A mate of mine spent some time playing it and had this to say:
I've now tried the playable demo. It seems OK but I have to say I'm not completely sold on it - I found it a bit of a slog. Everything looks the part, but the enemies sort of just dance around, and you spend more time avoiding bullets than anything. If the demo is anything to go by, it's a game that looks a lot like MERCS but doesn't really play like it. I haven't played Heavy Barrel so I might try that for comparison. It's good that someone has attempted to develop this type of game rather than one of the more usual genres.
I replayed MERCS a bit last night and was pleasantly surprised having not played it for many years now.
What do you chaps think about this MD port? Unsure if I shall get a copy as yet myself. I do like supporting new releases for the older platforms as best I can as a rule.
Edit:
Just to add: I love to play FC Heavy Barrel, Iron Tank, Guerilla War, ninja commando and shock troopers.
I have the MSX original and really enjoy it. It's not about killing everything. It's more about finding holes to weave through and never stop running. Enemys respawn forever. As an MSX game it's quite special, running in 256 colors, and the OPL4 music is godly.
The MD port looks to make things more intense by upping enemy count, but giving you more weapons to blast through with.
Personally I'm happy with the MSX version, as it is well balenced, plays great, and seeing it run on MSX is quite special. (V9990 vdp required) On MD, it loses some of it's magic, not to mention lots of dithering (64 colors), and the loss of the opl4.
Never knew the MSX had upgrades that could reach that kind of potential! Pretty impressive.
We here shall not rest until we have made a drawing-room of your shaft, and if you do not all finally go down to your doom in patent-leather shoes, then you shall not go at all.