Android Assault (Sega Mega CD) - Full Playthrough

In the year 2192, the Zias, warriors from a distant star, have carved out a stronghold on one of Saturns moons which they use as a forward base for attacks against Earth. So far, the Zias have easily conquered the colony on Jupiter and destroyed every fleet sent by Earth. In typical shooter lore fashion, humans somehow created an experimental ship of immense power, the Bari-Arm, which is the last hope against the invading Zias.

Android Assault - The Revenge of Bari-Arm is a fairly standard horizontal shoot 'em up with excellent graphics and a great CD soundtrack. You got four weapon systems that you can pick up which can also be upgraded for more firepower and eventually turn you into a "cyborg" (according to the US manual). If you don't fire, the weapon will charge up as many as three charge meters and fire a powerful blast that lasts as long as it took to charge. All weapon systems have their own special attack of course. The homing shot stands above them all, though. The charge attack is so powerful, it blows up mini bosses with ease and makes short work of stage bosses too. It can bypass armor and focus on a weakspot, but it sometimes tries to attack some other target and does no damage to the boss, though, you can guide it a bit by releasing it near the weakspot.

The game has four difficulty modes: easy, medium, hard and mania. The default is medium and it's too easy, in my opinion, if it wasn't for the last part of stage 7. The miniboss and final boss are way harder than anything else in the game. If that encounter had been more reasonable compared to the rest of the game, it could be really fun to try on mania difficulty.

I'm glad I found this game and gave it a shot. It may not be an all-time classic, but it's easily an A tier game and gets my recommendation.

00:00 - Intro
02:11 - Stage 1 (Ganymede)
05:44 - Stage 2 (Gravity Pagoda)
10:40 - Stage 3 (Zeus Fleet)
15:43 - Stage 4 (Olympus)
19:20 - Stage 5 (Moon Base)
24:13 - Stage 6 (Blue Wind)
29:04 - Stage 7 (Bay Side City)
33:05 - Ending
33:31 - Credits