Hydorah

"HYDORAH IS BASED ON 80'S GAME STANDARDS. IT WILL REQUIRE SOME TACTICAL PLAYING SO, SHOW YOUR POWER OR PREPARE TO DIE!"

- Warning Message

Hydorah is a freeware horizontal Shoot Em Up that takes after classic arcade games, namely games like Gradius, XEXEX, R-Type, and Darius. Needless to say, it is somewhat difficult - it's not quite Bullet Hell, but it's definitely not going to roll over and let you beat it. Pick it up here - you'll be glad you did.

This game provides examples of:

 * AFGNCAAP: The pilot is never seen without a helmet on in game, even during the post victory Credits Montage. However, one of the posters shows the pilot with face visible
 * Always a Bigger Fish: In the Path of Scylla, see below.
 * Asteroid Thicket: The first level.
 * Attack Drone: The Scort weapon
 * Awesome but Practical: The Scort again. While it does provide additional firepower its main use is to absorb shots above and below you. This is incredibly useful to the point that some levels and Beam Spam bosses go up many times in difficulty if you try them without it.
 * Bait and Switch Boss: The Bonefish in the Path of Scylla. Halfway into the battle, Scylla bites it and drags it further into the level. You later see it being fought over by two of Scylla's heads. Lampshaded by the pilot: "What the hell was that?!"
 * Antagonist Title: Hydorah is the Big Bad.
 * Battleship Raid: The Galactic Inferno.
 * Breather Level: Deep Space and Storm Eye. Lampshaded in the level description, which is "Upgrade your weapons"
 * Boss Rush: No Mercy has you facing the Meroptican Elite; luckily, each one that falls is another check point.
 * The Cameo: During the good ending, a series of monuments to heroes of classic shoot'em up games such as Gradius, R-Type, Darius and XEXEX are shown.
 * Collapsing Ceiling Boss: One of the attacks of the Cyclades boss does this. Also a more extreme example with the Dunarys boss, which is literally a collapsing ceiling.
 * Continuing Is Painful: While not as bad as certain shmups, you lose roughly 33% of your upgrades each time you die, which is still pretty crippling during a boss fight.
 * Difficulty Spike: The second stage (Cyclades Liberation), and again later on with the Galactic Inferno.
 * Dummied Out: The game data contains sprites for a monster called Charybdis, which was presumably supposed to appear in the Path of Scylla.
 * Excuse Plot: There are sixteen lines of dialogue in the entire game, including multiple variations and the post credits scene. And some of those are not even relevant to the plot, whatever it is.
 * God Emperor: Hydorah is a god, and appears to be ruling the Meropticons. Also, it looks suspicious worm like.
 * Guide Dang It: A few of the secret items are rather... unintuitive.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Infinity Plus One Sword: Ancient Sword, the last power weapon. Strangely for a shooter game, this is also a literal sword.
 * Load Bearing Boss: The entire planet of Meropticon starts self destructing inexplicably after you defeat Hydorah.
 * One Hit Point Wonder:
 * Orcus On His Throne: Hydorah's units are attacking but he himself doesn't seem to be doing much besides sit on a throne.
 * Though since Hydorah has "seeds" maybe it should be her throne.
 * Marathon Boss: Rubina, if you use anything besides the Wave (which you get much later in the game). Also, if you finish the first two phases of the Red Eden boss too quickly, the third phase will take ages because the timing of the patterns gets messed up.
 * Also the Galactic Inferno. After a long level and two minibosses, the final boss has three forms (not counting its turret defences), including coming back for some Bullet Hell fun after apparently being killed off. You will be very satisfied and reassured when it finally burns away to nothing.
 * Multiple Endings: If you don't destroy all the seeds of hydorah, you get a Bad End.
 * New Game Plus: If you find all the Secret Items
 * Also, after beating the game and getting the good ending you get a free shield each time you die.
 * Nintendo Hard
 * Not So Different: The Big Bad objects with this line after you call him a tyrant.
 * Remilitarized Zone: Red Eden
 * Save Game Limits: And strict ones at that; your stock of saves is very limited and can only be used in between levels.
 * However the game is slightly more forgiving than it looks, as several later bosses drop additional saves, meaning you aren't limited to just the initial three.
 * Scenery Porn
 * Shifting Sand Land: Dunarys, complete with sandstorms, a Sand Worm like miniboss, and a Temple of Doom.
 * Shout Out: Beside the evident inspiration from several classics of the Shoot Em Up genre (Hydorah looks almost like a lost Konami game from the early 1990s), there are also a couple of references to Turrican: one of the special weapons is an energy wall named "Turri Wall", and the parade of bosses of No Mercy includes the iconic giant fist.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Rather than exploding normally as on land, your bombs will simply make a splash and disappear when dropped into the waters of the Path of Scylla.
 * Under the Sea: Path of Scylla.
 * Video Game Lives
 * Waiting Puzzle: The third secret requires you to randomly wait a while in the boss room after defeating the boss.
 * Wave Motion Gun: You'll be on the wrong end of one of these in Galactic Inferno.
 * Womb Level: A borderline example with the final segment of Meropticon. The walls appear to be pulsing blood vessels, and everything is red, but it's not clear whether you are actually inside an organism.
 * Further evidenced by the hydorah seed in the Path of Scylla which is starting to fill the surroundings with the "grasses" seen in the final level.