A simple, straightforward arcade game that makes for a fun playthrough. The controls are responsive (with shooting slowing down your movement, so it requires at least a touch of strategy), and the graphics are crisp 16-bit stile, with some animatino. Enemies appear when you advance beyond a certain point, meaning the best plan is to frequentl stop and deal with enemies before advancing. This causes a slower pacing than your average run-n-gun title, but not so much that the game isn't fun. It's entirely possible to trigger a few too many enemies and find yourself overwhelmed or having to do some tricky manneuvering.
The challenge is not too easy but quite reasonable. Each time you're hit, you lose one level of firepower (up to three) and a portion of your life bar, both of which can be replenished through powerups. When your life bar is empty, you have to rrestart the current world (of which there are three, with 3-4 levels each). Each world introduces newenemies, though the levels within each world are bascially the same. The bosses provide abit of challenge but never too much (and I found the last one surprisingly easy.) The average player will probably finish the game in an hour.
Without a story or more complexity, the game has limited replay value. The action isn't so thrilling that you'll feel drawn to play it over and over, but it's enough fun that you'll probably revisit it a couple of times over the years. At 50 cents, it's quite a reasonable price for what you're getting and leaves me curious what the evelopers other games are like.
