier the greatest side-scrolling shooter on the system it's a game that became symbolic of the mega drive's prowess for anyone that missed it i made a really fantastic video on the history of technosoft a while back covering not only these mega drive classics but their entire library across all generations so if you love technosoft check it out after this video as i go much more in depth on this amazing developer [Music] lo and behold thunderbolt 2 turns out to be the best of the unlicensed games and certainly the best of the few game tech series of games like magic girl and adventurous boy but i have to admit the first thing i noticed was how certain effects sound like wet farts i mean is it just me [Music] aside from the popcorn killing enemies in this game is like a symphony of the sphincter on the plus side this game seems to scroll more smoothly than game tech's previous efforts though the actual enemies and bullets still have a choppiness to them making shots sneak up on you thanks to the health bar that you're given and regular health pickups along the way most will be able to survive quite a ways into the game and see what it has to offer which honestly isn't much aside from some halfway decent shooting having a set of circling options keeps you well protected and helps you coast toward the end of the game when things ramp up that is if you haven't grown bored and just turned it off by then decent enough to escape a poor great but not any better they're not really worth your time unless you're just curious or are endlessly entertained by the sound of wet farts [Music] spaceships of red blue and green you can hear that alien lace screen trusting trusted we are trusted who doesn't remember that iconic video by classic game room his love for this toy plan shooter is undeniable and nor is mine having waxed poetic about it in so many videos i've lost track why do serious shooting fans so love truxton is it really just the awesome blue lightning laser thrashing and booming across the screen is it the entrancing music by masahiro yugi that puts you into a zone as you rhythmically dodge the relentless incoming fire from an endless array of mid bosses or is it the simple yet alien art style that oozes cool and became a staple of the toa plan look all of the above and more no matter which version you played all with their pros and cons you were playing a masterpiece and you knew it and the best thing i can say about the mega drive port is it took that masterpiece and made it accessible to a much broader audience because tatsujin isn't for everyone at least not for long the arcade will destroy you from the opening level requiring quite a bit of practice just to get past stage two it's merciless and meant for expert players the pc engine version which i admit is my favorite sticks closest to the arcade and maintains its pacing and gameplay remaining equally brutal in the process the mega drive port completely rebalances the difficulty making the opening stages far more manageable turning the game from an instant exercise in frustration into something that more can enjoy and created a large following in the process the bullets are slowed down and often less numerous while a fully powered blue laser creates actual slowdown in the game you can use it as a sort of cheat mode to play in slow motion and avoid getting overwhelmed with bullets yes it changes up the rhythm and pacing of the game to a degree but it's a rhythm that only veterans can enjoy in the original by the time stage 4 and especially 5 rolls around the mega drive port ramps up and gives an equally brutal challenge in the final stretch bullets become faster and more numerous on par with the pc engine port in difficulty in other words mega drive truckstand was accessible enough to get a legion of fans hooked only waiting until later stages to wipe the floor with them and for a console game that's not a bad thing at all the downside is this early port does have its issues not just the slowdown i mentioned that while often welcome wasn't likely intentional it also suffers from a rushed music implementation where toe plan wasn't provided the proper information from sega until it was too late having them code the audio incorrectly this results in all the music playing too fast sped up versus the proper pacing [Music] you get used to it but it's not right i'll take the brilliant and melodic pc engine tunes for this one any day of the week the final stage also has bullet visibility issues with them often disappearing in the sea of orange lava and causing some very unfair deaths for an end game that's already incredibly brutal cheap deaths to ruin your run are certainly unwelcome thankfully a hack now exists to fix this issue at the end of the day truxton is an amazing s-tier game no matter how you play it it's my all-time favorite towa plan shooter and this mega drive port is the most accessible of them all so while it may not be perfect suffering from early technical issues it's not enough to keep it from being one of the mega drive's most revered shooters while i can't give it an s-tier ranking like i did on the pc engine it's still an eight-year game here and in all