All 16-Bit

Review #12114 Sol-Feace The rare case where an F is better than a D Sega CD 1992 Sega Shooter Shooter › Horizontal C 83 / 100 Very Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Responsive controls. Strange mechanic where two options on top and bottom of your ship will fan out (aka angled up/down) if you move forward and the reverse if you move forward. This only happens when not shooting which allows you to adjust your shots ever so slightly. It's novel but doesn't have a huge impact on the gameplay since the angle can only be adjusted perhaps 30%. Regardless, the gameplay here is fast and frenetic! Some segments are almost bullet hell quality while other times it's about ship placement and memorization. So it's a good blend of Gradius and R-Type. Movement...

Review #12064 Lords of Thunder The cover art isn't the only downgrade from the TG-16 CD version Sega CD 1995 Sega Shooter Shooter › Horizontal D 78 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Either this version is much easier than the TG-16 version or my skills improved in the last two hours. I'm leaning toward this first conclusion. This is a plus for me but maybe someone else would complain about it. A fair amount of slowdown, something entirely absent from the other, better version. Still a good experience though. 4 / 5 Level Design 4 / 5 Theme 4 / 5 Art Style Downgrade from the TG-16 version. Colors are muted and backgrounds are missing a lot of de...

Review #12057 Keio Flying Squadron Sega's Magical Chase Sega CD 1994 JVC Shooter Shooter › Horizontal D 76 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Feels great, but only with the right settings. From the title screen you can configure the game speed, movement speed, and difficulty. It's a shame this is a one-time setting. It would be nice to change movement speed in-game, and the slow game speed, which is default, is painfully slow. I recommend game speed 4 and movement 3. Two weapons and three sub-weapons can be acquired and powered up a couple of times. I wish there were a couple of other weapons. You can spawn two options by simply doing nothing for a couple of seconds. Kind weird but ok. One-hit deaths make this a tough playthrough, especially on anyth...

Review #12006 Android Assault - The Revenge of Bari-Arm Gate of Thunder clone Sega CD 1994 Big Fun Games Shooter Shooter › Horizontal D 77 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Four difficulty levels. Easy is very easy. Lots of powerups and four weapons. Enemies take many hits. Adjustable speed. You've got a huge hit on, especially when powered up in the mech mode. Take two hits to die and respawn right there with full powered up weapons. 3 / 5 Level Design Pedestrian level design. Huge gaps between waves of enemies. A few interesting enemy types, but honestly more annoying than engaging, such as bombs and other items that explode when hit. There's an obligatory space fleet stage and a chase/escape sequence ala G...

Review #11128 Zero Wing All your base are not belong to us PCE CD 1992 Naxat Soft Shooter Shooter › Horizontal F 57 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Three weapons which are upgradeable and always awarded in the same sequence. Red, blue then green. Red is a normal shot. Shot blue is laser and green is seeker. You always have two options, one above and the other beneath your ship and they're huge so they take a lot of hits which makes the game pretty easy. You can also upgrade your speed a couple of times. You lose everything when you die and restart the level R-Type style. I'm fact the entire game is a slow deliberate crawl in the tradition of the much better R-Type. The only gimmick is a tractor beam which lets you grab an enemy dir...

Review #11123 Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou PCE CD 1992 Konami Shooter Shooter › Horizontal C 80 / 100 Very Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay It's Gradius without the auto-upgrade mechanic. Movement is tight, weapons are great (can't beat that laser), and auto fire is on. Life is good. The only negative is the constant slowdown. This might be worse than Gradius III on SNES. Sheooot is it bad. 4 / 5 Level Design Maybe this is nostalgia speaking here, but I like the stages in the first game more than these. They're good, but not great. The difficult curve is steep here. I didn't come close to dying until stage 3 and even then it was my own dumb fault. But then the difficulty ramps up like a hockey stick. It's a doozy...

Review #11115 Super Darius II Zoom and enhance PCE CD 1993 NEC Shooter Shooter › Horizontal E 68 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Has an auto fire capability and other configuration including difficulty levels, lives and continues. Movement is fast and fluid. Powerups are plentiful although it takes a long time to fully power up. The only complaint is your ginormous hitbox. Seriously, it's bigger than Air Zonk. 4 / 5 Level Design I love the branching paths, Out Run style. Makes for some replayability. 4 / 5 Theme Darius! The between stage cinematic entrance is cool the first time and a little weird from there on out. 3 / 5 Art Style ...

