Retro Gameplay #134 - Arrow Flash (Sega Genesis) [HD]
420 minutes of gameplay from the Sega Genesis shmup, Arrow Flash. This was published by Renovation in North America. Overall I'd say it's got some mildly appealing visuals, but mostly mediocre gameplay. It's a cakewalk when you're powered up, and yet it's stupid hard to recover after you die. I don't normally have a problem with this, but in this game it makes for a really unsatisfying dynamic.
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From Wikipedia:
"Arrow Flash (Japanese: アローフラッシュ Hepburn: Arō Furasshu) is a scrolling shooter video game developed by Sega and published by Sega in Japan and Europe and by Renovation Products in the United States for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1990. The game's main character pilots a prototype transformable fighter-mecha left from her grandfather to fight against an alien attack on humankind. The game is mostly a horizontal shooter, with one down scrolling stage.
Like many scrolling shooters, the player initially has a basic shot, which can be upgraded and/or exchanged for different weapons, as well as gain smaller ships that follow the player's ship around and copy its attacks. As is usual, these powerups are distributed throughout the levels. They are retained when advancing to the next stage but lost entirely when the player loses a life.
Two additional mechanics differentiate Arrow Flash from similar scrolling shooters, one of which is that the ability to transform the player's ship. The two forms available are a humanoid mecha form and a fighter jet form. The player's weapons change depending on the form. The jet form only shoots forward but intensely, it can fly faster horizontally and the helper ships follow the jet in a snakelike pattern. The mecha form has a wider shooting angle, sometimes even firing backwards, it has a faster vertical speed and the helper ships remain in a fixed formation whilst in this form. Missiles will also home on enemies in mecha form, whereas they only travel directly forward in jet form. Regardless of form, the ship is killed in only one hit unless the player picks up an energy shield which can sustain three hits.
The game's titular "Arrow Flash" is a highly powerful attack for each form; the jet fires five large blasts forward, while the mecha form becomes engulfed in flame, rendering it immune to attack for a short while. Depending on the options set at the start of the game, arrow flashes are either required to be charged up with unlimited use or collected out on the field with no charge time."