honesty the very best and most accessible way to play for anyone that isn't ready for the all-out assault of the pc engine port or the arcade original [Music] [Music] oh man talk about a reversal and fortune if truxton was accessible to the masses then twin cobra was the giant middle finger to offset that kindness good god is this one of the hardest most unforgiving home ports of an arcade classic now the pc engine port is the kinder gentler more accessible version while the mega drive port is a beast as if the arcade queue tiger wasn't brutal enough twin cobra shortens the screen for home play while what seems like leaving the bullet speed nearly intact while it starts out fair enough it's all a facade as once the rank builds up and the real bullets start flying you end up with one of the hardest if not the hardest shooter on the mega drive the final four or five stages are sheer insanity with fast yellow choppers swooping in on you from various angles and behind sniper bullets from any enemy left on screen too long due to an error in routing this is a game you'll have to nearly know death if you want to see the end as being fully powered is the only way to keep the screen clear enough to survive death often means having to quickly die multiple times to get set back multiple checkpoints far enough to recover enough firepower before hitting an incredibly brutal section again which is a shame as the port itself is really well done and plays like a dream [Music] it's the most arcade accurate in terms of gameplay and enemy patterns only amplified by the short screen and oddly even more aggressive bullet ai the awesome music is extremely well translated and a joy even better than the arcade in some cases along with bass heavy meaty effects that really make destroying ground targets so satisfying the one area it does falter is in the graphics being honestly quite plain and ugly colors are more muted and backgrounds are drab lacking the detail of the arcade of course but even paling in comparison to the much easier on the eyes pc engine port but if you can look past the visuals you've got a game that plays and sounds wonderful until it absolutely clobbers you there's arcade hard like tatsujin on pc engine then they're so hard that it makes the arcade game seem fair and that's twin cobra to the point where i won't play it again in any serious way just casually to remind myself how cool it is until it isn't twin cobra is an awesome game in itself and this port captures that extremely well if it was balanced better to at least parody with the arcade it would still be an a plus tier port but as it stands you've got a game that sounds great and feels good to play but quickly becomes nearly impossible to complete making it a b-tier port for me [Music] the torah plan trifecta truckston twin cobra and twinhawk or dysonpool in japan this port was done by toa plan themselves and thankfully a good one though dyson poo has never been everyone's cup of tea a far slower pace an almost chill shooter compared to twin cobra or even flying shark the main gimmick is your squadron of planes that are called up letting you blanket the screen with bullets before they either get shot down or you send them kamikaze into enemies all targets are ground based here no aerial enemies at all so you're mostly dealing with pretty tanky targets that can take a pounding dyson proof feels like an evolution of the tiger heli formula a step backwards for many but a tried and true formula of memo heavy checkpoint based gameplay mixed with a short easier to memorize game at only a few stages long that's not too monumental a task and it's not nearly as brutal as many of their others the graphics and sound translate well from the arcade here with the sound effects properly deep and satisfying and it's not a situation where it's worth picking apart its differences versus the pc engine as though they do have their differences they're both solid ports that play well and capture the spirit of the arcade though the mega drive version definitely has it be in terms of the explosions and sound effects as well as more accurate music so you could say it's the definitive home port i know a few people that love the slower relaxed pacing of dyson poop and it's a good shooter to chill to it's not going to get your blood pumping and it was never my cup of tea but i can still see the excellent tour plan dna in its design it makes a great entry-level old-school tour plan shooter before jumping into their more hardcore releases as a lot of the mechanics in bullet ai is similar so twinhawk is a solid port of a very good but unspectacular shooter and in my opinion a b-tier game in the lineup perfect for a twin hawk and chill kind of evening if you love ground-based shooters like i do and are also a fan of fantasy and rpgs twinkle tale is right up your alley it may look similar to games like elemental mastery and undead line but it's actually much more like pocky and rocky with its slightly slower more measured pacing where rushing head on will often get you killed and requires more strategic approaches to each area it's also similar in that it combines vertical and horizontal areas