It's always good when developers choose the road less travelled in bringing us something that breaks the mold and spits in the face of tried-and-true formulas. It shows there's passion in what they do. Now, if the companies they work for can afford and are willing to every now and then take a little risk to shake things up by releasing original ideas to the public, then we win in the long run. Because being honest, half the times these games don't turn out to be masterpieces, but do lay down the basics for future improvements and ideas. So even if they can't compete against more successful, standardized titles, at least they are not a Street Fighter, R-Type or Tetris clone.
Here are two shoot'em ups that don't know a thing about UFOs or alien invasions and embrace greek mythology instead. Strange? Yes. And its great.

Phelios

Players: 2 About: Vertical shooter Courtesy of: Namco Back in: 1988 Originally on: Arcade Also on: Genesis

Not only is the japanese Phelios an unconventional shoot'em up, but a very rich one at that. What do I mean by rich? Well this is a title for all SNES fans out there. You will fall in love with its bright colors, beautiful "anime" intermissions with digitized voices, epic battle tunes, and above all its boasting of scaling and rotation effects of backgrounds and sprites ala Mode 7. Just play the first level and you will know what I mean. Right after flying out the temple's hall and going under a stone arch, a small distant lake makes itself visible at the bottom of the cliff your are flying over. Get ready, because your winged horse dives swiftly towards the water at lightning speed while Namco's System 2 hardware zooms the background in and later rotates it 360 degrees left and right while a horde of red dragons and butterflies (?) try to keep your hero's tale a myth.
This first level is a fairly easy and beautiful ride. Unfortunately, the remaining 6 ( or 4 if you choose the "easy version") don't reflect the same quality. Scaling and rotation effects progressively go MIA, enemies and bullets become faster, stages don't seem that interesting anymore and you slowly start to fall out of love with it.

Arcade flyer

Phelios' realm makes itself at home perfectly in the greek mythology world, its tales and deities, but not without some discrepancies. Along the way you will clash against various mythological bosses such as the petrifying Medusa, the three blind witch sisters Graiae and their crystal ball and the men-seducing Siren, but then again hell's gatekeeper pooch Cerberus is depicted like a three-headed dragon.
You play the heroic Apollo, god of the sun, riding the legendary winged horse Pegasus to rescue the goddess of the moon Artemis. The game's princess in distress (who is also depicted as Apollo's lover although the mythology tells us they are actually twins) has been abducted by token kidnapper Typhon, one of the Titans.

Japanese Megadrive cover

Surviving this greek adventure depends on two things: 1) Knowing what comes ahead, and 2) Abusing your charged shot.
Shooting the enemy down before he fires back at you is key, since they move and shoot very fast and Pegasus's sprite is friggin huge.
Then there's the charged Phelios shot, your best friend. Unlike the ridiculously weak normal shot, the charged beam is extremely quick to get ready and very powerful too. Even some of the weakest enemies take up to a ridiculous 10 regular hits to kill, and though Apollo can take some punishment before loosing a life, charging up is the only way out when groups of 5 or 10 of them surround you at the same time.
Once per level the game throws at you a different special weapon for a limited time, such as spread, homing, or wave shots. They are thought out to aid you according to your present surroundings, sometimes reducing the difficulty so much that will feel you are playing a bonus stage.
By the way, be sure you get all those "Option" satellites too. Stolen right out of Gradius, the little firing aids will make your life much easier.

For a late 80's game you have to admit it's technically impressive. Mode 7 effects before Mode 7 even came out on the SNES, beautiful art, intermissions with digitized voices and fairly respectable bosses.
Epic tunes play during the battle, mostly plain good, but is the continue and highscore screen's slow melodies that stood out for me the most. Very rpg-ish.

Genesis cover

The fact is that this title seems taylor made for a console. More specifically the good old SNES. From its odd "Version Select" option where you choose the difficulty level right at the beginning, to its special effects and primitive but beautiful animated intermissions. It makes me wonder if it was originally conceived as a japanese SNES title that got scratched out at the last moment and ended up at the arcades. But in 1988? Three years before the SNES launch? Impossible.

Phelios arcade

An arcade title that actually lets you choose the difficulty level.

The only home version though turns out to be a Genesis one. The colorful palette, rotating and scaling are of course gone, and the stages have been adapted to fit the console's technical specifications. There's an odd and horrible 4 frame animation that happens when Apollo goes thru the broken window and into the caverns in the second stage. It's so cheap and jerky you will swear your Genesis cpu is melting down.

The captions that appear when Artemis communicates with you during battle have been translated to the funny and infamous "engrish" (ask SNK about it), and besides sounding stupid and making no sense half the times, they will crack you up. Here's an example out of the game's briefing section for stage 6:

Phelios Genesis

Confucius teaching.

Another difference with the original is slutty little Artemis. As levels are cleared intermissions are not only different from the arcade version, but show her body off more. So towards the end of the game she's only wearing a bikini.
The gameplay turned up better, and maybe even easier, compensating for the technical handicaps and making it more fun to play. An OK Genesis shoot'em up, nothing to miss out on.

Phelios Genesis

Take that Gals' Panic.

Rounding up, Phelios comes out as an OK game. But above all a beautiful curiosity. Try it for its cool effects, intermissions, and if you are curious about what Namco was capable of back in 1988. But you probably won't be coming back to its average gameplay.