Caltrops - Reviews - It isn't as hard as the others though.

Forum Overview :: Reviews

by Worm 12/05/2004, 12:18pm PST

For every hour of play you log you'll gain another credit, and at hour seventeen you'll get free play. So if you want to see the final boss by continuing loads you're free to. This also allows you to unlock "Edit Mode", which lets you mix and match the various items. The biggest change by far is not restarting at a waypoint when you die; also, your options can be picked right up after death. Anyone who isn't a Gradius Rainman can appreciate this change. Now you no longer have to scream off a string of curses and reset your game simply because you died once!

As for length, I couldn't tell you. The SHMUPs message board has a thread on it with a high score board. So the game at least has three loops in it.

The levels really abuse 3d; you'll have shit flying out of the background, shit spinning, and some stages have criminal amounts of shit on the screen. Regardless of the criminal loads of shit (all of which look very pretty) I haven't seen any slow down. Like all shmups as you pick up the patterns you'll start breezing through the early levels; but, the levels are just so damn nice looking. This game is definitely much faster than Cho Ren Sha 68k the enemies don't really feel as if they are coming in waves, but one huge wave. The bosses are much more difficult due to all of them having the token Gradius weak spot. Everything I said in the other thread stands; except for them reusing shit, the bosses being crappy, and that one cutscene seems about it.