sometimes auto scrolling and sometimes not with some branching pads and rooms to explore as well not nearly as frantic as elemental master nor as brutal as on deadline it's its own game like a magical shooting run and gun hybrid you get three magic types which you can cycle through and upgrade and grab various special attacks in the form of magic spells twinkle tail takes full advantage of its fantasy setting with endless variety in enemies bosses and environmental obstacles to overcome a final fantasy style run and gun that won't have you pulling your hair out like the harder shooters on the system and have d d geeks like me ogling at the cool beastie area on display look at these cute little walking beholders that jump out of the water adorable but i queued them up this is not with plenty of demonic themes and enemies as well suiting its fantasy setting while you will explore and get some branching paths it remains a shooter at heart with a map that shows your next location between stages the sprite work is top notch and the music is catchy and upbeat [Music] a bit of slowdown here and there when things get hectic and you're using your special magic but pretty par for the course and never enough to ruin the experience the only downside to twinkle tail is its stiff competition while graphically superior to elemental master and undead line i consider them superior shooters that really get my blood pumping to play more often and it's not as masterful as the incredible pocky and rocky games by natsume on the super nintendo yet it's a fantastic game on its own merits and one i highly recommend anyone try if they enjoy this style of game just don't go looking for the incredibly rare physical unless you're a collector and ready to get a sticker shot there's other ways to enjoy it along with an english translation patch that'll flesh out the detailed story scenes along the way if you enjoy pocky and rocky it's a shoe and you'll like this one too and given that i'm a sucker for this style of game twinkle tail is easily an a-tier game in the lineup [Music] speaking of ground-based shooters oh boy do we have a barn burner here undead line is without a doubt the most intense balls to the wall on the system if not the 16-bit generation and i love it ported down and abridged from its superior sharp 68 000 original it still retains the essence and remains one of my favorite shooters on the system to replay yes undead line has a reputation for being absolutely brutal one of the hardest games and it is to a point but it's also not nearly as impossible as advertised not in the same league as twin cobra grindstormer and a few others because the majority of its difficulty doesn't come from dodging bullets and killing enemies but the incredibly kludgy treasure chest mechanic that's essential for survival you need these chests to stay fast upgraded and protected shooting these chests cycles the items inside and if you think it's simple to get it on the item you want think again your rate of fire is fast and getting it to stop on just what you need takes a lot of practice doing it while enemies swarm you from all directions and you absolutely need that health potion will have your palms sweating you can bet you'll be grabbing the wrong item on plenty of occasions and sometimes to disastrous results cursing the game for screwing you as these chests also contain things you don't want like oh i don't know a black potion that makes you lose life or a speed down instead of a speed up so yeah these chests can really screw you over at the worst time but that's also part of what makes a deadline so tense the speed of the game the relentlessness of the enemies and the need to time your pickups just right there's also a great offense versus defense mechanic at play as raising your shield will block incoming fire but also keep you from firing add in resource management as your life bar is it not recovering between levels and your limited bomb stock at three for the entire game not replenishing unless you continue so yeah an easy one cc this is not but damn is it fun the graphics are cool with a lot of creativity but not compared to the far more attractive twinkle tale the music on the other hand is great [Music] with some especially good driving tunes and boss music that help make the game but it's no elemental master i mean nothing is really but undead line will absolutely kick your ass and the chests will frustrate the hell out of you so here's a quick few tips from my top 5 most brutal shooters on the mega drive first like i mentioned the spread daggers are your friend get them and keep them two when you level up at the end of each level put all your points into either strength and agility spread it out that's all that will matter if you plan to hold on to the spread weapon don't waste it on any of the other categories three learn the boss patterns they initially seem ridiculous but once you figure out each one they're actually quite simple check out this final boss here it seems nigh impossible to dodge the speed of this incoming fire right and it is but once i figured out the pattern i pretty much finished it off without taking a single hit