This game is not easy casually but it has a big perk: it's 2 players! and it's one of the few for the SMS library with a co-op mode.

@RadManFromMars and I had a chance to try some 2 players run during the Sega Crew Live (May 27, 2023). unfortunately one of us die at stage 3, we haven't figure out a strat yet

We can always create the category a simple set of rules. Probably we can agree that both players needs to go through the final gate at the end of level 6, or simply no game over for both player.

Same as the 1 player category, both console and emulator are accepted. Not sure if it has been done before but probably we can allow some plateform to allow 2 players online? for example fightcade, Netplay, Parsec, ....

on that note, I'm down to try Fightcade with anyone who is interested! looks like they only have secret commands but it runs at 60hz so should be fine. don't hesitate to message me directly, either on SRC or Discords

I tried 2 players run with @Svipur using fightcade. I think we ended 2 or 3 times at the level 5.

Probably mentioned it before, the game is even more difficult with 2 players:

• enemies shot double, when they are getting close it's impossible to avoid
• walking pass bombs doesn't work everytime, especially if one player is behind
• sometimes it's not clear which player will have the dropping dynamite (end level)

For now we just want to have a full run, so dying on the 2 first level is fine since we have unlimited continue.

In general, it seems to be better to have both player on opposite side to avoid getting killed by those double shot and to cover most of the spawns. Exception for those bridges of course. It helps to have both players on the horizontal line. If one player is too much at the back, he might get killed by a bomb. Too much at the front, might not have time to react.