Sorry for the major necrobump, but I really wanted to post my thoughts on this awesome game. I know the dev has moved on to bigger things, but don't we all have games we'd love to see updated / completed? Gotta have dreams, right?
I'll list what I love: beautiful hi-res graphics, great music & sfx (although I believe they're free and used in other games; still nice choices), that badass dash mechanic, some crazy bullet patterns (those branching lasers!), thick-laser cancels, cute "speech" bubble. It even has all the features you'd want: scores for every mode, stage select, looping boss-rush, replays, config options, wide selection of difficulties. Even though there are only 3 out of the planned 6 stages and 1 of the 2 characters, this beta still has plenty of content and a run takes 18+ mins.
The dev obviously had grander ambitions with this project, but a polished version of the 3 stages as-is would make for a classic freeware game, that I'm sure would be recommended and played widely. Unfortunately, what's missing is a fair chunk of spritework: 5 (mid)bosses, at least 3 enemy types and the second player character (not necessary, imo: the three shot types are sufficient). The bugs mentioned before (registry edit @ launch and persistent process @ exit) would be easily fixed, but are almost game-breaking, in the sense that it's not a game to recommend to everyone and it's annoying to have to remember to end the process in task manager.
All in all, still a very fun game. Give it a try.
(If the OP link is down, find it on the
"XP-era doujin games" thread.)