>>12510614
Yep, it's kino, even better than Contra. Everything just works together so well, very balanced and satisfying, and it's the perfect mix of tactics/routing and on-the-fly reaction.

Only thing I didn't like was the final boss is a bit tedious, mainly because the final level for some reason has absolutely zero missile upgrades.

Mercs and Shock Troopers are two other similar games that are also great. They have a lot more bells and whistles but I think I had the most fun with Jackal

This was originally a FDS game (Akai Yousai). It was a lot shorter and simpler than the US version since they had less space available (112k on a disk vs 128k of ROM space). Only thing the Japanese version has over the US one is the FDS music.

>>12510661
the text in Akai Yousai is also entirely in English suggesting it was originally meant as a US exclusive and then Konami decided to do a Japanese release at the last second (on disk to minimize costs).

Commodoe64 port?

>>12510614
It still pales in comparison to the arcade original, and unfortunately there is a trend with Konami where the Nintendo ports overshadow the vastly superior arcade originals (Contra, Super C, Turtles in Time, Gradius III, Life Force, Gyruss, Sunset Riders)

>>12510614
It still pales in comparison to the arcade original, and unfortunately there is a trend with Konami where the Nintendo ports overshadow the vastly superior arcade originals (Contra, Super C, Turtles in Time, Gradius III, Life Force, Gyruss, Sunset Riders)

>>12510719
All of those are better on Nintendo aside from Sunset Riders and Gradius III

>>12510735
Sunset Riders and Gradius III arcade ports are better, the rest of those are definitely better on Nintendo

>>12510614
Great game and one of the core examples of a console game better than the arcade

>>12510735
Nah the home version is better. Having the pea shooter locked north is more intuitive and just works better since it's a pseudo shmup

>>12510735
Only games there that have superior arcade versions are Sunset Riders and Gradius III, rest are better on Nintendo