One of the surest ways to guarantee that your game languishes in obscurity for years on end is to release it on a system that almost no one buys: developer Produce (comprised largely of former Irem staffers) pretty much hit the jackpot in this department, by sending 1991’s Aldynes (its very first game, no less) to NEC’s ill-fated SuperGrafx, an upgraded PC Engine whose library never even reached the double digits before the competition devoured it alive. Sure you do: they were shooting game mainstays for over a decade back during the genre’s golden age, though they ended up more and more dependent on puzzle hit Puyo-Puyo as the end approached. You pilot one of three “Buster Gearsâ€, which can freely transform between “fighter†(spaceship) and “armor†(robot) modes: press Button A to fire shots as the former, and Button B to instantly shift over to the latter, guns still blazing. If you have any type of questions pertaining to where and the best ways to use Users looking to check the lyrics of songs to sing at karaoke, you could call us at the web site. Moreover, once you’re into the action proper, a hilarious unseen announcer presides over your flight: bring down a sizable target or drop a bomb and you might hear a muffled “Get outta my sight! Holding down both buttons at once activates a special attack, which recharges when not in use and varies depending on the form you’re currently in, though you should keep an eye out for two types of AI helpers to pick off stragglers and take a bullet or two for you: there are always plenty of threats to keep you busy, but powering back up after dying is usually quick.

Ooh, that sent shivers down my spine…I could get used to this. You still get a stock of smart bombs too, plus the bizarre “Big†item, which turns you gigantic and totally invincible for a few seconds â€" thank goodness the artists saw fit to actually redraw the larger sprites instead of just scaling and pixelating them to kingdom come. Honorable Mentions: Hyper Duel’s closest immediate relative is likely Blast Wind (eBay) , another little-known Tecno Soft property that wound up as a (stupidly expensive) Japanese Saturn exclusive: though it scrolls vertically as opposed to horizontally, you’ll still be regularly switching between a pair of complementary weapons and making things explode to synth rock, not to mention choosing one of two branching paths in the middle of each level. Hyper Duel, on the other hand, I’d be more inclined to forgive you for overlooking, not only because it never managed to spawn a years-long series spanning multiple systems, but due to the fact that it started as a Japanese arcade exclusive before being ported to the Saturn in its home territory…and said port is now even more prohibitively expensive than the infamously-inflated Radiant Silvergun. Then there’s CAProduction’s visually-stunning Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire, which has built up more than a little eBay infamy due to not only its sky-high secondhand asking price but the presence of pirated copies to muddy the waters (thankfully there’s a much cheaper Japanese PSP collection that includes it, too).

Honorable Mentions: While the PC Engine obviously performed much better at retail than its short-lived successor, the system, despite an enviable library, never truly got its due against its competition, especially in the Western hemisphere. Anyway, just about everyone is likely to have missed this particular vert-scroller, seeing as it only ever took up residence on NEC’s PC-98 computer system, whose most famous non-doujin shmup, tragically, is the notorious hentai shooter Steam Hearts: while the title of this game almost makes it sound like another release whose screenshots we’d have to censor, Rude Breaker is actually a non-objectionable and rather interesting entry into Compile’s pantheon, as it bears many of its developer’s hallmarks even as it abandons others, in an apparent effort to appeal to shmuppers who might not have jelled with the company’s other work. Sega’s own Bio-Hazard Battle (eBay / Amazon) (aka “Crying: Aseimei Sensouâ€) is yet another Genesis exclusive (though it technically appeared in arcades on “Mega Play†cabinets) worth looking into, especially if you like “organicâ€-themed shooters, and it eventually got Virtual Console and Steam releases too. Compile fans on the NES have Gun-Nac (eBay / Amazon) , a rather kooky offshoot of Zanac and a bit better-known than the previous two thanks to having been localized way back when, but still somewhat underappreciated: if nothing else it’s one of the few games out there to properly warn us that not only are there indeed rabbits on the moon, but they’re all out to kill us!

Most stages throw in interesting obstacles for players to find their way around, and a stage select in the Options menu allows everyone to practice their favorites at will: if you still love that dear old gray brick of yours and want to show it just how much you care, look no further than this little plastic wonder, but be prepared to drop a wad of cash for a genuine copy.  The pricey Sylphia (eBay / Amazon) and Seirei Senshi Spriggan (eBay / Amazon) can both be found on the Turbo CD; each takes place in its own distinctive fantasy world, though the former stars a fairy with elemental powers somewhat akin to those found in Lords of Thunder, while the latter puts you at the helm of a magical mech, with a semi-freeform weapons system that allows you to mix and match colored power-ups as you see fit (its side-scrolling sequel isn’t as good though).