IntroductionI had read reviews of the old Dreamcast game had been updated and released for Western audiences. I like vertically scrolling shoot em ups. Ever since I first played Xevious in the arcades many years ago.
StoryThe insurgents have taken the oil wells and are now funding their Islamic state. You have to infiltrate their industrial complex then degrade their war machine. They kidnapped Princess Peach and for the sake of world security you must kill the bad guys and rescue her. Actually I made all that up. It is a shooter. Time to fly from the start to the end destroying loads of enemies. Half way through dispatching a mini boss then at the end destroying a major boss. Your reward a drawing of a woman! Sometimes scantily dressed.
GraphicsTop Notch for a shooter. You fly into the screen with a mock three d effect. You get five zones. Countryside, Sea, more countryside, snow and an industrial complex and finally a destroyed city.
Gameplay.This is a standard from bottom to top annihilating anything that comes in your way. Pick up the power ups and bombs. Obliterate the enemy. Degrade the war machine. It is total fantasy as your helicopter would not be able to get off the ground with the amount of ordinance you fire. Still it is a lot of fun shooting tanks, AA guns, helicopters. Then you get a mini boss on every level apart from the first one. The last level you get two mini bosses. Each level is concluded with a boss. A big helicopter, ship or tank being my favourites. At the start this game seems impossible you get one credit and that goes very quickly. Also it has an advanced way of shooting to the side to get at hard to reach enemies. Then I found out if you go into the options menu you can turn it into a twin stick shooter. After which it becomes a lot easier. Also switch the amount of reserve helicopters to five. Another little tip is play it and for every hour you get an extra credit. Eventually you get free play.
Multiplayer.You can play co op. Both players are on the screen at the one time. It makes for a lot of fun.
Achievements. This is a great game for achievements. They do not stack but the game is relatively short so no problems there. If you play two player and have unlocked unlimited continues then you can breeze through the game. I got all the achievements on this one.
Overall.I really enjoyed this. It is a top notch shooter. There is a bit of slow down in the dreamcast version. I knocked off half a point for the lack of online multiplayer.
4.5