Duration: 54:50

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3

Just cleared this one on a whim today. I actually did the last quarter of the run blind since it was my first time getting that far. Prior to today I'd only tried it once or twice. But, of course, since I was playing casually I didn't record the first clear. I cleared it a second time, but for some weird reason I was having audio issues.

Then I did it a THIRD time to try to get a capture without audio issues, and when I went to press select on my arcade stick to bump my speed up for the final boss, I freaking hit some weird mode change button that caused my character to get locked into an up directional input! Super weird. It cost me two stupid lives on the final boss as I scrambled to press every button on my stick to eventually get unstuck lol.

I love the features of Retroarch but holy crap the controller mapping is a massive pain sometimes and has a LOT of room for improvement. Apart from that, this was a pretty solid run and I had plenty of lives to spare.

I got this clear with my wired Qanba Q4RAF stick with an LS-56. I like the LS-32 on my bluetooth 8bitdo stick, but I swear I can feel a teeny bit less input lag with the wired stick and I absolutely love the tight LS-56 feel with the lack of a dead zone between my fingers and the microswitch activation. It feels like there's almost zero lag between my brain and the game. It's so fun! It's honestly blissful when you get perfect feeling controls.

Although this game has the usual gripes people have with Compile--long levels, long run time, bosses that overstay their welcome--I really enjoyed it. The presentation is not up to par with their very best, but the Greek mythology aesthetic is pretty solid. The music is also decent but really tinny--definitely needs some more bass.

Apart from those issues on the presentation, I had a blast with this game. The first few times I messed with it, I'd go for the green wind/spread shot. But ultimately I realized that despite good coverage, it was super weak. The blue water power up is definitely where it's at. It has a nice Rolling Gunner-esque mechanic where your secondary shot shoots the opposite direction you're moving in. I LOVE that feature. MUSHA and R-Type Leo also have that mechanic. It feels awesome and it really works good for this game given that a lot of enemies chase you so you can blast them while you dodge them.

Overall I give this one a solid 8/10. Presentation was only okayish for a CD game, but I had a lot of fun with it despite some annoying technical issues.