Daioh

A vertical-scrolling space shooter with some unique features.

This was an excellent and unique simultaneous 2-player space shooter. Excellent graphics, multi-layer scrolling, big sprites (especially bosses), and an extreme difficulty level, that continued to increase from easy to insane the farther along you went without getting killed.

Some of the unique features were the weapons system and button layout. Unlike most shooters in which you start with a weak primary weapon and can gain others, in this game you start with all 3 types of primary weapons, and choose which one to fire with the 3 fire buttons.

You gain power-ups along the way that increase your overall firepower that applies to all primary weapon types. The three types are:

1. Ordinary rapid-fire shot, the rate of fire and weapon spread increases as you power up.
2. Homing electric beam weapon, you start with one weak beam and can increase it to three powerful beams by powering up.
3. Missile weapon, the number and power of which increase as you power up. The slowest weapon, but the most powerful against bosses.

The 3 bomb buttons are similar, instead of gaining a particular type of bomb to use, you simply gain extra bombs and choose which type to use according to button.

One of the coolest features was the shield, which you could pick up and it would add a glowing layer of protection around your ship that could withstand an additional hit. When the shield is hit it makes a distinctive glass-like breaking sound.

Hint: to destroy the big tanks in the first level, switch to rapid-fire guns and fly right in front of them and blast away, before they have a chance to fire back. The rapid-fire weapon in close quarters like that is the most powerful weapon at that point in the game.

The best general weapon is the homing electric beam, and the most powerful weapon, which is good against most bosses, are the missles.