> That concept was an evolution of GDarius' capture feature where you could
> capture enemies and have them fight alongside you.

Yes, true. Darius Gaiden had that too. I loved that game on my Saturn. Anyway, it's a cool concept. And that game I referenced added a lot to it, because yoru ship got huge and heavy etc.

> Guwange was about much more than powering up and megabombing the boss, as well.
> but don't take my word for it

Good page on Guwange. Thanks.

>
> Gotta love the gameplay of Takumi's games, too. I love seeing how the reflect
> force changes between Gigawing, Mars Matrix, and Gigawing 2, not to mention the
> scoring system as it moves from insane to fucking insane to !$#%$%$##%@$%@%@$
> (in Night Raid, it's possible to drive your score into the negatives very
> easilly..the game keeps track of the high scores, low scores, and closest to
> zero scores).

I liked Mars Matrix actually. It's a good blast and I love the spacey look and the bright shiny colors. Very psychedelic. :)

>
> Don't forget the refinement of the dual plane gameplay from Xevious. The
> addition of the lock on in Rayforce was taken to a whole new level in
> Soukyugurentai (one of the best damn shmups on the Saturn imo)

Never played that. But Rayforce is one of my favorite SHMUPs ever. I have it on my Saturn, unfortunately it got the stupid "Galactic Attack" title in the USA, but the game was still awesome. I would probably adore Soukyugurentai if it's like Rayforce.

-Prophet-
www.retrogames.com