This is a side-scrolling shooter with the standard plot of aliens have attacked and you have to pilot an advanced mech, the Veigues, in a last ditch effort to save the human race. But, it's not like plot is important in these types of games. There are 10 stages and you have one life and no continues. After each stage, the Veigues gets fully repaired and you can upgrade the weapons, shield, and jumping ability. The points you get to upgrade the Viegues is based on how many enemies you killed. The upgrades aren't permanent, as you can "sell off" upgrades if you want to adjust the Viegues' capabilities.
My biggest issue with the game is the controls. The limitations of the controller, having only two buttons and the d-pad, is a major drawback, with my biggest issue being pushing down to turn around. Having to push up to jump, as opposed to having a jump button caused me to accidentally jump a good number of times, with some costing me serious damage. The I & II buttons fire the arms' unique weapons, while pushing both fires the chest weapon. The chest weapon's aim can be adjusted by pushing up or down, which is another issue due to it sharing the commands with jumping and turning around. Another issue is you can't turn around while airborne. Where this really rears its ugly head is in the sections with small steps, as the Viegues automatically jumps to ascend or descend them, and being an auto-scroller makes this even worse.
For the vast majority of the game, I simply held down the I button to fire the energy weapon while staying glued to the left side of the screen, killing enough enemies that came into the path of the weapon to sufficiently upgrade the Veigues. Almost all of the bosses use the same strategy. The only other strategy is utilizing the fact that you are invulnerable with turning around, which the manual points out in the Playing Tips.
If you do play this, make sure you don't put your controller down when the end sequence appears to play, as the final level is after this, and you start getting attacked rather quickly. I'd forgotten that I'd finished the 9th level (the level is briefly given at the beginning of each stage in the Alarm Message Window at the bottom right), and thought it was setting up for a sequel.
If not for the limitations due to the controller, I probably would have liked this a bit more, likely giving it a 7 or 8. I did play it on my Retro Freak and used save states. I don't like it enough to try to beat it without them. If you can find it at a reasonable price, I'd say it's worth a try.
