All 16-Bit

Review #12111 Silpheed Star Box Sega CD 1993 Sega Shooter Shooter › Vertical F 52 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Plays like Gyruss or Tempest. Enemies scale in from the distance which makes it hard to hit them. Weird perspective. Enemies are better avoided than killed, in many cases. Novel, but not something I'd play often. Only one life. No weapon upgrades. Between stages you can change eht waeapm configuration of your left and right peashooters, but this doesn't increase your firepower. 3 / 5 Level Design Every stage has a black space background. Whoever made this is an obvious Star Wars fan, as there's an asteroid belt battle and an honest-to-goodness trench run where your radio buddy ye...

Review #12103 Robo Aleste Mech Ninja Warrior Sega CD 1993 Tengen Shooter Shooter › Vertical E 62 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay How hum. Adjustable speed is nice and having four weapons is also good, although the chaser and laser are the only two worth using. They can powered up three times but there are no sub weapons or screen clearing bombs. You've got a huge hitbox and taking damage feels inconsistent. 3 / 5 Level Design Only a few stages are any good. I initially liked the train chase, but it turned out to be one of the most monotonous stages ever. Some variety in enemy movement but they get repeated so much that boredom sets in. Not Compile's best effort. 5 / 5 ...

Review #11116 Super Raiden A few powerups would be nice... Please? PCE CD 1992 Hudson Soft Shooter Shooter › Vertical E 69 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Like so many other shmups this one is brutally difficult. You can get screen filling firepower with bullets and homing missiles although you lose everything if you're hit. Powerups relatively few and far between so it's tough to keep going after taking a death. Movement is very slow with no way to adjust your speed. Good but has some flaws. Only two weapons 4 / 5 Level Design Good level design. Enemy waves are understandable with some randomness in their bullets. Several sections require bullet hell reflexes but the slow controls will test ...

Review #11117 Sylphia Navi's righteous anger PCE CD 1993 Tonkin House Shooter Shooter › Vertical F 59 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Good speed which isn't adjustable. I like the pickups - four weapons with three levels of powerup, plus health which is acquired by gathering mirrors dropped by some enemies. Gather enough and they'll fill a meter and give you a hit point. Only two hit points are shown, although you can gather more than that so the visual is misleading. No subweapons is a bummer. No real depth or hook to keep your interest. Also, relatively low difficulty when using the heat seeker weapon. 3 / 5 Level Design Nothing inherently wrong with the stage design - it's just boring...

Review #11108 Star Parodier The one where you can play as the console PCE CD 1992 Hudson Soft Shooter Shooter › Vertical C 82 / 100 Very Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Star Parodier is to Super Star Soldier what Parodius is to Gradius. Like it's inspiration, this game suffers from a severe lack of difficulty. Per up your weapon and your basically unstoppable. The fun is in finding weapons and subweapons you like. There are three ships to choose from (Bomber Man, PC Engine, spaceship), each with three weapons and a unique subweapon. Great movement speed. 4 / 5 Level Design Lots going on. A mini boss and final boss per stage. Hard to tell what is an enemy vs an environmental hazard. 4 / 5 Theme ...

Review #11100 Seirei Senshi Spriggan Orbs PCE CD 1991 Naxat Soft Shooter Shooter › Vertical D 75 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Fast movement Four weapons types that are collected in sets of three. Every combination gives a different effect which theoretically allows for strategy but in practice feels random. However you can drop a weapon or as a bomb when picking up a new one. This is very helpful for boss fights. Overall a good but not great shooter. 3 / 5 Level Design Boring level design. Everything is on front of you, there are no environmental hazards, and enemies are easy to deal with. Just move laterally to hot everyone. 4 / 5 Theme Serious anime theme. Voice acting on the cut...

Review #11087 Psychic Storm Seek a reading elsewhere PCE CD 1992 Telenet Japan Shooter Shooter › Vertical G 45 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Slow movement with no speed powerups. Four ships to choose from but you're stuck with it for that stage. Weapon upgrades take a long time to gather and do almost nothing. Two of the weapons/ships are useless. You've got a huge hitbox but tons of health and instead of dying you morph into a huge, OP insect creature for a bit. It's weird. I'm not even sure if it's possible to actually die. Horribly easy game as a result. 2 / 5 Level Design Intensely boring stage design. Nothing interesting ever happens. Long stretches of emptiness. Each stage is broken up in ...

