I have not played the arcade version of this, but rather the Sega Genesis one and have to say that the game is a blast! I even managed to win it without a 30 man code! Very fun and though like Contra, it is distinct enough to make it stand out. Granted, my fave weapon in this one was the 3 way gun which was basically the 'spreader', but hey, at least the flame thrower doesn't suck in this one! No, the worst weapon goes to the shotgun in this one...
The story, some strange organization has kidnapped some scientist and it is up to you to stop them! Go in riding on a jeep guns blazing! I think the bad guys are a drug syndicate or something, all I know for sure is the leader is a bit out there! I mean, most of the game you are fighting soldiers and such, but then near the end you gotta fight some weird fire thing and then the leader is totally insane!
The game play is standard run and gun, though you can change the options and control the gun arm and make it swing all around you so you can hit enemies above and below you. It is useful, but at times it seems to spin in a random direction while the enemy crawls up behind you! Still, the controls are tight for the most part and in the Genesis version you can change the difficulty level and yes, I played it on easy and honestly I still had trouble!
So a fun game from years past, I love these types of games, especially when they are actually fair and very winnable. It is one hit kill, but I never found myself so surrounded by enemies that I could not jump or shoot myself out of the situation...okay, a couple of times. I want to play the arcade version and see how it is; however, the Genesis version did have very good graphics. The Genesis always seemed to do arcade games really well.