Gradius Gaiden

Gameplay consists of moving your fighter across side-scrolling stages, shooting everything in sight and avoiding enemy fire, with your objective being to reach the end and defeat the stage boss to move on. You can collect power-ups which fills your power-up bar and which can then be triggered at any time for a specific effect depending on what bar is active at the moment. You can also power-up the Missile, Double, and Laser power-ups to become more powerful, select two new types of shield (Guard, which protects against physical barriers and Limit, which renders you invincible for three seconds), and even re-arrange what's in your bar.