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I grabbed this game on the cheap a few years back because it had been name-dropped in a Keith Apicary song. I finally settled down with it when the crisp autumn air yesterday made me want to fire up the Genesis with something new.

WHAT AN AFTERNOON.

Right from the minimalist, atmospheric opening credits (that music!) and the TRON-esque mission objective sequences (those wireframe vector graphics!), you know you're getting into something special. And then it just gets better, because pretty much everything results in spectacular explosions.

You pilot a giant mech that shoots some bullets. Standard stuff. But in a really interesting design decision, your shooting direction is determined by button, not D-pad. The A button shoots left and C shoots right. There's an interesting resource-management twist to the gameplay, too. You've got a heat gauge that displays how close your thrusters are to cutting out, a shield gauge on your armor to keep an eye on, a power meter (for your suite of special weapons) that only recharges in bright light, and interesting complications like Power Conversion Units that restore your shield strength only by directly depleting your power meter.

You also have one of two auxiliary vehicles following along in every stage: one is basically a motorcycle that shoots simultaneously with you, and the other is a flying ship that crawls above and rains intermittent targeted lasers upon your enemies. If you've got a six-button controller (or a friend on controller 2), you can move these vehicles left and right independently with X and Z. These vehicles have a separate shield gauge, so when you're inside them -- as opposed to just surfing atop them -- Ranger X's armor shields are protected. Also, you can't switch your special weapons unless you're inside your vehicle. But you can't fire your special weapon until you're outside your vehicle.

You are going to have to glance over the manual for this one.

I don't know how complicated this is as compared to other run n' gun/platformer hybrids. The difficulty curve at the beginning is definitely palpable when you're trying to remember the unintuitive control scheme and the first level opens with a bunch of stuff already shooting at you.

But once you get it... oh, MAN.

I played through the game on every difficulty setting and just had a blast. Things are exciting and fast, but there are levels that are built for slow progress: a vertical climb up a skyscraper with infrequent platforms for cooling your thrusters, a city with searchlights that call reinforcements if you're spotted, a cave with only rare patches of sunlight breaking through. In my opinion this game is just jam-packed with imagination.

I will say that once you get the most powerful special weapon, you pretty much break the game. But can I also say how satisfying it is to fill the entire screen with a shattering blast of proton devastation? This game makes you feel good.

Highly recommended.