Inbeida 1.0

Inbeida is a top-down scrolling shooter game with old-school vector graphics. Created by a Japanese developer, the English localization intentionally retains many Japanese snippets, charmingly vocalized by the classic "novelty" Mac OS text-to-speech characters. Combined with a tall aspect ratio and bullet-hellish gameplay experience, this turns Inbeida into what I imagine Japanese arcades in the '80s were like.

While the developer provides little up-to-date instruction or documentation, my own experience playing permits some description. The game is split into discrete levels, each designated by a letter and subdivided into four sectors, which are designated by a number. The first and second sectors consist of various waves of enemies in the air and on the ground, the third is a boss, and the fourth is a bonus round where the player has the chance to power up their ship with collected keys. The player can shoot infinitely, use various items, and "warp" at the expense of a collected power unit. The player has just one life and must therefore keep the energy (health) of their ship high to avoid starting back at level A1.

I am not sure how many levels there are, and considering how difficult the game is, I am unlikely to ever find out!

Sam's Protip: "Inbeida" is the Japanese localization of the word "Invader", and considering this game's genre I'm sure you can guess what that's derived from.