Heavy Unit is so strange, so utterly bizarre, that it seemingly defies explanation. Let me give you an example by trying to describe the first stage to you. You begin as stated before, battling six of those elongated creatures, then you must take out three guns mounted on the ceiling, followed by avoiding some huge thing that keeps slamming down and blocking your path. After that, you're greeted by three dragon-like heads spewing flames at you, and then you move up the screen only to be confronted by small winged dragons and what appears to be mechanized archers(?) shooting at you. Then there's this huge skull face and then you have to rapidly fire at these strange obstructions to make them move and zip past fast enough before they retract. After all of this you fight the boss -- a huge robotic monstrosity that lets loose two of these red centipede creatures from two compartments on the top half of it, and these things are of course shooting at you. Meanwhile, the mouth in the middle fires really fast shots, so if your gun is powered-up so that it spreads you can comfortably take the position just south of being in alignment with the mouth and fire away to defeat it. Guess what though? It took me two continues just to get past the first stage! Each stage is divided into sub-sections, and if you should die in one of them (and believe me - you will) then you start from the beginning of that section. There's unlimited continues and for that I'm thankful because it would be a beyond-furious challenge without it. You know that Taito means business, and since there's no difficulty settings you already know that that's because it's already set on 'super hard'.

You'll see things like alien factories/industrial areas, glowing cavernous areas, a strange alien-glob stage that should remind you immediately of the first stage to the Konami-powered Life Force, etc. The enemy design is something else - you'll see mad hopping green robots, mech-like creatures that fire homing missiles that resemble carrots(!), and other strange goodness. And, very importantly, the way they are placed throughout stages is both logical and often-times irritating. You'll think you're in a safe haven when all of a sudden these ships start forming randomly around the entire screen and once they've formed (which takes approx. 1 second each) they aim directly for you. The bosses stand amongst the freakiest encounters that I've ever encountered. You know how Taito has a knack for the unorthodox what with their Darius series of shooters and all? Well... let's just say that this one is at least as bizarre! We're talking about fighting a huge dog/alien-like creature on all fours with a sack of red balls on its top that hops around the screen throwing these balls everywhere, and then it jumps away only to shoot a bunch of shots directly at you. We're talking about some freaky mech-like robot with guns mounted all over it shooting spread shots at you, meanwhile new arm-guns(?) keep flying onto it to shoot at you some more, and then the head arrives, zips around the screen, and places itself on top of the mech. What the hell is that about!? And it only gets more strange.

Good job Taito.... I think....

The graphics are detailed if a little murky in some areas but overall Taito does very nice job. You will not find parallax scrolling like you will in something such as Gate of Thunder, but this isn't a problem as far as I'm concerned. This is a conversion of the arcade by the same name which I don't believe was ever released outside of Japan. You gain power-ups just like in virtually every shooter there is, one of which allows you to transform into a mech which is slightly bigger than your standard ship. This aspect reminded me of Hyper Duel (Sega Saturn import shooter/arcade). However, you'd be hard-pressed to stay alive for long in this form seeing as it makes it even easier to collide with enemy firepower or something else.

The soundtrack, like the game, is utterly bizarre! It truly does fit the game to a T, but it's not suited for listening pleasure - that is, listening pleasure for us normal folks. The sound effects are kinda weak. I've certainly heard much better out of a TurboGrafx 16/PC Engine HuCard. ....I guess that's all there is to it. It's by no means one of the greatest shooters that I've played but that in no way makes it any less enjoyable to play. It's unique, it's (very) challenging, and it's weird! If you're into shooting games like me, try and locate a copy if it's not too much trouble. If this isn't your style then it's probably best to keep your distance. And I'm out.

- Michael