Aurail 1CC - Arcade (Mister FPGA) - 4.74million pts - w/ Commentary

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Top down free-moving mech shooter by the developers of the Wonder Boy series. I don't have a TON to say about it... It's fun enough -- building up shields to tank through rough sections feels pretty good, and you have a "kite" that you can send out to destroy certain targets -- but the pacing of the thing as a whole is strange. 16 mini stages amount to 6 REAL stages, divided as pt1 - Main Stage, pt2 - 3D Interlude, pt3 - Boss Stage... and that division just makes everything feel a bit too scattered and piecemeal. No level idea sits long enough to be explored satisfactorily, and none are punchy enough to leave an impression during their short stay; so you get whisked along at a nice clip, sure, but you're then left feeling a bit empty by the end.
The 3D interludes look neat, but the design of those particular stages is very basic (walk forward, kill enemies, turn around, kill more) and projectile visibility is kind of fucky. I will admit that, janky though they may be, their addition adds a unique flavor to the top-down stuff that would otherwise feel rather desperately plain. (A weapon switch or two would have been nice, but the game is balanced pretty nicely around the one.)
Some tips: have a button mapped to 30hz autofire and a secondary shot to hold in place and shoot 8way. Most bosses can be 30hzed to death extremely quickly. Stage 15 requires a bit of routing (stay left at the portals), but everything else about the game can be learned and fairly easily surmounted by playing aggressively. Slow, passive play in this game is not only more difficult, but considerably less fun.