Review #11078 Nexzr Special How did this not get a sequel?! PCE CD 1993 Naxat Soft Shooter Shooter › Vertical B 87 / 100 Amazing Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay High difficulty Lovely weapon selection that is never OP, including homing options. Some weird enemy movement patterns. No secondary weapon. 5 / 5 Level Design The addition of the Carnival modes pushes this up to top-tier. Lots of replayability in those frantic modes. 4 / 5 Theme They took out the opening cinematic! Still, epic soft sci-fi with mechs and space gunships galore. 5 / 5 Art Style Tremendous pixel art of mechs, spaceships, explosions. Incredible detail. 4 / 5 Au...

Review #11077 Nexzr Space war in 2015 PCE CD 1992 Naxat Soft Shooter Shooter › Vertical C 83 / 100 Very Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay High difficulty Lovely weapon selection that is never OP, including homing options. Some weird enemy movement patterns. No secondary weapon. 4 / 5 Level Design I wish I could give it top marks, as some of the stages are amazing. The stage 3 trench run is one of the best fast tunnel runs in a shooter. 5 / 5 Theme Set in 2012-2015. The devs thought we'd be spacewaring in only 20 years?! Great opening cinematic. Epic soft sci-fi with mechs and space gunships galore. 5 / 5 Art Style Tremendous pixel art of mechs, spaces...

Review #11054 Image Fight II Vertical R-Type, part deux PCE CD 1992 Irem Shooter Shooter › Vertical D 76 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Straight sequel to the first game, with almost not change in gameplay. Same powerup system, options, and speed control. Just more levels. The bosses can be brutal. 3 / 5 Level Design Like the first game, this plays like a vertical R-Type, with interesting moments throughout. However, there are quite a few spots where nothing is on screen. Also, the stages are incredibly short. Still above average, but I think I like the first game's stages a bit more. 5 / 5 Theme Great anime cutscenes between stages. The opening text crawl is all in English, but of...

Review #11044 Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire Blade Runner meets TMNT IV starring Powerpuff Girls PCE CD 1995 Hudson Soft Shooter Shooter › Vertical D 78 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Slow movement with no adjustment. Three great weapons that upgrade quickly and are so OP that the game is very easy. Options will zoom to an enemy of you stop firing for a few seconds to charge them up. You can shoot many projectiles to cancel them out. 4 / 5 Level Design Five long levels. Time travel to different eras, beginning in the late 21st century. Stages don't have many interesting elements although the mod and end bosses are good. 4 / 5 Theme Blade Runner meets TMNT IV starring Powerpuff Girls...

Review #11046 God Panic: Shijo Saikyo Gundan Absurdist cute-em up made by perverts PCE CD 1992 Teichiku Shooter Shooter › Vertical G 45 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Standard controls. Pickups give you weapon and speed increases. Weapon caps out at a homing fireball weapon that is never OP but takes care of most everything quickly, making this an easy game. One gripe is that you'll often encounter an enemy with extra health with no indication. In other words, two identical enemies will take different damage. Annoying. 2 / 5 Level Design Most stages have a couple of frantic sections between long stretches of one or two enemies appearing with breaks between. Boring. 1 / 5 Theme Abs...

Review #11021 Daisenpu Custom Tanks for playing PCE CD 1991 NEC Shooter Shooter › Vertical F 59 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Slow movement and no weapons - only a couple of levels of powerup for your peashooter. One hit death and a large hitbox. Most enemies go down in one hit but larger tanks can take a lot of punishment. A severe lack of variety in enemies causes some boredom. Overall decent but decidedly forgettable. 3 / 5 Level Design As average as the gameplay. The usual city, ocean, enemy base stages from all these WW2 shooters. Stages are incredibly long without clear breaks between them. 4 / 5 Theme I'm a sucker for these WW2 shooters. Having one set in Eur...

