Awesome seeing you make another STG themed history! Gaiares has always been one of my favorite side scrollers and I still play it a lot today. Anyone who enjoys Gradius style gameplay and that challenge level owes it to themselves to play it. I honestly come back to it as much or more than the Thunder Force games. Aside from that final boss rush mode at the end, which wasn't too uncommon back then, it's a pretty perfect experience all around.

I try and watch every video about this game that comes out. I was a kid and had inherited a Sega genesis from my dad, and one day, for whatever reason walking through a Shell gas station no less- they had one of those little kiosks where they just sold dumb Knick nacks etc, this would have been around 1998. Well they were selling 2 packs of sega genesis games, probably just offloading them for as cheap as possible. I bought this with my allowance in a 2 pack with Zool. Zool was good, but this game became an absolute obsession of mine, and now as a 30 year old I look back on this game so, so fondly. The soundtrack alone gets me amped up because as a kid I refused to lose to it. I never made it past mission 5, but fuck if I didn’t put probably 5000 hours into trying to beat it. Thank you for making this ❤

Appreciate you shining a light on this gem of a game mate! Part of my childhood ! You earned your self a new sub !

Another hit, my friend! I enjoyed watching this one. Having just beaten Alundra yesterday, it was interesting to see that one of this game's creators moved onto the sequel. Also, the Japanese cover runs circles around the US one in this case!

Having rented this game, the one aspect that kept me from actually buying it back in the day was that you didn't respawn where you died. The game is FANTASTIC in every way otherwise... Good and enjoyable video! Thank you for covering this underrated game.

That 2022 special edition has such a unique blend of self-irony, retro culture and niche geekdom. I love it! Also: Gaiares OST smokes! Fully endorsed!

I still have my 1992 EGM buyer's guide and one of those ads is in it. Actually convinced me to buy the game from Funcoland... and I never made it past stage 6. Loved the game despite its difficulty and the way its become revered recently. Back in the early 90s, it was pretty obscure. I no longer have a CRT, so my dreams of beating it legitimately are over.

Learned some new stuff from this video on a title I’ve been closely following since it’s debut. Nice video!

I had read somewhere that "Gaiares" was Japanese shorthand for "Gaia Rescue," as the plot revolved around your attempt to save the Earth from destruction.

I haven't played many shoot 'em ups, but I did play Gaiares emulated when I went through a phase of (re)playing mega drive (genesis) games via Kega fusion. I think I tried the game due to its unusual title and got drawn in by the initial stage music and weapon stealing mechanic. The difficulty kept me coming back, though I was certainly stuck for a long time on mission 5 (the number of things to dodge with the icebergs and fireballs) and the bosses of missions 5 and 6 were pretty damn brutal. but after numerous attempts I kept going further. Felt pretty good to finally finish it. I find it amusing to learn the reason for the game's difficulty - I had assumed shmup players were just all seasoned genre veterans by the time the game was released (which I guess may often have been the case) so I'm kind of surprised to read some players never finished it

Another great video!!! Good job dude. I can’t wait for the next one. I’m going to start sharing them to Twitter from now on too

One of the best channels on KZfaq. I binged all your content after finding you via the GNG video, excited to see a video via sub box this time, haha

Great video, Bro! It's incredible that this game was made by such a small amount of people. I've always loved this game. I wish they would have made more levels instead of making cut scenes. But then again, it's those cut scenes that make the game special. I enjoy all your videos, but this one and the Gradius one are my favorite. Ghosts & Goblins, ActRaiser and Capcom's 2D Mecha Fighters are awesome videos too! Do you ever think of doing anymore Shmups? Or maybe a Run & Gun franchise? Anyway, keep up the great work.😊

This was a fun watch. Excellent break down of the gameplay mechanics that was easy to understand what sets it apart from other STG's.

Anything you produce on shmups, I'm watching. Thanks for putting this together, Chris - really well-paced, well-produced video.

I always thought the res in Gaiares stood for resurrection, since that's the goal

That sound 💎

Excellent information. Been a fan of this game since I first rented it back in the day, and it's nice to learn the details behind it. Well made video.

Definitely gotta give Gaiares a shot sometime. Very cool that it has ties to Ys and ActRaiser! 😄

Man I only played this game a little bit, but damn the whole shooter + kirby thing is genius. It's an awesome addition to the Sega Genesis library, I should play it some more. Really need that shirt too.

Gaiares was beautiful, it was a hard game that would just wear you down. The game felt like an experience, one that you weren't going to survive but you would go on the adventure anyway. I still have my copy.

It would be interesting to learn more about the drama with Wolf Team/Telenet. I heard that a lot of them move away after the launch of Tales of Phantasia. They created Tri Ace, and made Star Ocean as a "revenge". :)

Very interesting facts, I especially love all the connections you help us make with your videos :) Haven't played this one too much but I will someday. Always loved that Japanese box art :D

Great video! Thanks for sharing :-)

dude another killer video! This game always kicks my ass!

Thank you!

