Espgaluda

Espgaluda (エスプガルーダ Esupugarūda) is a manic shooter by Cave, released in 2003. It is the spiritual prequel to the company’s renowned ESP Ra.De. (also known as Esprade) and is followed by Espgaluda II.

You are given the option of controlling one of two siblings, Ageha (faster but with narrower shooting capabilities) or Tateha (slower but with a wider attack). As you fly through the various stages various mechanical enemies attack with a very significant number of bullets, often nearly filling the screen. Aside from the regular shots, Ageha and Tateha also have additional abilities which help the player navigate through the numerous bullets. The first is a guard barrier; when activated the player is immune to collisions and as a bonus when the barrier button is released a more powerful laser shot is fired. A meter at the bottom of the screen indicates how much power is left in the barrier. The second ability is called the Kakusei mode; when this mode is activated your character switches sex and is able to fire a more powerful shot. More importantly, when this mode is activated all of the enemies and their bullets slow down considerably while the players speed remains the same making it easier to navigate through a tricky pattern of bullets. Activating Kakusei mode will rapidly deplete the players supply of green gems; since the number of gems isn’t limitless the player may not be able to remain in Kakusei mode for long. When not in Kakusei mode additional gems can be collected by destroying the various enemies. If the player completely runs out of gems, enemy bullets begin travelling faster than usual. Another bonus in the game is gold inguts which greatly increase the players score. These are found when in Kakusei mode; when an enemy is destroyed, all of its bullets will turn into ingots which can be collected by the player.