by just repeating this dodge pattern over and over in fact aside from the obnoxious item pickups once i got the hang of things i had a blast playing this game the levels are fun and when your speed is maxed you can do some serious dodging and blocking the bosses are mostly pussycats once you get the pattern down like the reaper here that seems tough at first but a total cinch once you get how to keep those sights from cornering you and check out this awesome horror level splatterhouse anyone this game was a lot of fun and once i got the hang of it i enjoyed it far more than expected but it's such a white knuckle experience i can't help but come back to it and in my mind that's the key component to a great shooter that stands the test of time not an s-tier game as there's no single aspect that'll blow you away but an incredibly addicting and replayable shooter that belongs in the a tier for me [Music] vapor trail reminds me of the aero fighter series only not nearly as whimsical or interesting and the first thing you'll notice after choosing your jet is that the music is pretty kick-ass [Music] and it's a good thing because the next thing you'll notice on stage two is that it hasn't changed nor the next pretty much using the same track for the entire game i'm kinda conflicted as one good track is better than a bunch of forgettable music but it's such an odd thing in general while the graphics aren't anything to write home about and some levels are pretty flat there's creativity in the stages and you always feel like you're progressing to something new and interesting thankfully it doesn't falter in the gameplay which is expected coming from data east and ported by telenet unlike most shooters you get a health bar and can take a couple hits along with a unique special weapon for each jet the power-up system is a bit finicky as you have to shoot the icon to cycle it and often doesn't end up where you want it vapor trail can be decent fun and is worth playing once or twice but unfortunately doesn't stand out or stand up to better games like sonic wings aside from its one very good music track it's not much more than an average shooter on the system and belongs in the c tier [Music] [Applause] [Music] hot damn does veritex have some rocking tunes always the first thing to jump out at me when picking it up for a spin [Music] in fact it's so good that after initial impressions the rest of the game just can't measure up to it now first impressions are good though as you get some cool use of parallax in an upbeat pace to the scrolling which i'm always a fan of but impressions are deceiving as the faster pace doesn't really come with faster gameplay like in the soldier series of games there's a lack of many enemies and the challenge level is low so it gets repetitive quickly lest you think the game is overly easy it offsets the lower challenge by completely eliminating checkpoints veritex pulls a super r-type and makes you start at the very beginning of a level at depth even if you die on the stage boss then you get to trudge the entire way through a somewhat easy level again not fun the somewhat lazy graphics work also rears its ugly head if you pay attention like in the tiling of this stage where you can clearly see the squares and they don't line up correctly cutting off half an image and then starting a new now don't get me wrong there's some fun to be had here it was developed by asmic the clowns responsible for the terrible d force on the super nintendo and compared to d-force veritex is a gem it has the feel of a caravan shooter but it doesn't even come close to those brilliant games on the pc engine genesis does a hell of a lot and it does it well but it doesn't do caravan shooters and veritex comes off like a cheap imitation exciting at first until you realize it's mostly window dressing well except for the music which is worthy of the grades there are some real visual highlights here like the stage over a flooded city with cool water effects and scrolling clouds this game is far more visually interesting than something like vapor trail but the gameplay just isn't there and with the right weapon you can literally park yourself in the middle of the screen and fire well crank up the difficulty you say ah well joke's on you there is none they clearly tried on the graphics aside from some lazy moments and the music is all that [Music] but the expertise to make a decent shooter on top of it just wasn't there easily eclipsed by the much better vapor trail that i just reviewed prior veritex gets a positive point boost simply for the music alone but it's really still no better than average on a console that has so much better [Music] viewpoint is one of my favorite neogeo games an underrated classic and brilliantly designed it's hard as all hell likely the toughest on the system outside of last hope but it's a game i always come back to and the mega drive port believe it or not is one of the better home ports easily eclipsing the disastrous playstation remake that followed sure it can't hold a candle to the neo geo in terms of graphics seriously downgraded and easier with a lot less bullets and additional slowdown but in some