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In this vertical scrolling spaceship shooter, you control a ship that can change its polarity at will. As blue/white, the ship can easily destroy red/black enemies, and vice versa. Bullets of your polarity can be collected to fuel your energy gauge, but those opposite will kill you. Destroying an enemy ship causes them to fire revenge bullets which can be absorbed and fired back by the player. Different difficulties exist to change exactly how you interact with polarized points, or how they appear. It is the spiritual successor to Radiant Silvergun, featuring similar level and boss design, as well as it's buddhism inspired themes and aesthetics. Both are directed by Hiroshi Iuchi, who also composed Ikaruga's soundtrack.

DonPachi is a 1995 vertical manic shoot-'em-up originally in arcades and was the first game from the developer Cave. Settings are mainly woodland and enemies are military vehicles and robots, culminating in the final boss, a huge robotic bee. One of three weapon configurations is chosen at start and then leveled up through dropped power-ups. DonPachi was ported to the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation in 1996.

Vulcan Venture (also known as Gradius II: Gofer no Yabo) is a side-scrolling shoot ’em up developed by Konami and released in arcades in 1988. Players control the Vic Viper spacecraft as it battles the Bacterion Empire, now led by Gofer. The game builds on the original Gradius by retaining the power-up bar system while introducing selectable weapon configurations and expanded abilities such as different missiles, double, and laser options. It also incorporates elements from Salamander (Life Force) and introduces a stage focused entirely on consecutive boss encounters.

On a fateful day in 20XX, the Earth's moon exploded into four large fragments and a multitude of meteors. Aliens from afar had succeeded in destroying the West's moon base. One after another, mankind's other military industrial space complexes were being lost. What mankind dreaded had come to pass. Scores of unidentified fighters were in the area. In addition, the moon's main computer, still intact after the explosion, had a strange vegetation coiled around it. Their trademark evil exploits being a dead giveaway, invaders from the Boondoggle Galaxy had arrived to take over the Earth. To counter these evil forces, leading scientists from all over the globe created the "OF-1" Fightership. Combat pilots depart the Earth to fend off the invaders and earn everlasting glory.

Vertically scrolling shooter arcade game developed by Takumi Corporation and published by Capcom on their CPS-2 arcade system board and ported later that year to the Dreamcast console.

R-Types is a compilation of R-Type and R-Type II ported pixel-for-pixel from the coin-op to the PlayStation. A couple of handy features have been added to lower the original difficulty level. First, your progress through the game is saved at the start of each level, so you don't have to start from scratch every time. Second, you now have unlimited continues. R-Types also contains a small library section which describes some of the story behind the R-Type universe, and lets you browse some of the in-game graphics. Other bonuses include an FMV intro movie and ending movies.

The Sega Versions of the "The Terminator". This side scroller was based on the 1984 science fiction blockbuster of the same name. Just like the movie, you assume the role of Kyle Reese, a traveller from the future who returns to modern-day L.A. to protect the life of Sarah Conner - the beautiful woman who holds the key to the survival of the human race. Your mission: Outwit and outmaneuver a brutal killing machine known as the Terminator. He's big, he's bad and he's virtually unstoppable - let's hope you're smarter! Featuring 10 huge main levels pumped up with hardcore weaponry and heavy-hitting adversaries.

Gradius IV is the fourth arcade installment in a series of scrolling shooter video games developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. It was preceded by Gradius III, released in 1989, although spinoffs had been released prior to it such as Gradius Gaiden. This title brings a considerable graphical upgrade, particularly with the use of colored lighting. In addition, there have been several additions and removals to the vaulted weapons system; specifically, the edit mode has been removed and an online ranking system was added.