Review #11114 Super Darius Looks and sounds ever so slightly better than the HuCard version PCE CD 1990 NEC Shooter Shooter › Horizontal F 51 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay The constant mashing of two buttons is giving me carpel tunnel. There are no weapons to power up with and the peashooter shot and bombs are no ideal. Enemies also take too many shots. Deaths are even more punishing than Gradius because powerups are few and far between and are lost after a death. Insane difficulty. 3 / 5 Level Design The stages are sooooo long! Enemies are placed to flood the screen with projectiles. The only way to progress is to know exactly where to position and mash those buttons. 4 / 5 ...

Review #11106 Spriggan Mk. II An interactive episode of Spriggan PCE CD 1992 Naxat Soft Shooter Shooter › Horizontal E 67 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Feels like Cybernator/Target Earth as a shoot em up rather than a ground based action title. The weapons and enemies are on the clunky side. Enemies take so many hits that it's often better to focus on shooting down the missiles they fire at you rather than trying to hit them since they will at least go off screen at some point while most missiles will track you down. So yeah, at its core this is a "peashooter with damage sponge enemies" shooter, even after you acquire the more powerful "Mark 2" mech. The saving grace is the Halo-style regenerating shield/health ba...

Review #11103 Side Arms Special Mechs in space, Before Christ? PCE CD 1989 NEC Shooter Shooter › Horizontal D 78 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay This is a carbon copy of the TG-16 original version, but with the addition of a new mode called "Before Christ". The BC version plays much the same, with only minor differences such as the powerups and slower game speed. Still a great game. 4 / 5 Level Design The BC mode has similar levels to the main one, although I found them to be a tad less interesting. Still, more of the same is a good thing here. 4 / 5 Theme There's an opening cinematic and between-level artwork. Nice stuff. Plus, mechs! 4 / 5 Ar...

Review #11095 Rayxanber III The one where it's tough to fire forward PCE CD 1992 Data West Shooter Shooter › Horizontal F 51 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Well, enemies can be killed, thankfully. And weapon powerups are much more useful than in the first game. I figured out the the powerup icon can be picked up in one of four directions which dictates where the weapon will be faced. This was probably what was going on in the first game. That makes more sense than the randomness I thought I was experiencing, but it's also a stupid, useless mechanic. Why would anyone want something other than forward? Another annoying mechanic is a charge shot which fires a round of heat seeking missiles. Powering up this shot takes a few seconds an...

Review #11094 Rayxanber II The shooter with invincible enemies PCE CD 1991 Data West Shooter Shooter › Horizontal H 30 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay The teeny tiniest ship firing the teeny tiniest shot ever. And there's almost no point in firing because enemies are damage sponges. I gave up and just started avoiding them until they inevitably left the screen. I've never seen anything quite like it. There are at least three weapons that offer weird spread effects. A few shot forward but at least half will give you up/down or even reverse weapons. You can only carry one and can't switch so tough luck if you're stuck with a terrible one. But again, you can't kill anything so why bother? Movement is very slow and there's no s...

Review #11090 R-Type: Complete CD The one with cinematics and a bad soundtrack PCE CD 1991 Irem Shooter Shooter › Horizontal C 83 / 100 Very Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay It's funny because this game shares some flaws that I gripe about in other games, like slow movement and insane difficulty, but it does everything with such style that I can't help but overlook the downsides. And besides, this game is hard but completely fair. This is the original git gud game. Incredible power-ups. Iconic and fun option mechanic. 5 / 5 Level Design The best designed levels in a shooter. Every few seconds there's another memorable and unique encounter. This isn't an endless series of identical enemy waves like so many oth...

