Gaiares - this is the first time I beat the game. I remember getting this back in 2003-ish and being blown away. At that time, I had known for years that it was considered one of the best shooters on the Genesis and it did not disappoint. But man it was tough, still is tough. At that time I could only make it as far as the third level Death boss. The huge screen-filling bosses are still impressive. The music still licks tits, Zz Badnusty's tits. The game takes inspiration from Gradius (there are at least two bosses that look straight out of Gradius) and R-Type with the TOZ system that is like the R-Type core, but still manages to feel unique on its own. Amazingly the game was made by the same guys who worked on the Valis games. With a game this good it makes you wonder why there wasn't a Gaiares II or at least another shooter from Telenet. The only disappointments I had with the game were the two boss rush levels (level 6 with the mini-boss rush and level 7 with the boss rush) which feels like a cheap recycle and the final boss fight with ZZ Badnusty which was super easy and completely out of character with the massive boss fights from before. Anyways, this is probably my favorite Genesis shooter.
Interesting anecdote from the creator on why he chose the title for this game:
"I came up with the name – ガイアレス. The resu (レス) part stands for L-E-S-S – or less, as in to be without. So without Gaia, or Earthless, since Earth has been ruined, and humanity is trying to figure out a solution. I was only in charge of coming up with the basic setting. I placed importance on the game itself, and I didn’t think much about the story. Perhaps it’s because the characters are reviving the Earth, so that’s why English players thought the “res” stood for “rescue”, as opposed to “less”."