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It seems strange that a game like this managed to be released in any country other than Japan, but Keio Flying Squadron somehow made it out in other countries and is quite a popular game on the console. Story isn't very important for a shoot 'em up but Keio's is fairly insane. If you really want to understand it buy the game and watch the intro for a more detailed look. It basically involves a girl called Rami, who (for seemingly no real reason at all) puts on a bunny outfit and rides her pet dragon Spot into battle against the evil Dr. Pon who looks like a raccoon but has an IQ of 1400. He and his evil army have taken Rami's sacred key which can unlock treasures. This is a shooter of the R-Type variety with you moving right destroying all enemies in sight with different weapons. Spot can fire projectiles whilst Rami just sits on top of him. In total there are 7 stages with a boss enemy to destroy at the end of each, this is standard shoot 'em up stuff. You don't get to use much weaponry in this game. There are only a couple of power ups to get to use as the main firepower, and they don't look that great, even when you have them maxed out. You can also collect some sub weapons but again these don't look that impressive. The other main form of attack is the baby dragons. Simply stop firing and a small baby dragon, which looks like Spot but smaller, will appear. You can have up to two of these and they follow you around, firing. However, if it gets too much you can also send them straight into the enemy like a bomb to do big damage and clear out anything in your way. You can have up to two baby dragons on screen at any time. After a rather good introduction sequence (one of the better pieces of anime you'll find in a Mega CD game), start playing the game and things aren't that great. Keio's graphics are somewhat basic to say the least and don't take advantage of what the Mega CD can do, and some of the effects (such as the waves seen in level 2's ocean) are quite poor. The sprites for the enemies are fairly good and animate well and some of the bosses are well done, but the backgrounds need some work. Thankfully the game play more than compensates for the average graphics. Any shoot 'em up fan will lap this title up, and newcomers will probably enjoy it. The game play is simple enough; blast everything that gets in your way before it destroys you. Being a shooter, this game requires skill as you cannot take any hits at all -one hit means the loss of one life so quick reactions are a must if you want to get to the later levels. You cannot blame the controls for your deaths either -the d-pad is very responsive allowing you to move easily and the fire buttons all work well. Keio's sound is quite an oddball as it's very repetitive, but never to the point of annoyance. Level tunes simply repeat around 3 to 4 times per level, then fade out when the track reaches to the end, then start again. This may sound like the music will get annoying early but it doesn't, at least to me anyway. There is also lots of speech in this game, and Rami will often say things (in Japanese though) as you play through the levels. The obvious bit of this review that most people want to know is how difficult it is, as most people are put off by shooters due to the high difficulty levels. Keio has multiple levels of difficulty and a complete novice shouldn't be put off by this game; it's not that hard but it can still be challenging in places. Novice or expert.Read full review
Keio Flying Squadron is the rare/collectible game for the Sega CD and is generally said to be a pretty solid shooter to. I managed to acquire a nice mint copy for the pretty typical price of 150 USD only to find that the game is actually pretty average and certainly not worth the 150 unless your a die hard collector. I'd much rather spend the money on a copy of Snatcher for the sega cd
This is an awesome game and one of the rarest around. If you have the opportunity to pick one up this game is a must! Wicked hard to find though. Do your research and you'll see the price tag is absolutely justified
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