People complain about game companies making the same game over and over, and treasure is the proof that its not necessarily a bad thing.

Treasure has a 1,000 views of Mt Fuji approach, where the same basic elements are present (vulcan, homing, and laser for guns;giant epic boss battles being the crux of the game battles; light anime window dressing) but the variations are rich and sweet, where each game brings a new set of nuanced yet familiar game mechanics.

Gunstar heroes is absolutely classic, and the battle with seven force is the best boss battle on the Genesis, and one of the best out there. I've got nothing but love for it, and thats all I have to say about that.

You need to try their other works. The best top down shmup I've ever played was one of theirs, where you had three different types of guns that would produce different weapons in conjunction(pushing the button for the vulcan and these sort of blue bombs would produce a search laser, which would scan in sweeping lines and fire a electric stream when it sensed something, useful for passing through barriers), each one useful in its own right without need to be earned or limitations. The weapon upgrade system was determined by score, which was increased by defeating certain types of enemies, so its got an intellectual element where you have to plan out what color of enemies your going to hit and which ones you arent. Its very good and deserve a download.

Alien soldier is a genesis, and bloody hard. Ikaruga I think was their and is one of those classics that everbody cant get enough of.

And Astroboy Omega Factor for the GBA. For like three years before that I had become particularly jaded about games in general and was thinking of just dumping them. I bought it on the cheap, and played it cause my job was boring. It felt good, it felt fresh. It had a nostalgia element of classic difficulty and uncluttered mechanics, but with a fresh faced save system and an insistence that difficulty be fair instead of cheap. I liked the story, idealistic without being stupid, and troubled without being angsty. When I beat the boss fight, I felt achievement for the first time in a videogame in a long time, and the final sequence was rewarding in a way that most arent because you get to play it and it feels honest to goodness heroic. Astroboy restored my love of videogames.

Nice to write a block of text thats not a gripe once in a while.