ways that drop in difficulty is welcome as the original is nearly impenetrable to most players what you do get is as faithful a representation as possible given the hardware limitations and a game that does a decent job of capturing the spirit of the original first and foremost unlike the playstation port it doesn't bastardize the original's wonderful and eclectic music staying true with solid fm renditions [Music] [Applause] [Music] and given the game's isometric view the graphics are nicely done the game's biggest problem and what really sets it back is the slowdown which can get pretty bad in this case to the detriment of the game it's inconsistent in that some areas play really fast before slowing to a crawl and then back up again we're talking early super nintendo shmup level of slow down here and it's not pretty and to be honest though the music is kept faithful the yamaha sound chip is capable of so much more and in the right hands could have done a better job of replicating the original music but at the end of the day you do get an impressive looking game for the hardware with really solid mechanics and gameplay where the excessive slowdown may actually help a lot of players overcome the challenge viewpoint is an s-tier game for me and while this port can't come close at least it makes a valiant effort far far better than the travesty that befell the psx port i'll take this 16-bit version any day of the week [Music] whenever i play whip wrench it actually reminds me of aeroflash even though they're nothing really alike maybe because they're both published by renovation and solid games or i played them around the same time and had similar impressions but coming back to it later in life whiprush is a decidedly better game and quite underrated in my opinion it isn't just colorful but has some excellent sprite work and effective use of parallax it also has much more creative stages with a lot of verticality regular changes in scenery and direction making for levels that never overstay their welcome in fact whiprush is a slower more strategic game and shares more with our type than anything else and just not nearly as brutal they clearly took a page from irem's playbook in creating an assortment of weapons that never let you feel completely protected with each having their pros and cons some more powerful but leaving your flanks exposed while others provide more coverage around or are homing there's really no one perfect weapon forcing you to strategize which works best in a given area it's a constantly engaging experience with a ton of variety making for a fun game to learn by contrast aeroflash had a cool gimmick and was fun enough but overall simple and quite easy without a ton of replay value whiprush offers a much better challenge and has a lot of depth in playing for survival let alone score whiprush's other gimmick are your satellites that one firing shoot out at enemies for extra damage and quickly return in a sort of whip-like motion that i assume gives the game its name when not firing you can adjust their formation which will change how they behave and their reach one area it kinda lacks is the music which is okay but not memorable enough to leave an impression but the core gameplay and control is there and the stages provide plenty of environmental challenge and changes in scenery now it's no arts renovations best on the system but it's a solid b plus if you're looking for a slower paced strategic shooter [Music] [Music] wonder boy 3 monster layer was included in my pc engine shooters video so i gotta do it here more of a hybrid mix of platforming and shooting levels it auto scrolls on both giving it the nod for inclusion and as i mentioned in the comparison the mega drive port is decent though lacking compared to its pc engine cd counterpart as aside from the extra level of parallax this port isn't nearly as colorful the sprites are smaller and there's entire stages missing to make it fit onto a cart for some reason the art is also redrawn and your character is more cutesy and silly looking though it's not a big deal and while the music work here is okay the cd renditions on the pc engine port are fantastic and went out monster layer was never one of the best wonder boy games with platforming that's not as focused and varied as others in the series and shooting segments that are decent enough but not anything special on their own it's fun and the variety is nice but the longevity is limited and i'd mostly rather play better entries in the series i gave the pc engine port a b simply for being a very accurate port of an admittedly average game so this port is more of a seat losing the large colorful sprites and content but still perfectly fun and playable xdr or x dazzedly ray sounds like a cheesy rapper name from the early 2000's but if only we were so lucky i was not looking forward to playing this game given its reputation as one of the worst on the system but was ready to give it a fair shake initial impressions weren't that bad the graphics on the opening stage are decent enough with some parallax and effects in the buildings there's far uglier games on the mega drive and the opening boss is a