>>11947728
I'm terrible at shmups so this game seemed pretty tough to me, but I'll post my newfag thoughts in case someone is considering giving it a try.
The game (or this release at least) has autofire on both buttons. I played the PSP release called Salamander Portable, which lets you set the display to the original ratio without scaling/blur. Left the difficulty at default, but I eventually increased the lives per credit since it also increases the max lives.
There are a few parts where memorization is needed to live, like the horizontal part with giant fireballs, or asteroid traps on a vertical level, or the gates at the end in the post's video, but for the most part it just felt like a traditional asskicking to me. Some parts seemed to drastically change in difficulty between plays for some reason, such as the big sun dragon sometimes just totally encircling you. Several of the bosses appeared to kill themselves in embarrassment at my poor performance.
This game really rewards not dying. Being fully armed with powerups vs having nothing is easily the difference between breezing through and being totally fucked, especially once the difficulty gets going. Fortunately you can salvage the helper guys as long as you're playing further up the screen instead of hanging back, I appreciate the game trying to teach me not to play like a pussy. Still though, without decent firepower, there's a point you can't do dick against the wall of enemies. There's also one asshole whose only purpose seems to be to make the screen flash and hope you get a seizure.
The first time I got to the final level, I didn't manage to kill the giant red ball, so instead of getting the ending screen it just sent me back to solar land. Needless to say I didn't win that attempt.
Steep difficulty spikes, but enjoyable. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I didn't have the extra lives to tank through Mr. Blueballs and see the rest of the game.