Review #11004 Alzadick All za what now? PCE CD 1992 Naxat Soft Shooter Shooter › Vertical F 59 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Plays great, like all of the Soldier series of shooters. Movement is fast and responsive, auto-fire is on, and enemies do their thing rather than swarming to you. No complaints there. The problem is the game's brevity, which I'll talk about in the level design, but even from a gameplay perspective the constant weapon drops and severe lack of danger make this not worth your time. Play the Soldier games instead. 2 / 5 Level Design There are two stages. Enemy waves are fun and engaging but there are only a handful of them and virtually no challenge to be found. I get that the ...

Review #11008 Avenger Insert Marvel joke here PCE CD 1990 Telenet Japan Shooter Shooter › Vertical E 62 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Four weapons that must be chosen at start of the stage. Barely any powerups and they're hard to collect because they float near the top of the screen. Four blocks of health help, but this is still a tough game. The worst feature is a gun that points the direction you are moving to, making it hard to hit enemies, ironically. If not for that I'd rank this higher. 4 / 5 Level Design Great enemy waves, good variety in the settings for each area. The second stage is a canyon run like 1941, or the freakin Death Star. Love it. 4 / 5 Theme ...

Review #9900 1941: Counter Attack P-38 Lightning in a bottle PCE SG 1991 Hudson Soft Shooter Shooter › Vertical B 86 / 100 Amazing Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Such a tight, great feeling game. It's brutally difficult, but undeniably fun. Powerups and weapons operate the same as 1943 (expire after the timer hits zero) and are much better to collect as well. No more Twinbee bell mechanics!! 5 / 5 Level Design Incredible. Every stage feels unique and features memorable set pieces and dynamics like moving construction cranes, canyon runs, missile bases, etc. So awesome 5 / 5 Theme Such a cool game. Take everything I wrote about 1943 and multiply by 5. 5 / 5 Art St...

Review #8151 Xevious - Fardraut Saga Aged like fine milk PCE 1990 Namco Shooter Shooter › Vertical H 31 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay First, the negatives: Slow movement, peashooter, no powerups or pickups, dumb bomb, tiny hitboxes, and enemies that zip around and take too much damage to be killed. The positives: uhh It's really the slow movement that kills this game. You can only move at the speed that the screen is scrolling, so unless you hit your ground targets first try there's no backind up to line up another try. 3 / 5 Level Design Props for creating a decent bullet hell experience. Enemies are so hard to kill and fire so many bullets that you mostly need to watch your ship rather than your targe...

Review #8143 Toy Shop Boys I got your toys, I'll get you all next!! No Gamma! You never! PCE 1990 Victor Shooter Shooter › Vertical G 49 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Competent controls and weapons. You have three weapons that can be toggled between anytime - spread, homing, and a rotating laser sword. The other weapons act as options on either side. Powerups are plentiful, but weapons can only be upgraded a couple of times which upgrades all three. There are four speed settings which can be up or downgraded via collectables. Kinda weird, but fine. 2 / 5 Level Design Poor stage design, but I think that's because of the intended audience. These devs thought kids were terrible at shooters because this is the most...

Review #8141 Toilet Kids Xevious in a toilet PCE 1992 Media Rings Shooter Shooter › Vertical X 20 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Xevious gameplay (bombs and a peashooter). Incredibly slow movement. No powerups or weapons. Impossibly difficult. 1 / 5 Level Design Most of the that's are enemies on the ground. They shoot most of the projectiles and the only way to survive is to get them as soon as they appear. This forces you to play near the top of the screen which also exposes you to the projectiles which move faster than you. In other words, the level design accentuates the gameplay limitations of this dumb game. 1 / 5 Theme You're a kid who gets flushed dow...

Review #8138 Terra Cresta II Go Go Terra Power Rangers PCE 1992 Nihon Bussan Shooter Shooter › Vertical F 55 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Standard vertical shooter with one gimmick - collect four additional wingmen who combine to form a larger, more powerful ship and can be separated for a limited time into a spread formation. This uses ammo which appears frequently. Fun gimmick, but the game has other problems, most notably very slow movement speed and crippling, nearly constant slowdown. 2 / 5 Level Design Boring level design. Long stretches of nothing and everything else is simple repetition of enemy waves. 3 / 5 Theme Generic, forgettable. 3 / 5 ...