Pleasantly surprised by Astro Flash (1986 Sega System E)

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I owned Transbot in the '80s for my Master System, but even then I thought it was too repetitive and simplistic (I much preferred Astro Warrior ). I knew there was a loosely related Sega arcade game but I never tried it as I figured it would be like Transbot.

Well, I just played the Astro Flash core on MiSTer and it's pretty good. It looks and sounds like a Master System game on steroids (more sprites than the SMS could handle, with no flicker) so it's fairly nostalgic with the low resolution and PSG sound, and it's also way better than Transbot.

It's really an entirely different game. It progressively rewards you with increased power as you kill more enemies and it has a lot more variety with a series of different stages. And it's quite challenging with fairly devious enemies from the start, and some Gradius/Darius-like gun installations and environment hazards to negotiate. It still has the transforming ability between space ship and mech but you can do it when ever you like, with the mech being slower but more powerful. Give it a go on MAME / MiSTer etc!