Here's my ratings for the Capcom shooter offerings I've experienced:
Gunbird 2
Cannon Spike
Giga Wing
Giga Wing 2
Mars Matrix
Gunbird 2: Has a very lighthearted, Cotton-ish tone to it. The FEEL of the game and the enemy patterns is reminiscent of the Raiden series (which isn't a bad thing). You also have a powerful close-up attack move which is kinda cool. The graphics are better than anything the SNES or Genesis can do but definitely DON'T put any stress on the Dreamcast. It's not TOO long but it gets tough towards the end and there's multiple endings and quite a few characters to use.
Cannon Spike: Nice graphics. Unfortunately there's NO powerups in this game other than health pickups. Each character has a weak shot (the same for every character), a strong shot, a weak melee attack, and a strong melee attack. There's also a different smart bomb for each person. It can be kind of easy due to the huge damage your heavy close up attacks do. It's not that long and the only thing to unlock is the gallery you get after you beat it for the first time.
Giga Wing: <IMG SRC="smilies/veryangry.gif" border="0">
Giga Wing: AWESOME! Lots of fun! Short though <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0">. Well worth the $20 however. It's much more 'playable' than the first because more thought seems to have been put into the enemy formations and such, so you can actually take advantage of the reflect force. <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">
Mars Matrix: A top down version of Blazing Star, lots of fun. Only two different ships though. You level up though and the ship's physically changes as you do. Also your scores are permanently saved as money and you have to use them to purchase secrets in the shop. These include extra credits/ships in the option mode, strategy movies for each level and some other cool stuff.
To be frank, there is something that is SERIOUSLY disappointing me about a lot of these shooters. I really don't like how each ship only has one weapons that just gets powered up and having the levels play through in random/different order depending on which character you choose is lame because they can't make as big a curve in the game difficulty as they could have were the levels in a set order. <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0">
Edit:
Gunbird 2:
Great soundtrack that fits the game well.
Cannon Spike:
WTF? The music sounds like stuff I play on a casio synthesizer if I hit a wall with it several times before recording.
Giga Wing: <IMG SRC="smilies/veryangry.gif" border="0">
Giga Wing 2: Has that distinct east European tone to the music (and to a lot of the enemies themselves) that was common in a lot of old Data East games and in the original Strider. It's very epic overall and the music gets a more grandiose feel to it as you progress.
Mars Matrix: All around quality techno sound track but nothing outstanding. If you like techno music you'll enjoy it, if you don't like techno music you probably won't even notice it anyway.
[ May 25, 2001: Message edited by: Neo Rasa ]
