Earthion

Earthion feels like it time traveled straight from '90s. It's a horizontal shoot 'em up where you pilot this advanced ship to defend Earth. The whole vibe is unapologetically retro, meaning you get exactly what you'd expect: tons of enemies, screen filling bosses and bullets everywhere, but it's crafted with such obvious love and expertise that it never feels like a cheap copy, it's more like a lost classic you somehow missed.

The gameplay is super familiar but has its own neat twists. You've got your main shot, a subweapon you can swap between and a regenerating shield system that makes things a bit more forgiving than those brutal «one hit and you're dead» classics. The real strategic layer comes from the adaptation pods you grab at the end of each stage. Holding onto one during the boss fight lets you upgrade your ship permanently, like adding more shield bars or weapon slots. It creates this fun risk-reward thing where you're deciding if facing a boss with only one weapon is worth the long term boost. Some people find the weapon swapping a tad slow and picking up new guns can get fiddly when they drop right in front of you but regardless, the mechanics are solid and satisfying.

Visually, the game is a legit showstopper for something meant to run on the Genesis. The colors are vibrant, the sprites are detailed and there are these insane scaling and rotation effects that make you wonder how they pulled it off on 36 years old hardware. Some stages are so busy with parallax layers and explosions that bullets can occasionally get lost in the chaos, tho they've patched in improvements to help with that.  

Now the soundtrack is pure flames. Composed by the legendary Yuzo Koshiro (the same composer from Streets of Rage), the music is all pounding electronic beats and epic sci fi melodies that perfectly fuel the action. It's easily one of the game's biggest highlights, even if the beefy sound effects sometimes drown it out during the most chaotic moments, even if it's crunchy at times.

Is it revolutionary? Ñeh, not really, but what makes Earthion special is how polished and passionate the whole package feels. It's a modern game that respectfully plays by old rules, created by developers who clearly know and love the genre inside out, just like IRENA: Genesis Metal Fury. For shooter fans or anyone with a soft spot for the 16-bit era, it's an easy recommendation: a short, intense and expertly crafted blast from the past that's just a whole lot of fun to play.

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