pretty large sprite that looks pretty cool even if he goes down without much of a fight then i start to see some warning signs on the second stage like enemies flying behind and through environmental obstacles than reappearing or even flying through other enemies but the graphics are still decent enough even if the music is kind of blah and annoying and so it continues decidedly average and not all that thrilling with enemies weirdly disappearing through objects but i'm not pulling my hair out enemies flying through hazards and obstacles to get around and behind you gets only more egregious as you go but by this point you're kinda used to it and it's expected so you know the drill at least the hazards are visually obvious so you know to avoid them you'll notice the music tracks start getting recycled after stage three which is pretty lazy but they're nothing good to begin with and it makes me miss the single yet awesome track from vapor trail which would certainly be welcome here but really i'm not seeing what's so hated here sure it's a bit janky and poorly coated and the incoming waves get repetitive and it being on the easy side doesn't help the board but it's not outwardly offensive or frustrating either at least aside from the blatant gradius rip off bosses though not like much better games haven't done the same thing the game even runs pretty smooth without a bunch of slowdown or choppy scrolling sorry guys this game is really not great but it's hard reputation is undeserved it's not a good game really just and unexciting but it's not anywhere of the worst i've played on the mega drive even if you're a novice it's still easy enough to one cc with a few plays experienced players may beat it on their first try which shouldn't take more than 15 to 20 minutes as this game is short aside from the shoddy programming just below average but doesn't belong with the true kosoge on the console speaking of true kusoge that'll actually have you pulling your hair out wishing for the average tedium of a game like xdr xenon 2 is it one of the worst most torturous experiences you can put yourself through on the mega drive if you were to ask me about the worst shooter on the system xenon 2 just might get my vote not because it doesn't have some decent and interesting graphics which it does being based on an amiga game you actually expect some good things here and you also get the famous bomb the base track the amiga version is known for [Music] but i hope you like it as justin vapor trail it'll be the only one you'll be hearing however it's in the gameplay where the pain begins xenon 2 is the very definition of the type of game that coined that derogatory term euroshmup with graphics and music that take complete precedence over acceptable game design the game feels borderline unplayable until you can power it up which you can't do effectively until you reach the shot and use some of your points to speed up and increase your firing your hitbox is huge yet when it comes to killing enemies you seem to miss them far too often with hit detection that's more than suspect but the killer gimmick that intends to make yet begins to break the game is the scrolling mechanic where you can move the screen backwards for a period of time you won't really know or need this feature much until the third stage where the levels become more claustrophobic and maze-like forcing you to go up and down to find your way through at a snail's pace while bullets assault your giant ship and your health bar becomes essential if you love unreachable enemies firing away you while stuck in small corridors unable to dodge slowly working your way up and down through mazes then maybe you'll like xenon too adding to the frustration is constantly getting stuck on the environment from all your satellite upgrades all while getting shot at unable to escape it's as janky as it looks and the jerky movement and controls don't help since you can move backwards enemies from below will come swooping in on you to whittle away your health bar yes this game is very hard but for all the wrong reasons and frustrating beyond reason i know many have a nostalgia for the amiga version and likely that game is better but on mega drive this is a hard note to top it all off for your efforts you get an ending non-ending that's so ridiculous it defies comprehension yep that's it then it throws you back into the next loop after watching some amiga footage i see that the mega drive port removes the final fifth stage completely which is a blessing in disguise because the sooner this nightmare is over the better you can bet your ass that i use safe states to endure this nightmare and gather footage because there's no way i put myself through the agony of learning this game not even its cool looking amiga style graphics and bomb the bass can save this one an a for effort but an f for results xenon 2 isn't the ugliest nor the laziest game on the mega drive but it's so incredibly painful to endure it's one that can rightfully be called the worst shooting experience on the system [Music] all your base are belong to mega drive zero wing swoops in to save the day from ending on a low note with not only