A game I had vague memories of when I was in my early teens, and have now beaten, was a #Gameboy game named Mercenary Force.
A friend of mine had this, and when we hung out, we would cartridge swap games because no kid had a huge library of games unless their parents were super into games.
So you'd soft trade with friends to experience more things.
Anyway, Mercenary Force. Honestly, I don't play many shoot em ups. Vertical or horizontal, but this one stuck in my mind.
You start the game buying a team of four mercenaries, with different shooting patterns and HP pools, and try to save the local lord who is under siege from the forces of evil.
Your team moves as a group, as you shift between a variety of formations, and you blast through enemy hoards and hope to evade an onslaught of bullets. My inexperience of the genre sees this as quite unique!
Very heavy on the Japanese folklore as well, which you might not guess from the box art!
#RetroGaming #ConsoleGaming #GamersOfMastodon