Review #11069 Metamor Jupiter I am in InVINcible! PCE CD 1993 NEC Shooter Shooter › Horizontal G 44 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay If there's one thing you hope for in a shoot em up, it's proper hit detection. Amazingly, this game lacks this basic requirement. Your shots are small but seem to pass right through enemies at least half the time. It's hard to explain just how inconsistent it feels. I can't tell whether enemies take numerous hits or aren't being hit. Movement is painfully slow. Enemies show no indication when they're taking damaged and have tiny weak spots with, surprise, terrible hit boxes. It's worth noting that there's a Beginner difficulty level that gives you full invincibility. The game is possibly...

Review #11062 L-Dis No, Dis a W PCE CD 1991 Masaya Shooter Shooter › Horizontal D 77 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay This is Parodius in everything but name. Before starting you pick from one of three weapon sets, the name of the game is to pick up three options which each get their own weapon from the aforementioned set. This and the three difficulty levels adds some replayability. Easy is just that, which I appreciate. By and large this is a fun no nonsense shooter. It's great 3 / 5 Level Design Stages are pretty standard stuff. Just a single screen high with chaotic wave after wave of enemies. Nothing spectacular or memorable. 4 / 5 Theme Again, this is a Parodius clone so expec...

Review #11063 Legion My name is Legion, for we are many PCE CD 1990 Telenet Japan Shooter Shooter › Horizontal H 36 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Stupid difficulty due to a combination of slow movement and insanely fast enemy movement. Few power ups also. You can only hold one weapon at a time so touch luck if you don't like it, but at least there are four to choose from. One hit kills. Nothing unique or interesting in the gameplay department. 2 / 5 Level Design Cheap kills with rocks and other fast moving objects speeding toward you faster than you can react. Better memorize the stages. Long boring breaks between enemy waves. Nothing remarkable. 2 / 5 Theme Positively generic...

Review #11061 Kiaidan 00 Voltron got some charged up weapons PCE CD 1992 Telenet Japan Shooter Shooter › Horizontal D 75 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Now this is an interesting one. At first glance it's a standard shoot em up with no powerups, but the selectable weapons are literally a game changer. There are five weapons, including two melee weapons. On their own the weapons are fairly standard (laser, wave, seeker, etc.) but the gimmick is what happens when you fire a charge shot. Holding down on the button gives you auto-fire but when you let go a meter fills. It only takes a couple of seconds to fill (much faster than Super R-Type, for comparison), and then firing shoots an awesome attack. There's a laser sword that swings around the entire ...

Review #11049 Hellfire CD soundtrack and empty space PCE CD 1991 NEC Shooter Shooter › Horizontal D 70 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Big upgrade from the Genesis version. The slowdown is gone, movement is much faster, and the large sprite is less of an issue. Overall it plays well and can be fun at times. More on that later. Four main weapons (up/down, back, forward, and X) can be cycled through at will. 2 / 5 Level Design Oh these stages? Who designed these? There are long stretches of nothing on screen. You'll kill a small wave of enemies and wait 3-5 seconds anything to happen! It's insane. Slow and mostly boring. 4 / 5 Theme The addition of long beautiful cutscenes cert...

Review #11048 Hawk F-123 The un-UN Squadron PCE CD 1992 Pack-In-Video Shooter Shooter › Horizontal H 34 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Yet another peashooter game with enemies that require too many hits. There are three different weapons but they're all peashooters. You can power them up into a very slight spread but it takes a lot of consecutive pickups of the same colored drop. A couple of options can be found but these vanish after a bit, I think. I couldn't figure out why they disappeared. Sometimes it was because they aren't invincible to all enemy types but other times they just vanished without warning. Speed is horribly slow. Not just your movement speed - also the game itself. It's a slow-moving slog. 1 / 5...

Review #11027 Download 2 Don't Google the plot PCE CD 1991 NEC Shooter Shooter › Horizontal D 72 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay A few big changeups from the first game. There's no more subweapon (good riddance) and you can cycle between five weapons (yay!). However, one of the weapons is literally useless and the health-for-powerups system is replaced by one-hit deaths. Still no difficulty settings. 3 / 5 Level Design Embarrassingly short levels. 3 / 5 Theme The Akira theme is both ramped and down at the same time. Long animated cutscenes emphasize cybernetic, biotechnic goings on reminiscent of Akira, but the art style and setting are far more generic than the first game. It...