13. Burai Fighter (Disco, Famicom, 1990)

Burai Fighter is a scrolling shooter where you control a small human flying around and shooting alien creatures. Pretty typical setting for a scrolling shooter of the era.

Burai Fighter differentiates itself by having areas that scroll in multiple directions (all pre-determined), though it is mostly singe-directional and only occasionally will scroll a different direction, usually to tempt the player with dangerous-to-acquire powerups.

The game is typically difficult, though thankfully comes with multiple difficulty levels and a password feature so that you can play any level from the beginning. There are 3 special weapons that can be buffed up to 10 levels by collecting powerup orbs scatted around the levels. All 3 special weapons felt pretty similar, and they all upgrade the same way (first shooting forwards, then forwards + backwards, then in an X shape around the character).

One interesting thing that the game does do is how it handles shooting. You can shoot in 8 directions, and as long as you have the shoot button held down, you will continue to fire in that direction while moving. You have to let go of the shoot button to change your shooting direction, and this "stick-shift" design gives the game a little something to set it apart form other space shooters.

3/5, a mostly standard Famicom space shooter with a couple interesting ideas.