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This game was originally released in the Japanese arcades in 1995 using the Saturn-based arcade hardware, known as the Titan or ST-V, and to my knowledge was never commercially released elsewhere. It's a vertical shooter, which gave you six highly diverse stages, and a choice of five different ships with the standard power-ups and super bombs. There are a few things which set this title apart from the other ho-hum shooters though.

For starters, this game can be pretty weird in some places, much like Parodius. The storyline involves the usual "baddie bent on world domination" scenario, this time somehow using video games to gain it. One level could have you flying over an arcade, with different genres of video games plainly visible and easily recognizable as background animation. Other levels has your ship flying through the insides of a Robot Arm prize machine, a series of 8-bit arcade games, an overhead racer with plenty of scaling and rotation effects, a homage to mecha anime such as Lamuness (non-serious and aimed at kids), and modern computer games.

The attention to detail is, overall, excellent! There are all sorts of little touches in the background detail which nicely fit the genre being covered/parodied, some of which wouldn't be recognized by those who weren't fans of it. And the game action is 2D mayhem, with all sorts of enemy sprites and shots covering the screen sometimes. The fact that the detail and the mayhem are both simultaneous, with almost no slowdown throughout, is a real credit to the programmers.

Saturn version
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That's in the arcade version though. For the Saturn, this is only the beginning. All the trimmings of the arcade are available, in the obligatory standard cropped view, or full screen sideways, where you now have the option of flipping your TV on its side or just the directional pad controls. There's also Time Attack (practice mode) with a different background and voice effects, and the option of having a bomb detonate when you get hit instead of just dying. But the biggest addition is in the Story mode. The only gripe I have, and what's sad is that it was so avoidable, is that anyone can beat it eventually. You don't have limited credits, and you never have to go back any when you die. This is true in arcade and story modes, and is standard in even normal difficulty. (Haven't tried hard yet. Could someone who has beaten the game on hard e-mail me as to what happened?)

Story Mode
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First off, you get a sixth pilot to choose from. You also get an extra two stages to the game, one which has a well animated animegirl karaoke singer as an interactive backdrop, the other stage paying homage to 8-bit RPGs. You also get an added boss to defeat at the end of the game, as well as an anime ending.

Other stuff is included, but fairly minor, such as the story lead ins to each stage. These are usually around two minutes each, and feature SD (big head, small body) versions of the cast. It's bright and colorful with plenty (almost constant) speech, but with minimal animation, and would probably be much more enjoyable to watch if you understood Japanese. Each player also has their own story segment for one level, which you get to view in options once you reach it.

Overall
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This is tough to do, since there are so many elements which people may love or hate regardless of the presentation. Many of the characters have an anime style of appearance, such as the green haired catgirl who playfully tosses prizes at you within the Robot Arm machine. The humor may be a bit too weird for some, the same way some might love or hate films like "All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku" for the same reasons. It has excellent 2D, but there are those who hate all things 2D, including some of the major "professional" console magazines available in the North America. So as always, your milage may vary, except even more so in this case.

Graphics - 10
+ plenty of color and animation
+ lots of detail
+ slowdown is NOT a problem

Sound & Music - 9
+ never intrudes on the gameplay
+ always appropriate, matching what you're seeing
+ humorous sound effects
- not too memorable
- not redbook

Options - 10
+ standard, fullscreen, and monitor flipping views supported
+ six ships and three playmodes supported

Gameplay - 9
+ excellent control
+ it's absolutely weird
- it's absolutely weird
+ plenty of variety
+ can't blow through in one or two ships
- can blow through in one sitting (self control needed)

Overall - 9.5
+ I love anime, 2D shooters, and the humor. And I'm patient.

Note to other web site owners -- You are welcome to this review, as long as it remains intact, and my name is included. Recomendations for changes are also welcome, since I might have overlooked something.