Shmup update:그날이 오면 'When the Day Comes' SeriesAs well as Legend of Sword, this one started very early on home computers, this time the first two games where programmed on MSX (both MSX2, I think). The first game was most likely never released to the public (though there's some conflicting theories, as well). The official english translation for the title (used in ads, for the files and on the dos prompt) was "for the day" with the first game, and just "the day" for the later ones, but I'd say my translation is better. The latter games all have their own english subtitle, though.
I'm almost inclined to call part 2 best of the series, though a few of its weapons are useless, and it's not perfectly executed technically (the 2nd stage has a rather low framerate, and for some reason it only displays the OSD when pausing the game). But it has unlimited continues, thus I actually got to see the later stages in this one. You get a new ship for every stage, but the difference is just cosmetic. It also has a lot of screen text, all in quite hilarious Konglish.
When the Day Comes 3: Dragon Force plays a lot like the Thunder Force 3 or 4. The weapon system is almost a copy (though not as balanced). As well as the other games, it sports a shield bar, which looks like it can be upraded. The ground is displayed in some kind of mode7-effect, but it looks rather bad. The first stage drags on for what feels like forever, and the boss took more hits than me.
Part 4 - "Icarus" - Exchanges the Thunder Force system for something more traditional, and is quite a bit better than 3, but suffers from very hectic stage design. You've got a super beam to charge up, but you'll hardly ever get the chance to do so without taking hits/missing enemies. There's standard bitmap backgrounds, now.
This obviously has a 2-player mode (check the OSD), but doe to a cryptic, Wing Commander-inspired menu screen, I couldn't find out how to access it.
The last one, "Assault Dragon", is by far the most polished of the bunch. The mode7-styled effects are back, but this time, they look actually pretty neat. It has a pretty solid weapon system similar to part 4, and there's several types of smart bombs available.
2-player mode is kinda interesting, as the two ships, called "Fighter" and "Base" can merge into a mecha. I haven't figured out the player 2 controls, yet, but it looks like player 1 is controlling the mecha, which would be kinda boring for player 2 ... All in all, a pretty solid game, though the stages are still too long, and the stage 1 boss, while easy to hit and avoid, took forever to beat.
Oh, and the music in those games is rather good, might try to record some later.
Box RangerThat's right, you're a pink box out to save the universe. Your enemies are insects, I made it to the first boss, but the same stage continued afterwards, so I gues there are midbosses. Pretty boring though (and once again the problem with bosses taking much too many hits).
운명의 결전 (The Battle of Fate)Pretty standard vertical shooter with awesome music.
자유의 투사 (Freedom Fighter)Another vertical shooter. This has some tactical aspects. You can upgrade your tech level to buy new ships and weapons. It's hard as hell, though, and losing a life will bring you instantly back to the map screen. It's also programmed very badly and flickers all the time.
Fox RangerThis one's pretty bad. Soon after the start, you'll get showered with powerups that make you near invincible.
GoGo 우리별 (GoGo Our Star)Kinda reminiscent of Pop'n'Twinbee. Another one for the almost-indestructible-boss-syndrome. There's also a bonus round in between stages, but I didn't get what I had to do.
올망졸망 Paradise (Olmangjolmang Paradise)Interesting Space Harrier clone, sporting cartoony characters, a few of which are the stars in a ton of games from the same company. It seems different characters start in different stages. There's also a shop that you can access at certain points during mid-level(!)
Super BeemgerThis one could actually be very good if it weren't for your odd standard weapon (or at least I didn't find any other weapon key), a homing gun with an extremely low shot rate. Other than in most of the introduced games, you're set back to restart points when you lose, which makes it also very hard.