>>712862353 (OP)I'm playing Defender 2002 on Xemu (if you want to play this, xbox is the best version). This is my favorite kusoge from childhood. The ships and sci fi and aesthetic are so cool. The main thing is you have to accept it's more of a puzzle game than flight combat, but once you see it that way it's quite fun to figure out consistent strategies and make it through the end of the game.
I'm playing the Elite difficulty with the worst ship, Guardian. The main problem is its general slowness to do anything when most of what you have to do is on a timer. I've already beaten it with better ships many times. Mare Frigoris level is hurting me now because I have to defend a small area against so many air units but my only AOE attack also damages the thing I'm supposed to defend and I'm ammo limited on missiles which are the other halfway decent weapon. But there are only a few missions left once I figure this out. This is the kind of game you can beat in a couple hours once you know what to do.
Once this challenge run is over and I can beat Elite with Guardian and no deaths, I will have completely mastered this game 22 years after I first played it.