Played using the default weapon and formation settings. The default formation layout rather sucks and isn't terribly good unfortunately so it's nice you can customize it, but the weapon edit options allow you to make all the weapons game-breakingly good (giving everything homing/piercing/explosive properties is a bit silly).
Neat game. This was my second time clearing the game, the first time I really struggled and basically made it through with no lives remaining. This time, I nearly had a deathless run if not for a death on what is the toughest boss of the run (the stage 5 boss). I'm not sure if using B's explosive shots would be better there, I was using L for the lasers to clear those homing missiles but it didn't work as well as I'd hoped. Oh well.
I was glad the final stage went smoothly, I struggled with it for a while. It looks like you can counterstop the game potentially by going through the lower door at the end of the game over and over which lets you repeat the second below the battleship (and apparently get more 1ups, heh). Was the first time I'd tried that path out.
The first time I 1cc'd the game I stopped recording at the end and missed the hidden ending sequence if you wait patiently, and it's pretty neat. It teases at a sequel (which was never made).