the most infamous meme of shooting lord but an absolutely outstanding port by tora plan themselves [Music] i did a head-to-head comparison video of the mega drive port versus pc engine but suffice to say this port is the clear-cut winner hands down while it can't replicate some of the coolest background effects and parallax of the arcade it does a solid job and looks as close as can be expected but in terms of presentation it's the game's music that's out of this world not content with simply recreating the chiptunes of the original the mega drive port adds a level of percussion and bass to the tracks that turn already great compositions into a god tier collection tour plan famously had an internal competition to outdo each other during development with different programmers responsible for different stages it's part of what gives the game its disjointed nature in terms of level design and motifs but it's also what brought out the best in the composers with an eclectic mix of music styles nearly everyone an absolute banger zeroing is one game that's completely elevated by its amazing soundtrack [Music] and the mega drive port is so good that it blows away the cd arrangements on the pc engine the gameplay is also well balanced for a home console not as unforgiving as the arcade yet still a fair challenge after the initial easy stages by comparison the pc engine port is an outright cakewalk before putting up some kind of a challenge down the road zeroing is a fun and solid horizontal shooter but it's not in the upper echelon of the best it has the typical toe plan thoughtful design with carefully planned checkpoint recovery the pace is on the slow side and the grab mechanic mostly novelty and not necessary toward progression with the green weapon being the easy favorite and overpowered compared to the rest by far the most satisfying to use zero wing was always a b tier shooter in my mind and not to a planned strength but with a god tier soundtrack that's so good i just couldn't keep myself from coming back to it [Music] a perfect example of great music that turns an above average game into a classic but this port has so much love poured into it it's hard not to gush unlike the arcade it has over 32 loops and unique endings for anyone crazy enough to actually achieve it with all kinds of funny and ridiculous commentary by cats during the credits a lot of folks have nostalgia for this one including myself and while not nearly an s-tier side-scroller compared to the very best it vaults into a status in my mind for the amazing music for that timeless intro translation you can only get on the mega drive and for the effort poured into it by toa plan to make it the best home port it could be zero wing is an a tier shooter as the final entry in the mega drive library but wait there's more [Music] there's some great looking new games now in development for the mega drive first we have irena genesis metal fury with demos already out there and the game getting close to completion equally exciting is the crazy looking zpf with artwork by griezor responsible for the fantastic super xyx a game i reviewed some time ago the 16-bit era was a shooting fan's dream and due to their popularity there were scores of other great games that incorporated shooting segments not the silly fmv games like sewer shark but well-known classics like rocket knight adventure gun star heroes devastator superman batman and robin contra hardcores and more the three strike games could be considered part of the genre as well when it came to shooters of that generation the mega drive was easily one of the best right alongside the pc engine with everyone else playing second fiddle and why for those of us who grew up with the mega drive or a genesis it'll always be one of the greats but was it the greatest the pc engine with over 100 shooters of its own may have something to say about it so if you enjoyed this video and want to see how they compare check out every pc engine shooter reviewed discover yet another amazing shooting library and then decide for yourself you

Channel: Shmup Junkie

Views: 699,489

Keywords: mega drive, sega genesis, sega saturn, retro games, retro gaming, shoot em ups, pc engine, shoot em up, bullet hell, thunder force, sega genesis games collection, mega drive mini 2, mega drive shooters, sega mega drive, sega genesis collection all games, sega genesis games, shmup junkie, STG, danmaku, toaplan, m2, nec, best shoot em ups, best shmups, cotton, video games ranked

Id: RLB4W-8pZos

Length: 198min 28sec (11908 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 17 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/SuppleDude]

This is incredible work. Will you be doing a video for every console system to date?

[u/twosn3snfg]

This goes hard, thank you

[u/Huelino]

Nice!

Love your content bro, keep the good work.

[u/Madsy9]

Awesome work. Great way to finish my Sunday evening.

[u/CheaperGamer]

Wow, that's a lot of work. Great Job!

[u/Certain_King_1748]

I hope you enjoy making these, because I enjoy watching them.

[u/Going_for_the_One]

Great work! The Mega Drive probably have the best shoot 'em up selection of any console.