A vertically scrolling arcade shooter with brilliant music, awesome gameplay and blazing fast graphics.

Story

A mecha fighter squadron led by the Red Leader is on a dangerous mission to destroy the malicious Intellicomputer only known as Dire 51. The M.U.S.H.A team are about to assault a massive enemy armada when suddenly a huge barrage of incredible force strikes down two of the five mechas. Red Leader quickly commands the three remaining squad members to retreat, but it is too late – a second barrage hits and brings the squadron down to just Red Leader and the female fighter pilot named Terri. She ignores the leaders orders and keeps charging deeper into enemy territory telling Red Leader that retreating will not help the situation – she is determined to complete the mission and is ready to do it alone. Red Leader retreats from the scene and Terri is now going solo against an entire army of warships controlled by Dire 51.

The Game

M.U.S.H.A. is a single-player arcade style vertically scrolling shoot ’em up. The game is incredibly fast and delivers a pure shooting game challenge. It is considered to be a part of the Aleste shoot ’em up series previously released on the Sega Master System but the plot here is totally freestanding.
M.U.S.H.A. stands for Metallic Uniframe Super Hybrid Armor and refers to the type of mecha robot that Terri and her team pilots. In the game you play as Terri and you must blast numerous waves of enemy attackers across seven large levels before you can complete the mission.

Content

The game can be played in three different difficulty levels, and even on the normal difficulty the game demands quick reflexes, a high skill level and a focused effort. Your upper hand in this battle will be depending on the power-ups that can be collected throughout the game. These include Offensive Options and three different types of weapons. Offensive Options are external pods that fly together with your mecha. You can switch their programming with the press of a button to have them fulfill certain support roles for you. For example you can have them spread fire across the screen or focus fire straight ahead. You can also have them rotating around you or seeking out enemies on their own. While the latter is very powerful it is also very risky, as your Offensive Options will break when they take damage.

Every now and then, a friendly air ship will come by and drop a weapon power-up somewhere on the screen. These come in three different types;

• Blazing Beam – a focused laser-type weapon that can tear down enemies with ease.
• Vanishing Buster – powerful bombs that cover a large area.
• Defensive Detonator – protective shield that rotates around you and has the ability to absorb oncoming enemies and projectiles.

Collecting the same type of weapon power-up multiple times will upgrade it to the next level. Each weapon has four levels of power and a maxed out weapon can certainly make some parts of the game a cakewalk.

The weapons seem well balanced. They are all good choices depending on your current situation. The Defensive Detonator is perhaps the most versatile weapon because it is incredibly effective and will make your life a whole lot easier with its defensive properties. It may lack offensive power, but it can be used as a close ranged weapon as well, because it destroys basically anything it touches.
With an upgraded Vanishing Buster you can lay down huge bombardments, covering most of the screen which will take down the majority of enemies with ease. Thanks to their big explosions and the fact that they spread, they are very effective against swarms of enemies and bosses.
The Blazing Beam causes massive damage in a straight line and excels in taking out highly armored targets. It can also be used to sweep across the screen and cause mass destruction that way.

To gain an Offensive Option you need to collect three Power Chips that are dropped by a special robotic vessel. These are plentiful but collecting them can be difficult while avoiding enemies and enemy fire. The more Offensive Options you have the better is your chance to survive – you can have two of them active at one time, and more can be held in reserve. Lost ones will then automatically be replaced. This game mechanic is very cleverly designed because it requires minimum effort from the player, is easy to understand but is still a game changer.

You are given three lives to complete a level, and if you lose your lives you will have the opportunity to continue the game from the level in which you died. Extra lives can be earned through score. Unlike many similar games, you are allowed to take a few hits here and there because if you have a secondary weapon, it will take that hit for you. Your weapon will be downgraded but you’ll live. Offensive Options can also be used to shield you from enemy bullets.
This mechanic makes a nice balance and makes you work hard for those extra hits. Thanks to the fact that the game is very fast and the enemies are coming from every angle you can’t really avoid taking a few hits here and there. When the screen gets swarmed, there’s very little space to move on.

With these mechanics in place you typically only die if you end up taking multiple hits in quick succession. If you die on a tough spot, a downward spiral of sorts could start – when you spawn back you are in a very vulnerable state without weapons. You do however get to keep your previously collected Offensive Options. But if there are still swarms of enemies and bullets on the screen there’s a risk that you will end up dying again before you get the chance to restock on weapons and get back on track.

The various levels will take you through some spectacular environments. The battles will take place around thunder clouds, floating battle ships, underground tunnels, lava landscapes, forests, and massive demonic robots. As mentioned, the game is really fast paced so you really need to adjust to its rhythm – battles in this game tend to be chaotic, to say the least.
During these intense moments you will be fighting swarms of wicked enemies such as burning skulls, robot ninjas, mechanic warriors, tanks, mounted cannons, attack drones, demonic constructs etc. The variation keeps the action fresh because unless you know the game by heart, you’ll never be quite sure of what’s coming next.

Controls

The controls are pretty good, but there are some quirks worth mentioning. The A button changes the attack formation of your Offensive Options. The B button fires your secondary weapon and the C button is your main weapon. This means that you are going to be holding down two buttons simultaneously to get the full fire power out of your mecha. Thankfully the built-in auto fire works great in conjunction with this.
Furthermore, you can adjust your movement speed by pausing the game and then selecting your desired speed. While it certainly can help to adjust the speed every now and then, I personally tend to forget about it and thus ignore the whole feature.

Graphics

The graphics are lightning fast and look almost as good as any arcade game from the same year. The art direction has an over-the-top but dark anime style to it and it works great. The enemy bullets are easy to distinguish even in the heat of battle, and that is a huge plus. The visuals are fairly detailed and it just looks good overall. Despite the fast paced action the animation of the backgrounds and enemies are scarce – most enemies have very few frames of actual animation which could have made things look a little smoother.
There’s also some neat special effects such as whiteouts leaving only the silhouettes of you and your enemies visible, and flying enemies crashing down below when shot down.
Even with all this intense action going on the game keeps running at a very good frame rate. Some minor sprite flickering can be seen here and there but it is very subtle.

Sound

The game sports a mean rock soundtrack to go with all the sounds of lasers, shots, explosions and hit indicators. This soundtrack is simply epic – there are many rockin’ tracks here that you’ll instantly fall in love with. The sound effects are somewhat basic though, but at least it doesn’t interfere too much with the background music. This audio direction gives the whole game a bad-ass attitude and it sets you in the right mood to just want to blast everything in your path. I’d say that the music in M.U.S.H.A. is a perfect example on how important music is to a game, especially if the game is supposed to revolve around fast paced action.

Summary

M.U.S.H.A. is definitely one of the best Mega Drive games, especially when it comes to shooting games. The many tales of its rarity, high quality gameplay and good music are all true! Now, 19 years after its original release we can finally play it again without having to track down one of those obscure and expensive Genesis cartridges, thanks to Nintendo’s Virtual Console. The game is a blast to play and sums up perfectly what arcade shooting games are all about. It’s a very challenging game and is well worth your time if you are a fan of the genre. It basically only leaves you wanting more levels, more weapons, perhaps two player co-op support and a high score table to show off your scores on.

Developed By: Compile
Published By: Naxat Soft
Version Reviewed: Wii (Virtual Console)
Genre: Shoot ’em Up
Players: 1
Also Known As: Musha Aleste: Full Metal Fighter Ellinor
Also Available On: Sega Mega Drive
Released: 1991