One of the best shoot'em up 16bit ever

Wow Yokota s resume is amazing. I love all the games you mentionned he was involved in. Anyway, thanks for letting me know about this game. I have to try it out😃 the cut scenes definitely look like the wolfteam ones in my opinion. Too bad I never heard about this game back in the time. Maybe was not it realesed here in France. Anyway, fantastic video. I m glad I discovered your channel

Gotta love that cinematic work! But it's insane the lengths developers would go to to bring out the best of games, even if it meant taken away entire days. Shame it didn't get the recognition it deserved, but it's difficulty and quality sure shows!

And I was literally scooping up a handful of modern and retro shoot 'em ups over the last week. Guess I gotta grab this one, too!!!

For me, it was the shield that made it possible for me to complete the game. Then the special weapon T-Braster made it worth replays. But, man, I remember spending so much time trying to replicate and unlock those random hidden weapons: T-Vulcan, A-Bullet, and F-Formation. To the point where I wrote a letter to Sega to see if they can help. Surprisingly they responded but only for T-Braster which I mentioned in the letter that I already knew...

Also, it's amazing just how many of the greats got their start at Nihon Telenet!

I didn't know anything about this one, it looks like a blast even though its unlikely I'd get to far in it because of how bad I am at this genra. Really well done and presented I loved it!

Awesome! Sounds like a cool game

Great video! I'm just waiting for retrobit to send me my collectors edition of this great game.

I love you making videos on titles like these :) I love being exposed to new games and series

Great video and well researched. It wouldn’t piss me off if you made as many STG “History Of” videos as you feel like! ;)

Finally got around to watching this. Excellent video! Great job, man! I love this stupid-hard game! I was in 8th grade when all of the Gaiares ads were in the magazines. I had a subscription to GamePro, I read EGM, and that damn mullet! It all sucked me in. But what really encouraged me to buy it was the enormous boss sprites. Too bad I couldn't see many in real life, cuz Gairaes is just too friggin' brutal! I can't get past stage 3. I had to use the stage select code to see the other levels. It's kind of a bummer, cuz I'd really like to get good at it, but it's just so damn demoralizing. But man, back in the day when this shit was new it blew me outta my chair! The anime cutscenes. The colorful graphics. And that killer soundtrack! So awesome. I have the cart and box now, but no manual. Came across one in great condition at a recent swap and inquired. Guy looked it up, said it was $47, but he'd do it for $25. I turned it down cuz I just can't pay that much for a manual, despite it being a deal. I'm sure he'll still have it at the next swap. Maybe I'll change my mind.

Awesome vid. 👌

Really good video! I had no idea the development behind Gaiares was like that! It's a real shame it didn't do well in the markets because it was my second shoot em up ever! (right after MagMax on NES) I personally thought that Gaiares stood for Gaia plus a shortened form of Restore or Resurrect, referring to the reward if you stop the terrorists.

My only criticism of the game is that there is no sound-test mode available. On a platform where sound-test was very common, it’s a shame that a game with such great music lacks this feature. Bummer!

Great Video! I kinda of prefer the name Aziton. Also, I think this game would of had a different outcome if Yakoto would of been able to see through the final 2 stages of the game. You def need to recreate that magazine ad with the shirt one day.

I was obsessed with this game.

This is probably the only Mega Drive game that I could mistake by a PC-Engine game, something in its visuals, maybe the colors or something else, apart from the background layers that were mostly absent on NEC's console. Many other shooters on SEGA's console doesn't have that feel, I wonder if the team behind Gaiares created games for the PC-Engine before? Since Japanese like to abbreviate and combine names, I thought GaiaRes as something like Gaia Rescue, Gaia Restoration or Gaia Resurrection.

As a youngster that wasn’t born yet in the Genesis era, I’d love to see the game ported to modern systems.

5:43 stupid me thought Gai Ares like Naruto's Might Guy had the god of war as a brother 😂

The intro art reminds me of Phantasy Star.

The greatest shoot em up with thunder force IV

Another favorite of mine. Amazing graphics, catchy music and unique weapon systems. Too hard for me though (thanks cheat code) It's just such a shame that they never made a sequel. I didn't think much of Whip Rush.

I'm here because I just got it for the evercade in the renovation collection

There's a freeware game made by Konamig called Last Defender, which basically borrows this game's concept of analyzing weapons, I thought it was a fairly original idea, until I found out the real origin of the concept. If it wasn't for Last Defender I wouldn't have known about Gaiares

I've never played Gaiarus, but I recognize every piece of music used in the video! I'm exceedingly confused.

I remember when games, like this one, used to make it a point to tell you on the box how much memory they had - "8 Meg of memory". I don't think I played Gaiares, but I remember the ad and some of those screenshots, and thought it looked cool, and remember it got a great review in EGM. Sushi-X gave it a 9/10. Renovation published another game on Genesis called, Master of Monsters. I really liked that game when I was young. Ever play it?

Wish this one would be released on PS4 along with MUSHA.

Great vid and great production! I have this one ordered. And I gotta say… Zz Badnusty is my new Mommy 😍🙏💕✨

I will never forget that cheesy ad from back in the day which is why I will never forget the title of this game. 🤣

#shmupsareshooters

No no, it's not Gaia Less. the story of the game is to "Restore" "Gaia" Gaia Restore, or Gaiares. Get it?